July 25, 2011
We leave in less than 3 days, meaning we have very little time left to get ready. A big part of this is getting our suitcases packed, and a big challenge to this is keeping them under the 50 lb weight limit. We are each allowed 2 large suitcases to check, plus a small carry-on bag and then a purse or laptop bag (I haven’t yet decided whether to call mine a purse or a laptop bag).
I brought the bathroom scale downstairs in order to place it on a large flat surface for uniforming weighing. I told Chloe that I thought we should try multiple ways/weighs. She didn’t laugh at all; in fact, I think she rolled her eyes. If not that, she just looked aweigh.
Ha!
The most consistent style of weighing was setting each bag on the scale by itself, as opposed to me holding them as illustrated in today’s picture. It’s kind of funny how we fine-tune each bag, moving an item from one into another in order to best make use of our weight allowance. One advantage we have this time around as compared to our trip to France is Romain is coming with us. He has the same baggage allowance but doesn’t have so many things since he is just staying in the US for a month. We’ll be using his second bag.
Speaking of Romain, a year ago today I wrote about him playing with his sister in a swimming pool…
Day 25 (25 July 2010) – Siblings in the Pool
Andy Smallman 
The bags look like they will fit in the trunk of our car. Perhaps not five however.
We have 7 bags like what you see in this photo, plus a large backpack, plus a smaller bag, plus our carry-ons, plus Romain’s suitcase, plus the 5 of us. We’re thinking the three cars should do it.