Real cool travel accessories

Bonjour tout le monde,
It is that time of year when many people are traveling home, or away, for the holiday season.  Because almost no one wants to check his or her luggage, the question becomes packing the carry on bag.  If you know me, you know that I am not a light packer and thus I have had to check my bag.  However, I am doing a bit better, aided by some really cool travel accessories. I used to use the space bag - the one where you put in your clothes, then roll out the air.  Most of the time, it works, but when they don't, the air slowly refills the bag, thus taking up the room you wanted to save.   A couple of times, at least in my case (perhaps I am too energetic?) the bag has blown open down at the bottom, thus making the bag useless.  The Space Bags are easily found, however, and do help.
When I left my school, my department mates gave me a gift card to the coolest travel place ever.  It's called Flight 001 (http://www.flight001.com).  If you live in New York, Chicago, or Los Angeles among other cities, you can take the trip to the store.  Otherwise, go online and start browsing!  I took the trip to the store, being old school and all, and I like to look at what I am buying.  Everything that I bought I have since used, and I have loved each piece.  The best item I purchased was the Spacepak for clothes.  It seems pricey at $48, but man, I love it!  You can put a crap load of clothes into the pack, then zip it up and push it down.  There is also another section on the bottom for dirty clothes...When I went to Seattle, I packed two pairs of jeans, two skirts, a bunch of tops, and a couple of sweaters.  All went in without problem.  What else is cool is that the spacepak comes in its own zipped cover bag, which I used for underwear and other unmentionables.  So, when you think about it, you get two things for one price!

The spacepak's bottom compartment

see all the stuff you can put in it?

 There are three or four sizes of the spacepak, but the sales guy told me that this one was the best to get.  If you go on the website, there is a video explaining how to use the paks, and how to pack them in your bag.
I also bought the seat pack, which allows you to have all your essential items in one spot hanging on the tab of your tray table.  It not only works on the plane, but I have used it for road trips; it saved me the trouble of looking in my purse all the time.



The seatpack also comes in some really cool packaging, very sturdy plastic with a zipper.  I used that for the jewelry that I took off for screening.
I would suggest that you visit the store, you will find at least one travel item that you will really want.  Let me know what you think!
Bon voyage!
La Croque Madame