The Packing List, Part 2 – Clothing and Electronics

We arrived in Hangzhou, China yesterday! It feels like a small town, or at least the area we’re staying in does, but it’s a city of about 10 million people. The language barrier is pretty tough. Google translate is helping tremendously, but it’s still hard. What we’ve seen of Hangzhou is beautiful and idyllic so far (though it’s incredibly hot and humid), and we’ll write more about our stay here – and the beginnings of our trip – soon.

I wrote the post below two days ago, before we left, and I can tell you right now, with the benefit of very little hindsight, we overpacked. I actually think we did well on clothes, but we packed too many kids’ books and activities (not pictured). We have 8 days here, so we’ll figure out what we really need and pare it down.

Clothing

We are following the sun as much as possible, so we don’t have to pack for winter. If we do encounter weather, we will layer. My mom is also meeting us in Bali in December, so if it looks like we’ll be headed to cold weather in January, she will bring our jackets for us. Here are the clothes and electronics we packed.

Ari

Ari is a colorful little girl, and she has a wardrobe to match her personality.

• 4 dresses
• 4 shorts
• 3 leggings
• 6 short sleeve/sleeveless shirts
• 2 long sleeve shirts
• 2 pajamas (short and long)
• Oaki rain paints and Uniqlo pocketable raincoat
• Uniqlo padded jacket
• bathing suit
• REI sun hat
• 2 shoes (Tevas and tennis shoes)
• 8 underwear; 4 socks

Leemore

My wardrobe is the opposite of Ari’s. I’ll be the one in the pictures wearing all black and a colorful fanny pack (not pictured). Don’t make fun – fanny packs are amazing and Reddit kind of agrees (see this).

• 2 shorts, 1 skort (all from Athleta)
• 7 sleeveless/short sleeve shirts
• 3 pants (jogger, Prana Halle travel pants, legging)
• 3 long sleeve shirts (including a Uniqlo heattech shirt)
• 3 casual dresses (including one that can be used as a beach coverup)
• 2 bathing suits (including one from Summersalt – the Facebook ads got me)
• 1 pajama set
• 4 socks (2 long, 2 ankle; all Smartwool which dry quickly)
• Uniqlo pocketable parka
• Sun hat
• 3 pairs of shoes (Asics running shoes; Tevas; Crocs sexi flip)

Reed

Reed was easy to pack for but he is growing like a weed. I have a feeling we’ll need to replace a lot of his clothes on the road.

• 7 shirts (including a few Dry Flex shirts from Old Navy)
• 5 shorts
• 3 pants (jeans, joggers, North Face trail pants – these are great for very thin kids)
• 2 long sleeve shirts (including this base layer shirt from REI)
• 2 rash guards and swim trunks
• Hoodie
• Uniqlo pocketable parka
• 3 shoes (New Balance all terrain sneakers, Keens, and Nike slides)
• 5 socks (dry fit from Target); 8 boxers
• Baseball cap

Robby

• 5 short sleeve shirts (including a couple of dry fit shirts)
• 1 button down and 1 long sleeve base layer shirt
• 3 shorts + 1 lounging shorts
• 3 pants (jogger, jeans, and Columbia trail pants)
• 1 hoodie
• 2 swim trunks and 1 rash guard
• Parka
• 3 shoes (Keens, flip flops, and Salomon GTX all weather shoes)
• 5 socks (1 long, 1 medium, and 3 ankle socks); 8 boxers
• belt

Miles

• 7 short sleeve shirts
• 6 shorts
• 2 pants
• 3 long sleeve shirts
• 2 pajamas
• Oaki rain pants
• lightweight rain jacket
• 2 swim trunks, 2 rash guards (1 long sleeve and 1 short sleeve)
• 2 Finis swim diapers
• 5 socks
• hat
• 3 shoes (Keens, Crocs, and See Kai Run sneakers)

Electronics

We are a traveling Best Buy. We did not take pictures of everything (because, time), but here is what we’re bringing, with pics below of the more trip-specific electronics.

A note on internet access. China (our first stop) blocks Google. We heavily rely on Google. And we wanted continued access to American content on Netflix and other websites. So we got a VPN (virtual private network) through ExpressVPN, which allows us to securely connect to a private network in the US so that we can continue to access US content.

Computers/Tablets

Robby and I are each taking our MacBooks; Reed has a Surface Pro for school. We also have 2 iPads, an Amazon Fire, and a Kindle. The kids have music and movies downloaded onto the iPads and the Fire.

We all have headphones (Robby is bringing the Bose QuietComfort II, and we have these for the kids).

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Camera

Robby loves photography so we had quite a few camera options to choose from, but we ultimately settled on our phones. Robby has the iPhone Xs and the photo quality (including portrait mode) has never been more comparable to an SLR. We are also bringing a Gimbal Stabilizer, a mobile steadycam to take smooth videos and steady shots.

Music, TV, and Gaming

Music: We love listening to music. Some of us have better taste in music than others (Miles and Ari, for example, can listen to the Frozen soundtrack on repeat for weeks on end; Reed, on the other hand, loves everything from 80s to contemporary rap, and makes pretty awesome playlists). We are bringing an older Bose Soundlink II bluetooth speaker so we can stream/play music. We had many debates about this speaker because it is very heavy. This was not negotiable for Robby; our compromise is that he gets to carry it.

TV: We don’t intend to watch too much TV, but we come prepared. We have a Google Chromecast so we can use the TVs in our Airbnbs.

Gaming: The Nintendo Switch is coming along and the iPads are filled with games for long travel days.

Adapters and Chargers

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All these electronics need to be charged. We have the Epicka Universal Travel Adapter and the Flight001 Adapter, a few portable chargers, and a lot of USB cables.

We’ll update in a few months and let you know how we did. Thank you as always for reading and following along!