Sunday, June 30, 2013

Delight Donuts

Where: 324 Third Ave, Kearney NE
What: Maple cake donut
When: Sunday, June 30th, 2013
website

I had an impromptu roadtrip this weekend with little planning. The idea came together Wednesday and I didn't even know it was an overnight for sure till Friday. So I threw together a list of donut places along the way, and made it to one. I did try two other ones, but they were closed. Psh. People can enjoy donuts after 1pm! We finally made it to Delight Donuts in Kearney in the morning of the second day. It was conveniently located right across from the hotel we were staying at!

Prices were pretty good, dozen donut holes for $1.25, cake donuts for 65 cents, glazed donuts for 70 cents, etc. They also had a really good selection of bottled drinks. We paid $2.77 for two donuts and a bottle of milk.

Three family members own separate locations throughout central Nebraska so it isn't quite a chain, but there are multiple outlets. I'm sure there's a name for this type of store/chain/franchise/why am I still typing about things other than the actual donuts?

My cake donut had good natural flavoring without being bland. The donut was dense but still moist. My aunt got a french crueler (they didn't have any cake with cinnamon and sugar and the only cruelers they had left had frosting, so she opted for maple as well). She thought there was too much frosting on it but liked the donut itself.

Also, if you've been reading for awhile, I was totally wearing my miracle dress for day two of my trip here. :-) Always coming in handy!

Saturday, June 29, 2013

Road trip necessities

My mom taught me about proper road trips. I took a lot as a kid. Dad was in charge of packing the suitcases in the back end (and later the rooftop carrier), Mom was in charge of packing the coolers and the kids. Each kid was allowed a small box/bag of personal items. Like a carry-on for the car. I remember bringing books. Karen and Kevin had their walkmen. Later we had candy. Gum was normally outlawed on trips but there may have been a black market going on for it (we also got per diem at the beginning of the trip so we didn't beg for souvenirs the whole time, some people used it to buy stock for their "store"). I can tell you lots of stories about road trips, but tonight I'm tired (from a mini roadtrip of my own) so you get a list of the random travel necessities my mom taught me to never leave behind:

1. Paper towels.
2. Maps. Never fully trust a gps unit, bring some paper maps.
3. Music and/or books on tape. Although books on tape for a carful of adults can get confusing. We kept losing track of where we were in the story last time we tried this. As kids they worked awesomely.
4. A wet washrag in a plastic baggie for spills.
5. Plastic bags for trash.
6. Enough snacks to not have to stop every thirty minutes (carrots, granola bars, trail mix, grapes, etc).
7. A cooler of pop with a bunch of sandwiches premade and cut, put back into the loaf bag.
8. Car blanket (why is it so cold with the ac on and so humid with the ac off? so frustrating!)

I've also discovered, probably through trial and error, that a straw in my water bottle saves me from a lot of spills.

(addendum and funny story!)

Friday, June 28, 2013

LaMar's Donuts, again

Where: 1601 Q St, Lincoln
What: Caramel frosted cake donut
When: Friday, June 28th, 2013
website

My coworker and his buddy have  Boys' Coffee Date every Friday. Or most Fridays. Maybe? I'm not that intune with his schedule. But yesterday he invited me to Boys' Coffee (for once, after all my talk about donuts, you'd think I would have gotten invited already, but I think I had to be vetted first). I asked if it was ok if I wore a skirt to Boys' Coffee. Being a typical boy who probably never notices what girls wear anyways, he said he didn't care.

So this morning, late, I arrrive at Boys' Coffee in my skirt. Put my purse down and start looking for my maple donut (the last time I was at LaMar's it was National Donut day and the selection was fairly sparse). Now, they advertise maple cake donuts as part of the decor on the outside of the building. All these donuts are listed all around at about knee level. Just tempting you to come in and try one.

BUT (I feel this sudden exception in my stories is becoming a theme. I'll have to tell a story without a twist some time. BUT that may be boring...)

This is not a maple donut.
They don't actually have maple cake donuts. I was offered a caramel cake donut as a substitute. I said I'd try it, but still continued asking about my maple cake donut and was told that they never carry it. What kind of nasty, mean, horrible advertising is that to have it boldy displayed on your building from the outside and not to have the product on the inside! :-(

I ate the caramel cake donut. The donut part was lovely. The frosting was fairly bland. I was sad.

Boys' Coffee hour was kind of a bust. Maybe because I'm not a boy though.

Thursday, June 27, 2013

The obsession begins...

Maple donuts have always been a favorite of mine, probably because both my parents like them. And there are TONS of Dunkin Donuts in the Boston area, where I lived for 9 years. So I was faced with multiple donut places on my way anywhere all the time, and RARELY did they have maple donuts. I became obsessed with hunting down the elusive maple frosted raised donut (like they would ever have it on a cake donut, that was extinct to Dunkins apparently).

There were a couple of Dunkins that had maple more often than others. The one in the Harvard Square T station is still the most dependable. But my local one in Somerville, open 24 hours and conviently located two doors down from my favorite bar, rarely had maple donuts. Until the night my roommate and I stumbled in there (possibly after a couple of beers...maybe). And we looked for the maple (my roommate had never ever had one! I had to share them with her!). No maple. But was asked the woman who was working if they had any (I'm sure this was my roommates idea, I normally just would leave defeated. Or get a Boston Creme). The worker said she would check, and came back without any donuts.

BUT

She said she had maple frosting. And could frost us some donuts. HELLO. YES PLEASE. And then, slightly tipsy me (or drunk, whatever, I'm of age. Fine, we were wasted) asked if she could frost us COFFEE ROLLS. If anyone is asking themselves what a freakin coffee roll is, it's basically a donut +
cinnamon roll hybrid. And the size of your face. The lovely worker says sure, and takes two coffee rolls to the back, frosts them with amazing maple frosting, and comes back out with them in the small munchkin boxes. You know, the ones with the handles. So my roommie and I pay for our decadent maple frosted coffee rolls and basically roll ourselves back to our apartment where I'm so excited about mine, I immediately put half of it in a ziplock baggie for later. Sadly, my roommate was not as taken with Dunkin Donuts maple frosting as I was. Maybe the coffee roll was a little much.

I don't have any photos of this amazing
Dunkin Donuts, but here is one of me
visiting my roommate from that night
in her new home, San Francisco!
For a couple of months after that miraculous night of freshly frosted maple wonder, the Maguon Square Dunkin Donuts started stocking maple frosted coffee rolls and raised donuts more often. I like to think I helped inspire that push for maple items on the shelf. Because I'm just that awesome. Or crazy.

Wednesday, June 26, 2013

The Ultimate Packing List

I know there are a lot of packing lists that you can buy out there that are probably kind of satirical and maybe a little intense. And maybe mines a little intense too. But this is what I've been using for multitudes of trips for at least 5 years now and I've shared it with a lot of friends and family (who all rave about it, but they could just be raving to be nice, so maybe their opinions were just negated...anyways). I love it. It works great for me. It helps me get organized and get moving and then I don't end up taking 5 tops and no pants, or repeating that time I took no underwear on a trip. Yeah. That happened. Don't make my mistakes, people.

(If you want to see the whole pdf/download it, right click on the pdf (not the little tiny preview) and open it in a new tab or window. Then you should be able to actually see it in all its glory! :-)

Tuesday, June 25, 2013

Federal Donuts

Where: 1219 S. 2nd St, Philly
What: Basically everything
When: Sunday, May 24th, 2013
On the web


While the family was all together in Philly we managed to make it to Federal Donuts to try some of their semifamous fare. I didn't actually go so I'm kind of sad that I can't report on the store or anything. However, my brother in law did take some amazing pictures of the donuts, so that may make up for it.


They sort their donuts into fancies and hot fresh. The fancies are cake donuts with fancy flavors (duh) and the hot fresh are warm cake donuts with sugar sprinkled on them. Think apple cider donuts from a orchard.

We had all three types of hot fresh currently on their menu: appollonia, indian cinnamon, and vanilla-lavender. We also had about 6 different types of fancies, and of course I can't remember all of them. I think I need a donut notebook. There was definitely cookies & cream, banana creme pie, milk chocolate peanut butter, blueberry muffin. Possibly Lucky peach. My favorite was the chocolate pb one. The blueberry one almost seemed like it had straight blueberry preserves as the frosting. As for the hot fresh, my favorite were the appollonia. I think I enjoyed the hot fresh ones better than the fancy, they were more pure and simple without being overbearing.

(pics from: Heavy Metal Dub)

Monday, June 24, 2013

Dunkin Donuts....in Thailand!

Where: Bangkok International Airport, lower level
What: Some sort of raised bar donut? Not sure...
When: Monday, October 29th, 2012.

Obviously when I saw a sign for Dunkin Donuts at the Bangkok Airport, I had to find it! I was in Thailand visiting a friend who was teaching there for a semester and it was an AMAZING trip. Bookended by a visit to a very international Dunkin Donuts before boarding the first of four flights back to Omaha. I don't even remember what the donut was (it wasn't labeled in English...)

I made Amy try some too!
It's a good thing I'm not allergic to
anything because I have no idea
what this was...
The donut itself tasted like any other raised donut in America, but the frosting was a little less flavorful. Of course, I didn't know what flavor they were aiming for. Also, I should point out this review is lacking in so many details because I totally had this donut months before my idea for the blog! So I didn't take any notes or anything! Next time, I'll take more notes for you guys!

Sunday, June 23, 2013

Donut Bar

Where: 621 B St, San Diego CA
What: Lemon filled powdered donut
When: Friday, April 12th, 2013
Website
My last donut stop of the great donut tour of 2013 was at The Donut Bar, a trendy new place in San Diego. The first time I found it, it was closed. They're only open until they run out of whatever donuts they made that morning. It was slightly disappointing, but I made it back the next day before they ran out (although they had a limited selection by that time, probably around 11-12pm or so.

I got the lemon filled powdered donut, and I do like lemon filling so it wasn't like I got whatever they had left. They were definitely out of maple by then, so that was slightly disappointing. The donut was $2 plus tip, tipping kind of makes donuts not so cheap anymore, but the prices seemed fair when you think about the love that they obviously put into all the donuts. The lemon filling was excellent, I could have done without all the powdered sugar just because I'm normally not a powdered donut fan. 3/5.

Saturday, June 22, 2013

Travel Insurance

My lovely hotel room in Denver
I totally recommend travel insurance for any large domestic trip or any international trip. There have been trips where I never even thought about it and trips that I've actually had to use it.

I have used a couple different companies, but most recently World Nomads. I liked World Nomads because it works for any trip over 100 miles from your home address. It was incredibly easy to sign up for (all online) and easy to make claims with (also all online). But, despite all the online stuff, you can also call them and get a real live person to ask questions to! Such a plus nowadays!

Making the most of my extended layover

I was able to use it to cover a hotel stay when my connection was late and stranded me in Denver and I was able to use it to go see a doctor about an ear infection I had while visiting my parents in Florida. The process was so super easy, I just had to scan in relevant documents and email them to World Nomads. They were prompt with questions and payments when my claims were approved.

This isn't a very interesting post, but bottom line: travel insurance is a good idea for any large trips! Save yourself the worry!

Friday, June 21, 2013

Super Donuts

Where: 590 Grand Ave, Carlsbad CA
What: Maple cake donut
When: Friday, April 12th, 2013.

After Hilltop, I took another bus to Super Donuts in Carlsbad. I had been in the area visiting a friend who commented after all my trips that I knew more about his local public transportation than he did! :-)

 They had a smaller selection than Hilltop, my maple cake donut cost 85 cents. The maple was more of a glaze than a frosting and not as flavorful as Hilltop. The cake donut was very good for a cake donut and slightly dense (but not too dense, still spongy). I'd give it a 3/5.

Thursday, June 20, 2013

Hilltop Donuts

Where: Corner of Vista Way and Coast Hwy, Oceanside CA
What: Maple Bacon Raised Donut
When: Friday, April 12th, 2013.





There was a break in my donut tour of the West Coast in April because I had trouble finding open donut places while I was out and about going to actual tourist destinations. Apparently sight seeing got in the way. Sorry! The last day I was in California I made a point to visit some donut places and Hilltop was my first stop!




Got my first maple bacon donut and the woman asked if I wanted it warmed up. Sure, if that's how you eat a maple bacon donut. It was pretty amazing. The bacon was cooked just right and the maple frosting was the slightly artificial flavor I go for. The bacon was also cut into about 1 inch squares so it was easier to eat than if it had been in strips, which I have seen before. 5/5. It cost $1.50 and was totally worth it. They had a large selection of cake, raised, filled, and bar donuts. Even some twists and coffee rolls. Also large, like face sized large, fritters and bear claws. Lots of maple options.

Wednesday, June 19, 2013

Donuts & Things

Flattened donut. My bad.
Where: 1459 Polk St, San Francisco
What: Maple raised
When: Monday, April 8th, 2013


This place possibly has the best name of all the donut places I've been too. I almost wanted to name the blog Donuts and Things, but I didn't want to steal their name. It may have the worst location though, about half a block from Bob's Donuts. So I wasn't exactly hungry when we stumbled across it. Good thing that didn't stop me!

Oops...
The place was more of a cafe than a standard donut shop. One donut was 90 cents. Since I didn't eat my donut right away, it kind of got squished. Sorry for the horrible photo. It was pretty good though, exactly what you probably think of when you think raised donut. The maple was the more artificial flavoring that I like and the donut had a night flavor to it, not sure how it would have been better if I had no squished it so badly though. :-( 3.5/5


Tuesday, June 18, 2013

Bob's Donuts & Pastry Shop

Look at the giant donut!
I was enthralled!
Where: 1621 Polk St, San Francisco
What: Maple frosted cake donut
When: Monday, April 8th, 2013.

Maple Cake for me

Chocolate raised and coffee for my friend

So many yummy donuts in the window!

This place was super cute and old fashioned. Tons of donuts in the window and a counter to sit and drink some coffee. If you like coffee. I don't like coffee. They also had a 9" novelty donut for $5.95 which would be an awesome birthday cake! A standard donut was $0.85. My maple cake was awesome, my friend said her chocolate raised was also super yummy, but the coffee was pretty mediocre. I tried a bite of the raised donut and may have actually liked it better than the cake. It was super fluffly. 4/5.

Monday, June 17, 2013

My travel bag

You may have seen this bag in that picture of my awesome dress a couple posts ago, but I thought it deserved it's own post. Because it's pretty awesome in and of itself. It is my go to carry on and has never let me down.






What makes it so awesome, you ask? Let me tell you!

I try to pack stuff into ziplock baggies
because the bag is so big things
can get all messed up if they're loose.

1. It is made of recycled bags so +1 for the environment.

2. I bought it through a school fundraiser so that's another +1.

3. When it's empty it weighs basically nothing. Who wants a heavy shoulder bag that just gets worse as you fill it?

4. It zips across the top for security. (And I don't just mean TSA)

Yeah...it's getting messy...
5. The bottom is nice and boxy so the top opens up really wide and you can actually find stuff in it.

6. It looks enough like a purse that I don't feel self conscience taking it as my personal item as a carry on.

7. It's plasticy so it's super easy to clean.

8. I'm sure I could keep going, but you guys probably just want to know where to get your own at this point :-) So here's your link: Mixed Bag Designs.

Full on mess. Back to ziplocks!

Sunday, June 16, 2013

Trish's Donuts

Where: Pier 39, San Francisco
What: Warm minis with cinnamon and sugar
When: Sunday, April 7th, 2013

This may have been the third donut stop of the day. Don't judge. I didn't eat full donuts at all the other places...

Anyways, 6 minis for $3. You could also buy an entire bucket of yummy, warm mini donuts. I refrained from buying the whole bucket. Sugar was sprinkled on top and almost melted into the donuts. They were very good, about two bites each and just almost melted in your mouth. The donuts at the bottom of the bag ended up covered in sugar to the point that you had to dust some of it off. 4/5, mostly because they were served warm. They probably would have just been a 2 or 3/5 if they were room temperature.

Saturday, June 15, 2013

Barboloni

I'm sure the tablecloth was what attracted us.
Where: Ferry Building, San Francisco
What: Chocolate Creme
When: Sunday, April 7th, 2013

Menu, and proprietor in her hat

After I bought my organic donut, my friend bought one from this stand in the Ferry Building so we could compare the two. The woman had on a black trench coat and hat. It was interesting...anyways, they had a couple types of donuts and canolis, everything looked very authentic. The donut cost $3 with a tip in the tip jar. I wonder if you really have to tip for a donut. Hmm...

Sidetracked! The donut was yummy (especially compared to that other one from Pepples...). It had cinnamon and sugar sprinkled on the outside and the chocolate filling was light and fluffy. 4/5.

Just looks so nice and homemade, right?
Barboloni donut on the left,
Pepples on the right
I also like how some places I forget to take any pictures of and some places I end up with a bazillion pictures for one short review. I shall have to practice more! And eat more donuts!

Friday, June 14, 2013

Pepples Donuts

Where: San Francisco Ferry Building
What: Coffee Cake Donut
When: Sunday, April 7, 2013

Pepples was a little stand in the Ferry Building that advertised organic donuts. My friend also thought they were vegan, but the sign didn't say anything so I figured it was safe to try them. Plus, some vegan desserts are yummy. Vegan doesn't necessarily mean gross.




But possibly in this case...I couldn't even finish the donut. It was dry and had a weird after taste to the frosting. It was $3 including a tip. 0/5. Definitely not my favorite...


Thursday, June 13, 2013

My first donut story

I was in 6th grade and my brother just got a job at a Dunkin Donuts near us, last shift of the night. It wasn't 24 hours. On his first day of work he asked all of us for a donut request and he'd try to bring one home for us.

He got home after I was already in bed for school the next morning.

When I woke up and went out to the kitchen there were boxes and boxes of donuts. Apparently at the end of the night, they were going to throw out all the donuts. So he just brought them home. We had donuts for miles. And days.

My favorite back then was caramel apple. It had apple filling, like the filling on an apple danish, and a caramel frosting on it. So decadent. Thinking about it now I can't believe I ate so many of them. The little chunks of apple inside were just so good! I mean, plus all the sugar.

We had so many donuts we couldn't give them all away free. I took in donut holes to school many mornings and I'm sure my teachers hated me for it. I'd have a huge Tupperware full and we'd just pass it around during the morning lesson.

I don't remember when the donut surplus ended. I'm sure I ate a lot of donuts back then. And I've also just realized this isn't really my first donut story. Crap. Oh well, this is what you guys get for tonight. Miles of donuts. :-) Mmmmmm

Wednesday, June 12, 2013

Coco Donuts

Where: 814 SW 6th, Portland OR
What: Maple frosted cake donut
When: Saturday, April 6th, 2013
Website: http://cocodonuts.com/

So for my final day in Portland, we had to find another donut place to finish my tour out. But it was hard to find anywhere online with a comprehensive list of awesome donut places to go while traveling. And that's the start of an idea! If you can't find the source you want online, make one yourself! :-)

Coco's had a stylish decor and looked very trendy. The downtown location we went to was very small, just room for a large display case and a bar off to the side, but no stools at it to sit.

The maple cake donut I had was my least favorite of the Portland donuts. It was small and dense, and the maple flavoring was more authentic than the frosting I'm used it. 3/5. My friend got a lavender cake donut. I wasn't brave enough to try it, lavender scares me from a bad experience when I was in college.

Tuesday, June 11, 2013

Sesame Donuts, a 4-in-1 review!

Where: 6990 SW Beaverton-Hillsdale Hwy, Portland
What: Maple raised with vanilla custard. Again. For comparison sake.
When: Friday, April 5th, 2013
Website: http://sesamedonuts.com/

I am a band nerd. This story sort of has to do with the donut tour. Most of my best friends are band nerds. And a lot of them are from middle school band. Crazy, right? Who is still friends with people they were friends with in middle school? Who is even remotely similar to the person they were in middle school? I'm not sure if I am or not, but we're all still friends. Maybe it was the band teacher. She did introduce my friend and I when we were both new on the first day of seventh grade. I may never have had a donut blog if not for that fateful introduction (and the trip to see her, my friend, not my former band teacher, in Portland about 15 years later...).
I have one photo from this stop so let me just make it really big...
Anyways, the second stop on the donut tour was at my friend's favorite donut placem Sesame Donuts. Apparently Voodoo wasn't good enough for her! Although, really, I wasn't complaining.

On to the review!

So the worker/owner(?) was hilarious from the moment we walked in, offering us shots instead of donuts. A half dozen was $5.50, and yes, we got 6 donuts. There were three of us, so it wasn't that ridiculous. This particular location shared the space with a Baskin Robins and had outdoor seating.

I had what they called a Portland Creme and a pumpkin spice. I had totally forgotten about having the second donut until looking at my notes. Oh wow. So many donuts! Anyways, the Portfoland creme was good, not as decadent tasting as the Vood Doughnot one, but definitely worth going back for. The pumpkin spice was a dake donut but had little to no pumpkin taste. As a cake donut it was ok, as a pumpkin donut it would get a 1/5 simply for lack of flavoring.

I tried a bite of a French Crueler which was my friend and her roommate's favorite. Very eggy, reminded me of challah bread. The glaze was nice, I would give it a 3/5. Possible a good donut for people who do not like the heavy Dunk Donuts' taste.

I also tried a bite of a blueberry cake donut. 4/5. Very flavorful and moist, which I feel DD has a hard time getting in their cake donuts. The blueberry flavoring was strong and possibly a little artificial tasting, I probably would not have been able to eat an entire one.

Monday, June 10, 2013

Where it all started...Voodoo Doughnuts

Where: 22 SW 3rd Ave, Portland
What: Maple raised filled with vanilla custard
When: Thursday, April 4th, 2013
Website: http://voodoodoughnut.com/index.php

Back in April I took a West Coast Road Trip (can you still call it a road trip if you fly from city to city? I did hit four cities in a 10 day span so I think it should count.). My second destination of the trip was Portland and I decided I wanted to see this donut place everyone talks about, Voodoo Doughnuts (possibly the only review I'll do where they spell out doughnuts. So pretentious.). My friend said she would take me, but that there were better donuts to be had. So we went, on the condition that the next day I would try her favorite place, and thus the donut tour began. So here is my first ever donut review!


The place is very touristy and novely driven with donuts ranging from $1-$6. There was a special on Thursday with some local filling (Kelly's Jelly) but it was labeled spicy so I avoided it. Plus everyone knows that I go for maple first and formost. The place was small, the line was large. There was outdoor seating and it was cash only. As you can see in the case, there were some crazy intricate donuts. A lot with cereals for sprinkles. I'm getting hungry just thinking about all those donuts again!
My mustache got smeared in
in the bag. I was sad. Until
I tasted the deliciousness!


I had a maple donut filled with vanilla custard (think the creme from a Boston Creme donut). There was a small mustache drawn on it with white icing because mustaches are everywhere right now. The donut was larger than a Dunkin Donuts donut and more than I could eat in one donut setting, but it was awesome. Definitely worth the visit. It was a good mixture between light and fluffy donut and creamy filling. 5/5.

Sunday, June 9, 2013

My miracle dress, aka the best thing to wear on any plane ride ever.

The dress, on my way to Thailand
I was looking through some pictures from this year and realized the same dress kept popping up from all my trips. It’s amazing and everyone probably thinks I only own like two dresses. Obviously, if you know me you know this isn’t true, but this dress is just that good. 

My current go-to travel outfit is my miracle dress, leggings, leather flats with nylon not-socks (my dad calls them old lady socks), my black jersey knit blazer, and my white pashmina shawl. Last time I went overseas and spent about 26 hours traveling, I also included a pair of black dress socks in my bag to put on when I get cold. I like to pretend you can’t see the line between the socks and the leggings from far away. Every fifth trip or so I’ll mix it up and wear another tshirt dress or even a knit mini skirt with
my leggings on the flight. For variety of course. Or because I’m out of clean clothes at the end of a trip. Don’t tell anyone.

Mid road trip with my mom
Starting a road trip to Philly
I like this combination because it is super comfortable and I never end up with an annoying waist band shoving into me while I’m sitting down. The shoes are easy to slip on and off for security or getting comfortable on the plane. The not-socks make it less gross to walk through security bare foot. Not having pockets may get annoying to some people, but I like not having to worry about emptying them at security or things falling out. My current blazer has two small pockets that I can put my ID and folding up boarding pass into in a pinch, but I tend to keep those in the upper pocket of my carry-on bag. The blazer is more awesome than a cotton cardigan because it is thinner and travels better without showing wrinkles. Sometimes it gets shoved in the bottom of my purse, but no worries, it always comes out looking the same as it went in! It is also more interesting than a button up cardigan and makes plain t-shirt dresses look dressy enough for heading out on the town. Because you know how I roll, always out on the town and all.

About 16 hrs into my 26 hr trip to
Thailand, excuse the ridiculous face
The shawl is essential because you never know how hot or cold the plane will be and it can be used as a scarf, blanket, pillow, or wrap. It also helps when going from one climate to another so that you don’t have to carry bulky coats that you only need in one place. The whole outfit looks very polished and a million times better than actually wearing sweats on a plane, but feels about the same. You can go out to dinner without having to worry about changing when you land (especially if you have a cute necklace on, accessories are key for traveling because they change up an outfit without having to pack more clothing! This line makes me sound like I take tons of jewelry with me when I travel, but no, I take maybe two or three necklaces and then call it a day. Sometimes I even forget I brought them till the end of the trip.).

Full outfit ready to go to Thailand
(and all the luggage I took with me for
the 10 day trip)
On a bike ride in Philly
Miracle Dress: Kohl’s
Pashmina: JC Penneys
Leggings: Target
Socks: Target
Flats: Some store that was going out of business…
Necklace: NY&Co (blue), Target (black)
Watch: Avon
Bracelet: Charming Charlies