These three travel accessories made my Florida trip easy. Two of them are variations on the same theme, and each one fulfilled its function admirably.
The Baggallini Travel Lanyard
I love the Baggallini travel lanyard. It has a place for a passport, a long opening for your boarding passes, and a zippered pouch on the other side for cash for tipping drivers or even shelling out for that $8.00 bottle of water. (Of course I’m exaggerating. I never saw a bottle of water for more than $5.50.)
And a little cash for tips and whatever.
The lanyard may be overkill, but I’m usually traveling with an overloaded carry-on and a big ol’ purse, so I like the convenience. I did feel silly traipsing through Jacksonville International with it flapping around my neck, when there were no more than 30 other people in the terminal, but I did not feel silly fighting my way upstream against the throngs of people on the concourse at O’Hare. I didn’t feel silly at SFO either, for that matter. I can wear the lanyard under a jacket, making it less visible and more secure.
I see on their website that they offer a travel organizer and a passport purse crossbody too.
The floral pattern is a plus.
Margaret Speaker Yuan gave me this lovely mini-purse for my birthday last year when the writers group was in Hawaii. It is similar in design to the lanyard, but bigger and more attractive. There is room for ID, credit cards, cash, a tube of lip balm and a cell phone. (The Baggallini won’t hold a cell phone.) It’s one-twentieth as heavy as my purse (that’s a guess). And it’s pretty. This was the only purse I carried outside while I was in Cassadaga and St. Augustine. It was perfect.
Moleskine, the emperor of journals.
I took a Moleskine journal as my travel journal. The dimensions are those of a trade paperback book, and it’s about half an inch thick. It’s Moleskine, so anything I say about the high quality will be obvious. It’s perfect bound. The spine is strong and flexible and I’m saying that as someone who abused it a time or two, bending it so I could write while standing, or shoving it in into my bag with a bunch of other stuff. The binding might be leather. It’s tough and flexible too, and seems to be moisture resistant. I wouldn’t want to drop it in a pool, but it weathered rain and spray like a champ. The cover is also not slick. A couple of times, when I reached into my tote bag and flailed around to find it by touch and drag it out, this was really handy. It also meant I didn’t drop it into the alligator enclosure, a definite plus.
The silken paper takes ink without smearing, even in high humidity.
I love the silken texture of the paper and the way it takes the ink – and holds it! No smearing. The journal has a fabric bookmark and an elastic loop, so you mark both the last place you wrote, and a page you want to refer to. It has a nice envelope in the back, a great place for receipts. It’s also a perfect place to put business cards that you collect so you will know where to find them, and then forget where you put them when you get home. Included is the Moleskine accordion fold-out pamphlet that tells you about Moleskine and should include a little card with a quality control number on it. I used the journal every day of the trip. I’ve used it since then, pulling out notes for my blog posts. It’s wonderful.