chicago: the luggage

Since I was stuck in a hotel for a night, I had time to take some travel still life photos. I was flying with United, which now (argh) charges for any checked luggage at all. It's only $15, but that's just obnoxious. So I was determined to fit everything in a carry-on. For a wedding, a party, and a few days of sightseeing.

My main worry was toiletries - normally when traveling I'm not too picky, but I was going to a wedding - I wanted to have the right hair product. It's in one of the little plastic jars on the left:

Also note such travel rarities as lipstick and mascara. Yikes. Behold how all that stuff fits in one quart-sized bag:

And here's all the other stuff. Let's see...two dresses, two pairs of heels (two different dressy occasions), one giant silk wrap, another alpaca wrap in there somewhere, a silk scarf, a very shiny bag, and various other pieces of clothing.


All in one bag! Normally I check stuff, just so I don't have to lug everything around the airport with me, but I must admit it's pretty nice to bypass the lines at the check-in desk and waltz right through security. Then skipping the baggage claim at the other end is nice, too. But, man, it took a lot of planning to fit all the liquids in that bag. (Like the TSA people pay attention. On my very early flight back from Chicago, I forgot to take the plastic bag out of my suitcase at security. And since my liquid prescriptions were near the plastic bag, there were clearly way more liquids in there than there should've been.)