Garage Sale

Last night was our good bye party, and it was so much fun!
So great to see all of our friends and family take the time to come out and say good bye.
I would recommend anyone who is going away to have a get together because it's a nice feeling to know that there are people who are excited for you and waiting for you to come home again.
We had people stopping by throughout the evening, some just for a quick hug and others stayed all night.
The weather held up and even the clean up at 2am was well worth it.

Today I am having my last garage sale, we are down to selling the small items that we have accumulated over time that we don't need to keep. Although I have to admit I think I have bought more things from my garage sale than I have actually sold. As I was putting things out this morning I kept thinking "ooh I like that" and "mmm, I should probably keep that, I could use it one day if I ever go fishing". I think I have attachment issues.

I have to start packing today and this is challenging because I have to pack for a year in a backpack.
We are thinking of bringing:
- Small laptop (we bought from Costco for uploading pics, skype, booking hotels and of course, BLOGGING)
- About 5 tshirts each
- 2 long sleeve shirts each
-Currencies from the first 4 countries we are visiting and of course some of the all powerful US dollar
-Camera with extra memory cards
-Thousands of copies of our passports and other documents
-1 Light rain jacket each
-Bug spray
-Sunscreen
-2 pairs of shorts each
-1 pair of jeans each
-1 pair of nice pants each
-2 nice shirts each
-1 sweater each
-1 bathing suit each
-Small toiletry bag
-1 pair of sandals each
-1 pair of good hiking/walking/running shoes (we each bought a pair from Marks work warehouse. They look ugly, sturdy and durable, I will let you know if they live up to our expectations)
-2 pairs of comfortable pants each
-List of all the Canadian embassies in the cities we are visiting (You have to call the Canadian embassy and tell them where you are going so that they know to look for you if there is trouble such as natural disasters or war in the places you are visiting. 
-Nail clippers




-Razors
-Small amount of makeup
-Silk sleeping bag insert sheet thingys that Tyson's mom is buying us from Mountain Coop. I read that this will be useful for dirty hostels and sleeping on the beach.
-Empty water bottles
-2 bowls (I don't know why yet)
Please comment and let me know if your experiences have taught you about other things to bring/not bring.
When you travel you have to be sure to call your credit and debit card companies and let them know you are going away so they do not halt your account when you try to make a purchase in a foreign country.
It might also be a good idea to sign up for a credit card that offers you travel features. For example our Visa card offers a card registration program where you can register any of your ID cards/credit cards/passports etc and if you lose any of them, they will replace it within 24 hours wherever you are.
 Our Visa and MasterCard also offered us free medical insurance and cancellation insurance.
BUT be cautious because our Visa told us that they would reimburse 5% of every flight bought on the card. HOWEVER they failed to mention that we had to buy the ticket through the bank's agency where they charge triple the price of other places.....oops
Another great idea we got from a friend is to scan and upload of our documents (passports, tickets etc) to a secure area in cyberspace so that we can get to it anytime while we are away, we did this through a program called drop box. You get a certain amount of free space when you sign up and you have the option to pay for more. We have not used up our free space yet. I will also upload our pictures to drop box every night while we are away so that if we lose our camera,we will only lose 1 day worth of pics, not all of them.
Sorry for all the boring info but this is the stuff I found useful when I was planning, so perhaps someone else will find it important as well.
When I tell people about our trip, I feel like I am talking about someone else. I feel anxious and unsure for this other person. I can't believe that the people leaving everything behind and travelling to find new things are us. I guess I'll believe it when I'm on the plane 1 week from today....