The English Maximalista

I may have mentioned how much I love to travel, visit new places, experience local cultures, and all the fun stuff associated with exploring our beautiful world.

My earliest solo experiences of world travel were during my late teenage years, when I was still energetic enough to manage hauling several large pieces of luggage filled with waaaay too many clothes. Naturally, this included different shoes for EVERY outfit.

The penultimate example was at the age of 20, when I returned to England after a trip to the US… with FIVE massive suitcases stuffed with all the great bargains I had found at the outlet malls in the Midwest. I had gone over with two, and ended up having to purchase more luggage in order to accommodate these great bargains. 

The look on my father’s face when he picked me up from the airport was priceless.

Remembering my struggles with such an abundance of baggage marked the beginning of my education in how to pack efficiently. And sufficiently. Lesson learned.

The ante was upped with the arrival of a baby, my Top Banana, who became the sidekick with whom I have had — and continue to have! — many adventures. The Top Banana came along with so many accoutrements! But as the years progressed, we both became adept at traveling light. In fact, the only time I travel with too much is if we are on a road-trip, meaning I don’t have to personally carry any of the stuff!

It’s great when I travel with Mr Maximalista, too, because not only is he a wonderful travel companion, he is also a veritable giant who offers to carry my stuff if I become over-burdened.

Of course, I don’t have the luxury of taking my muscular personal porter with me whenever I’m traveling with anyone else. And I’m fairly certain my girlfriends would rebuff me with asperity if I made any demands that they do my skycapping. 

More reasons why I should travel light.

My most recent adventure was this past weekend, when my girlfriend Rebecca and I went to California for a few days. Rebecca is one of my dearest friends. Dear enough that she was my Matron of Honour when Mr Maximalista and I got married. 

She and I have been on quite a few getaways over the years, with our lovely core group of girlfriends. But despite this, and the countless occasions on which she and I have spent the entire day together shopping and dining, never have just the two of us traveled anywhere without our squad.

There is a ten-year age gap between us, with yours truly being the older (but not necessarily wiser). We both celebrated milestone birthdays this year, thus decided to mark each other’s milestones by flying out to California for a long weekend in wine country.

Would our friendship of fifteen years survive the test of 72 close-knit hours together?! (Answer: YES!!)

On Thursday morning, I drove up to Denver International Airport to meet Rebecca off her flight from Chicago, after which we both caught a flight into Oakland — this is just outside San Francisco, for my non-American readers. We rented a brand new cherry red Jeep, which had only 4000 miles on the odometer. Then we drove off to our first pitstop: LUNCH!

Our Jeep rental

bab Al Yemen is an authentic-looking establishment on Hegenberger Road, a stone’s throw from Oakland airport. Rebecca and I have a long history of testing out exotic restaurants in the Greater Chicago area, yet neither of us had ever tried Yemeni cuisine. Neither of us were disappointed.

The naan bread they served was comically large, and the salad I ordered had an unusually spicy, delicious dressing. Both were phenomenal. The fragrant flavours from the complimentary sweet black tea were simply mouthwatering. This tea was so good that it deserves a special mention.

The naan bread was as big as a blanket

By the time we finished our lunch, it was mid-afternoon: time to head up the 101 toward Santa Rosa, which was going to be our home base for the next three nights.

Our hotel was the Flamingo Resort and Spa, on 4th Street in Santa Rosa. Their website painted the resort as a Midcentury Modern Marvel, and this is an entirely accurate description. The Flamingo is part of the Tapestry Collection by Hilton, who have done an excellent job of updating this 2-story hotel without losing any of its vintage charm, especially in the communal areas. 

[flamingoresort.com]

So far, I had managed to not buy anything other than food. My luggage remained unhindered by holiday purchases. Although I know myself better than to get too smug too soon.

Special shoutout to the Flamingo Lazeaway Club, where Rebecca and I ended up eating breakfast at the Club patio on both Friday and Saturday…

…and relaxing with drinks by the pool after our busy days of some serious touristing!

One of the many fun aspects of going on vacation with a girlfriend is deciding what to wear whilst we are away. Knowing that our destination was almost guaranteed to be sunny made sartorial decisions much easier than, say, traveling to the continent, where the weather can create more challenging decisions.

Having quite a bit of experience with holiday packing, I feel like I have perfected working around airline baggage allowances. Depending on where we go and for how long, I generally stick to clothing in one colour palette, which I pack into a pilot-sized [i.e. small] wheely suitcase with matching tote. Although I do occasionally bring just one [stylish!] backpack. Being petite, and considering that I am getting OLD, my luggage has to be something I can manage.

This was a brief 3-night trip to California, so here’s what I took:

1 black leather tote bag (because let’s be realistic: I ALWAYS buy souvenirs wherever I go!)

1 black/beige shoulder bag

1 Raso Rigato boudoir-size pillow in charcoal [Pratesi.com] for optimal comfort on the plane

1 black cotton maxi-dress

1 beige linen-blend maxi-dress

1 beige/black/multi-coloured knee-length dress

1 reversible belt

1 pair black sandals 

1 pair black/beige ballet flats

1 silk scarf in coordinating colours

1 lightweight black cashmere shawl (doubles as blanket on a chilly plane, or a sarong for the pool)

2 swimsuits

Underwear and sleep attire for a 3-night stay 

Basic daily toiletries 

Book, iPad, iPhone

Then I wore my daily jewelry staples.

Honestly, I really didn’t need to bring sandals AND ballet flats, nor the additional scarf. But I figured why not. Same with having two bags… although on this trip, I ended up purchasing a set of six gorgeous dinner plates in Sonoma, so that sturdy tote bag definitely came in handy when it came time to carry them home!

One of six Royal Norfolk dinner plates I purchased from The Church Mouse in Sonoma [stfchurchmouse.org]

I also bought two new straw hats as well, which posed a bit of a packing challenge on the return trip, but ultimately made it home unscathed, thankfully.

In my next blog (to be published on Wednesday), I shall be recounting how my sister-from-another-mister and I visited some breathtaking vineyards in the Sonoma and Napa Valleys.

There were SO MANY gorgeous estates to visit, we were spoiled for choice. Please stick around to read about and see pictures of what we got up to.

Lots of love,

M xo