It's in the bag!

Today was "luggage day" at the K house. Rob and I went to a mall and two luggage stores (one of them moved - so anyone who lives in our area who is thinking of going to the travel store on County B2, check the address before you go. The store has moved - it's not where you think. We actually didn't find it, but we went to the other location and it wasn't nearly as good as it used to be.).

Macy's at the mall actually had the best selection of the places we went - a couple of different styles of TravelPro, Delsey, Victorinox, Atlantic, Tumi and others. We opened them up, wheeled them around, stared at the price tags in shock (that was Rob, I've been looking at luggage for a couple of weeks so I knew about what we'd have to spend). Of everything at Macy's we liked the Victorinox Werks Traveler best - they had this in red, black, royal blue and basil green. We (both!) preferred the basil green color and decided that the 24" wheeled suiter was a good size. Victorinox's suiters are nice because the suit insert (which we won't need for China) is removable. It also turns out that the green must be exclusive to Macy's or something because I couldn't find it anywhere online except Macy's

After Macy's we went to the second luggage store and played around with their surprisingly limited selection. There the bag we liked best was a 30" wheeled duffel. Rob really liked the duffel and at this point decides that it would be best to get two different bags rather than two of the same bag to broaden our experience and spread the broken bag risk. The bag was HUGE, though, and it was Ricardo brand - which I knew nothing about - so we decided to come back home and do some more research online. Mostly I think Rob was just tired of shopping, but that's ok because it turned out to be a very good thing.

Once we got home I headed to the computer and quickly checked email before googling Ricardo luggage. In my email was a reminder from Macy's about a special today where you could save 20% off your entire purchase by donating $5 to the American Heart Association. I read the fine print. Luggage was included, even sale and clearance luggage. So off I went to Macy's website and found the green Victorinox for less $ than in the store (at least less than it what it said on the sign in the store). I also found a 26" wheeled drop bottom duffel that has all the features of the Ricardo bag that Rob liked - only it was smaller and it was made by High Sierra, a brand I'm more familiar with (see photo above, graphite gray color). I ordered both. I also ordered a green Victorinox duffel that matches the 24" bag - I thought that we could pack it on the way over and use it for souvenirs on the way home - and a light weight backpack that will be our second carry-on (pictured right - it is also High Sierra, like carry on #1). And it was all an extra 20% off!

This was an incredibly successful and satisfying day for me. I had been so stressed out over luggage. It feels really good to have found stuff that we think will work for us and to have gotten it for a price that didn't break the bank.

P.S. I did google Ricardo luggage online and people really like it. I think that the duffel Rob liked probably was a good bag - but 30" was way too big. Having something like that would pretty much guarantee overpacking (me, not Rob)