To continue the Post-England-Trip Packing Thoughts:

I was VERY GLAD we brought a jar of peanut butter for the picky vegetarian. (They do sell peanut butter in England! But not Jif. You heard me say picky.) We DID find MANY vegetarian options in England, and Rob ate well because Rob will eat normal vegetarian things such as beans and spices and noodles and, like, VEGETABLES; Elizabeth ate a fair amount of potatoes and cheese, and then I would later find her eating spoonfuls of peanut butter straight from the jar (we never did acquire bread, though easily could have; she didn’t want it).

I was also very glad that William had thought somehow to bring some disposable cutlery: Elizabeth used one of his spoons for the peanut butter, and we ALL used them the night we ordered Chinese food delivered and discovered it did not come with disposable chopsticks. We wished we had also brought disposable bowls; Paul usually travels with them but hadn’t brought them this time, and we ended up eating Chinese food out of hotel coffee mugs, which worked fine but felt wrong. (We rinsed the mugs in the sink afterward, so the hotel cleaners would not be surprised.)

I was glad I brought my bath pouf. It feels like such a hassle to bring it (shaking out all the water, putting it inevitably-still-damp in a ziploc bag, bringing it out at each hotel and remembering to take it with us when we leave, the feeling that it might be picking up International Spores), but it’s really not such a big deal, and also I dislike using wash cloths for body-washing so it was a nice little familiar comfort to have my usual pouf.

I don’t have an extensive Face Routine, but I do use toner after seeing it mentioned on Twitter as a response to a question about what little life-changing thing would you recommend to others: someone replied that people should use toner even if they don’t know what it’s for or how to use it perfectly. Sold! I also use a crepe corrector on my neck, and a nice face-washing bar or cream in the shower (right now I’m using Yes to Avocado, and I’m excited because I have on deck a very reduced bottle of Confidence in a Cleanser, which I originally tried when a friend bought it for me as a birthday gift). (If it’s still $20.40 for the 5-ounce when you read this, and if it looks right for your skin and you’re willing to spend that much on an untried cleanser, I recommend it: the 5-ounce has been $34 as long as I’ve had it in my cart, and I was EXCITED to find the 1.7-ounce at T.J. Maxx for $6.99-marked-down-to-$4: the 1.7-ounce is what my friend gave me, and used sparingly but almost-daily it lasted me MONTHS.) I did not bring any of these things with us, and I was not sorry: everything while traveling takes so much EFFORT (bringing all my things into the bathroom every day, instead of accessing them where they already live), I was glad to skip some steps. I used the hotel’s body wash on my face in the shower, and I used my usual day moisturizer and one of of my three usual night moisturizers (that is, I have three different night moisturizers I like, and I pick one each night; I don’t use three different things each night).

Speaking of which: the travel agent had advised us to consider bringing our own shampoo/conditioner/soap/lotion: she said most hotels WOULD provide them, but that they would be VERY strongly scented. I remembered the “institutional public bathroom” scent of the products in most hotels I’ve been to in the U.S., so I bought a million travel sizes for us and had each person make themselves a ziploc bag full of the ones they needed.

We did not use them at all. The hotels we went to had scented stuff that WAS strongly scented, but in EXACTLY the way I personally like: sharp unsweetened (no vanilla or powder) botanicals such as lavender, rose, verbena, geranium, and neroli. And the kids didn’t care enough to take out their ziploc bags, and ONE kid liked one of the conditioners so much, they had us all take home any extras we had. We ended up with a lot of unused travel bottles, but that’s fine, they DO get used for other things, such as traveling to hotels in the U.S., which I will be doing a LOT with the twins in college 8 hours away.

I was glad to have brought British cash, which I was nervous about after many, many, MANY people said don’t bring cash, no one takes cash, you can’t even use cash, you will not need cash. Everywhere I tried to use cash did in fact take cash (though I did overhear someone saying they didn’t take cash, at a place where I was not planning to use it). And here were the things we absolutely needed cash for: tipping housekeeping at hotels; tipping at restaurants that did not have a thingie for adding a tip; tipping the tour guides and drivers; giving money to panhandlers/buskers; paying to use a bathroom that cost 50p and had a little box and no other way to pay. Here were things I LIKED having cash for: buying a few postcards at a somewhat dicey little shop; putting a small donation in a box at a church we were touring, which asked for a donation if you wished to take photos; having the leftover cash as pleasing little souvenirs. I wish I’d used cash for MORE things, so that I would have had enough pound and two-pound coins to give to all the children to keep.

Speaking of tipping, that was another thing I kept hearing, which was that tipping Was Not Done in England and in fact Should Not Be Done as it indicated some sort of class insult. Perhaps it was that we were only in touristy areas, but tipping was Absolutely Done, as I was glad some of you had already told me. The travel agent in fact gave us what we all considered pretty wildly-high estimates of what we should tip tour guides and tour-bus drivers, which we did not follow but we DID tip, and I think the wildly-high estimates made us tip higher than we otherwise would have. But it was true that restaurants were different: sometimes the tip was added automatically, but it was an amount we’d consider unacceptably low in the U.S., like 5% or 10%; sometimes there was no way to add a tip to the credit-card payment, and I was nervous about leaving cash on the table because I wondered if that was okay. There were no taxis big enough for all of us and our luggage, so we took TWO taxis from the airport to our first hotel, and Paul’s taxi had a way to add a tip but mine did not. And we were not CONSTANTLY ASKED for tips the way it has started to happen in the U.S., where for example there is a tipping option even if you buy something up at the cash register where no tipping should be expected.

I was very glad to have a HAT. I don’t normally wear a hat or like hats, but I remembered other times when I was outside for much of the day (typically I am The Indoors Type), and I don’t have bangs so my forehead can get pretty pink/freckly even if I use sunscreen; and also I wear glasses which makes sunglasses tricky (I do know about prescription and transition lenses, but I’ve tried them and I don’t like them), so the sun glare can be irritating. When I saw a $10 grey cap with an embroidered daisy (I can’t find it online because there’s no brand on it, but it’s similar in appearance to this one) at T.J. Maxx, and it was big enough to fit not only my big head but also the bulk of a casual-French-twist hairstyle, I bought it—and I used it often and was glad to have it.

Perhaps it goes without saying that I was also glad to have sunscreen. I used it relentlessly, and STILL ended up with a little bit of a tan on my arms/neck.

I brought my trekking poles but did not use them; I felt too self-conscious, and also felt like they’d be burdens to carry around when I wasn’t using them. (They were GREAT, though, when I was visiting my parents and we did a lot of hiking: my knees appreciated not only the support but also the stabilization.) (Also: I saw LOTS of tourists using them, so I think I would bring them again next time.) I did however wear and HUGELY appreciate the Incrediwear knee sleeve/brace (I got the grey one in XXL) commenter Katrina recommended, which I bought not only because of her personal recommendation of it but also because she said her physical therapist recommended it and uses it herself. I found it snugly comfy and comforting on my knee, and frankly I thought it looked surprisingly sporty and even cute emerging from the bottom of my shorts.

I did buy compression socks, and then didn’t use them. I bought them because a number of people mentioned using them, but then I thought, “Wait. Have my legs/feet ever swelled or been uncomfortable on a flight?” and no, they have not. And I was going to be wearing shorts on the plane. And it all seemed like too much, in the stress of the final packing. So I didn’t wear them, and I have put them aside with our suitcases in case I want/need them in the future.

I was glad to have brought a list of ADDRESSES! I wanted to send postcards! And I regret not sending MORE postcards, but (1) it was 2 pounds 20 pence per stamp, and (2) I didn’t find a place to buy stamps until the last few days of the trip. But I was still glad to have BROUGHT the addresses, and would do so again in the future, because now I know for sure that I LOVE sending postcards and would like to do more of that next time, and now I know that I did not feel AFTER the purchase of the stamps that it hadn’t been worth it.

Okay, I think that’s all my packing notes for now. Next up: Things That Were Surprising in England, and/or Things I Bought as Souvenirs, and/or Things We Ate!