How to Pack Light: The Rolling Method

I came across great advice today in a New York Times article on how to pack efficiently. While it's a good article, what I really enjoyed was the slideshow that shows how a flight attendant packs for a 10-day trip all in a carry-on.

That's right, no checked luggage. And in these days of paying baggage fees with airlines, this is great advice. But women, don't fret. As you see in the pictures, she has a full wardrobe laid out, not just one outfit that has to be washed over and over.

Her tip os to roll everything. Pack shoes and heaviest items on bottom and move up with the lightest items rolled and placed on top.

She also suggests that if you have really nice clothing that needs to be laid out as flat as possible start with those items across the bottom and then leave them hanging out of the suitcase until you get to the top.

So if you have a nice pair of slacks lay them across the bottom and then place all your rolled clothing items on top. Then when you've finished, take the pants that are dangling out of the suitcase and drape them over the top. It appears that this will keep all folds out of the pants.

And thanks to the NYT article, I discovered a cool travel blog I recommend: Heather Poole, the flight attendant whose rolling I recommend above.

Nashville: A city in need

Nashville's Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum (Photo courtesy of Tennessean.com)

As a resident of Memphis and someone who was trapped in Middle Tennessee during the weekend's floods (more on that later) the flooding in Nashville is big news for me right now. We've had our own storm damage in Memphis, especially severe flooding in the northern part of the county in Millington.

Downtown Nashville (Photo courtesy of Tennessean.com)

But since this is a travel blog my mind is on Nashville. Maybe you've seen pictures of the damage caused by the high-rising waters in and around the city from last weekend's deluge. A number of that city's attractions have been touched by the waters -- literally. The beautiful grand lobbies of the Opryland Hotel are under water. Some 1,500 visitors were evacuated Sunday night.

Opry Mills Mall with Opryland Hotel in background. Cumberland River in foreground (Photo courtesy of Tennessean.com)

Just imagine for a moment being on a vacation, a business trip or just in the hotel having dinner and suddenly being told you had to leave because of rising waters. 

The nearby Opry Mills Mall reportedly has been flooded, as has downtown Nashville, including the famed Second Avenue and all its clubs, bars and restaurants. Who knows what it will look like when the waters recede. Music Row and the historic Ryan Auditorium, original home of the Grand Ole Opry, are safe. But the current Grand Ole Opry building at Opryland is under water. So is the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum.

(Photo courtesy of tennessean.com)

Imagine the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum in Cleveland, any of the Smithsonian museums in Washington or even smaller venues like Memphis' Stax, the Rock and Soul Museum or Sun Studio being under water.

The Tennessee Titans' stadium was flooded and the downtown arena where the NHL's Predators play saw rising waters.

How to bring this closer to home? Well, it depends on where home is for you. In Memphis, imagine Beale Street being under water. FedExForum's plush lockerrooms gutted. I don't know if Graceland and the Grand Ole Opry building are on the same level, but both are important music treasures to their respective cities. So imagine the first level of Graceland being under water.

New Orleans' French Quarter was also flooded from Hurricane Katrina, although nowhere near the degree to that in Nashville. A visit I made there two years after the fact showed how nicely that area had recovered. Downtown Nashville and the Opryland area will recover as well.

But what will help the recovery happen quicker is if we spend our tourist dollars there. When the mall reopens, shop there. When the hotel opens, visit its spectacular lobbies and buy dessert or dinner at one of its many restaurants. Book a night there. When Second Avenue reopens, have a dance at the Wildhorse Saloon.

In the meantime, if you'd like to help the people of Nashville here are a few resources courtesy of my friend I Love Memphis.

The first place is nashvillest, which lists a lot of great information. 

If you're on Twitter, check out @ericshuff. He's the the social media director for the Tennessean newspaper. 

Hands on Nashville and The Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee lists valuable ways we can all do our part to help the Nashville community recover.

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Baby's First Travels

In honor of one of our readers giving birth to twins today, I thought I'd share in pictures a few of our son's first travel moments.

Above is our first trip to the beach. This was our first day in Gulf Shores, Ala., for our then 10-month-old.

This is his first tourist attraction, a Frank Lloyd Wright-designed home in Springfield, Ill. This came over a Thanksgiving visit when he was 13 months old. Shockingly, he was completely still and quiet as I held him during the hour-long walking tour of the house. There is no way this child could do that now. I'm thankful now that he was a little late to the idea of walking. Otherwise, this tour would not have happened.

This wasn't his first trip to a baseball game (that came when he was 7 months old). But this was his first time to attend a baseball game as a mobile toddler, which meant I did not watch a second of baseball. This is AutoZone Park in Memphis when he was 20 months old. I'm still surprised he stopped long enough to pose for this photo.

This is more a monumental occasion for me, a sports fan. It's the first time I attended a sporting event and did not watch a second of the action.

His first trip to a state park. This was July Fourth weekend at Petit Jean State Park in Central Arkansas. We were on a trail to see a cave with Native American drawings on the wall. He was impossible to keep at a walking pace. This came at about 21 months.

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame travel regret

I've been thinking a lot today about one of my biggest travel regrets. It came five years ago while on a baseball trip to Cleveland and Pittsburgh.

As a fan of all things music I've wanted to tour the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum in Cleveland since I knew it existed. But it wasn't meant to be on this trip, as I was the only one of six people on this trip who wanted to tour the hall.

I don't have many regrets in life but I certainly regret not touring the hall of fame. That's one of the advantages to solo travel: It's on your terms; no one to please but yourself.

Will I ever make it back to Cleveland? Who knows, but if I do I certainly will attend the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum. I guess the lesson is if you're in a city and you see something you want to tour or experience, do it then. You never know when you might be back.

Are you up for a staycation?

Gas prices are up some 60 cents compared to this time last year and I've read that the average price per gallon is supposed to move back above $3 this summer, even in affordable markets like my hometown of Memphis, where I'm paying $2.60 per gallon now.

Plenty of airfare deals abound, but when low-cost carrier Southwest Airlines advertises "amazing" roundtrip deals in the $250 per person range, you know things are changing when it wasn't that long ago that we expected $99, $150 tops to fly roundtrip with them.

On top of rising gas prices and an uncertain airline industry is the still slow-to-recover economy. While we technically moved out of being in a recession during the last three months of 2009, things are still tight for many.

So for travel lovers who aren't finding the money to book that international flight or even an extended weekend getaway to a major American city, your choices seem limited. You can be satisfied with a weekend trip to grandma's house, or you could sit at home and dreadfully look at pictures online of the places you wish you could be. Sure, you could do that, or you can plan multiple staycations to get you through that travel funk.

It's funny, but you can ask most Memphians if they've ever been to Graceland and the answer would be no. On the other hand, people travel from around the world to Memphis to learn about the city's rich musical heritage and pony up $30 for a tour of Elvis' mansion and grounds.

The same could be said for most American cities. I wonder how many Atlanta residents have ever stepped foot in the highly regarded High Museum of Art.  What about the Arch in St. Louis? And do you think many Dallas residents drive across the Metroplex to tour Fort Worth's amazing zoo?

And it's not just the typical tourist attractions that fill most cities. Here in Memphis, for example, we have the Friday Night Art Trolley Tour the last Friday of every month in the South Main Historic Arts District, one of the best minor league ballparks in AutoZone Park, sunsets on the Mississippi River, concerts at the Levitt Shell, great theater, museums, a great zoo and the nation's largest urban park in Shelby Farms.

Those types of local treasures are always on our list of places to find when we travel. Funny thing is, they're right here in our backyard.

Sure, you know these places exist. You see that cool art exhibit scheduled and think you'll make it there before it closes, only to realize two weeks after it's left town that you never made your way over. 

I encourage you as we enter the heart of spring to consider local attractions in your own place, whether you're able to make that big trip this year or not.

Some independent bookstore faves for the literary traveler

I was reading a story in the April issue of Travel & Leisure last night that looks at bookstores in London. I'm pretty sure that on past visits to London I have not visited the stores that were featured, or at least I don't recall them.

That story had me thinking this morning while driving into the office about some of my favorite bookstores from my travels. I always try to find at least one bookstore while traveling, partially because I'm a reader and partially because when shopping with my wife I need somewhere to spend some time.

I don't just go into any bookstore. Sure, I might occasionally find myself in one of the mega-chains, but for the most part I seek out local gems, particularly ones that have a good selection of used or marked-down books.

One of my favorites is The Book Loft of German Village in the -- you guessed it -- German Village of Columbus, Ohio. This place is huge; it claims to be a city-block long store and I believe it. I like this store because it's jam-packed with books. It's almost like an old house with tiny hallways that lead into random rooms filled to the brim with books. Plus, the prices are fair, with many bargain-priced selections.

New York City's Strand, which claims to have 18 miles of books, is another fave. This place can be a bit overwhelming with its choices. The store is at the corner of 12th Street and Broadway, just down from Union Square. I recommend picking up a book, followed by a visit to the Union Square Greenmarket for some grub to enjoy in the park while reading a few pages.

Staying in New York, our next bookstore is Housing Works Bookstore Cafe, a smaller used bookstore at 126 Crosby St. on the Lower East Side. This is one of those smaller stores I love for its randomness; you're not going to visit with a specific title in mind because chances are they won't have it. But they might have a Frank Lloyd Wright biography, fantastic book on football hooliganism you didn't know existed and a random Winnie the Pooh book, all of which I bought on my first visit there a couple of years ago.

This store is also a nonprofit organization; Housing Works is devoted to ending AIDS and homelessness. The organization since 1990 has been devoted to providing services for homeless men, women and children living with HIV and AIDS in New York City. Housing Works also has some great thrift shops throughout the city. My wife and I can attest to the great selection at two of the shops we found last summer.

Finally we have Square Books, the Oxford, Miss., institution that is the epicenter of books in this Southern literary center. Square Books and its sister stores Off Square Books and Square Books, Jr. are all found on the Courthouse Square. If you ever find yourself in Oxford I highly recommend stopping in one of these stores.

Square Books is a typical independent bookstore with a lot of general titles. But it also stays true to its location with a heavy dose of William Faulkner, Southern studies and regional artists. Off Square Books is probably my favorite, though, because of its bounty of random titles found at a cheap price. We've bought our share of Dr. Seuss books at Square Books, Jr. too.

This is such a small list, I know, but these are some of my favorites.

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Walking the Brooklyn Bridge: A true New York experience

Obvious statement of the day: New York is a walking city. Even when taking the subway, a bus or hailing a cab, you will find yourself walking. And we're not talking a block or two. Many times, it's blocks upon blocks.

So when visiting, why would you go out of your way to experience an attraction that requires walking an easy mile? And this is a mile that once you start, there's no turning back.

But for me, one of my favorite experiences in New York City is walking the Brooklyn Bridge, particularly if you can do it on a beautiful, sunny day.

You can drive across the bridge and see the architectural gem that it is. But if you want to really experience the beauty of the bridge, it's got to be on a walk.

And don't worry about safety. The bridge has a wide walking/biking path elevated above the roadway. Just make sure you stay in the walking lane and don't get in the way of bikers.

I would like to suggest David McCullough's fabulous book "The Great Bridge: The Epic Story of the Building of the Brooklyn Bridge" written about the construction of the bridge. I read the book after walking the bridge, so it's certainly no prerequisite to walk the bridge.

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