The Blue Bag

June 2005 - my parents went on an Alaskan cruise with their good friends. They bought more souvenirs than would fit in their suitcases, so my mom picked up a cool little bag at the gift shop on the ship. The bag is a lightweight blue bag that can be zipped in a few positions to determine the size of the bag. It was a perfect little carry-on bag to bring her goodies home.
January 2006 - I the boys and I went home to California for Christmas and to attend Matt's cousin Gabriel's wedding. After being gone for 3 1/2 weeks, we acquired too many things to fit into our bags. Enter, the blue bag. Mom brought it out and let me use it to get some of our stuff home.
October 2006 - Mom and dad came out to Virginia to visit for a few weeks. I can't remember what they bought but they ended up needing an extra bag and so I gave them back their blue bag.
If this is where the bag stopped travelling there would be no story to tell.
January 2007- Matt, the boys and I headed to California to visit family for a few weeks and go on a cruise with our friends Mika and Tom. We picked up a few things in Mexico and needed an extra bag to bring things home. I clearly remember loading our dirty clothes in the blue bag and checking it on the plane.
May 2007 - Mika and Madison came to visit for a month, with Tom joining them for the last two weeks of their stay. Mika accumulated some extra stuff and needed to ship some things home. But, in an effort to save her some money, I suggested she just use the blue bag to get the extra stuff home. She checked the bag and went home to Washington.
November 2007 - Matt, the boys, and I were in Lacey, Washington visiting the Mlacks. My mom and dad were in Bellingham, Washington visiting family. One night mom called and asked if Mika still had that blue bag. As it turns out mom did some shopping and needed an extra suitcase. Mika pulled the suitcase out of her closet and when I headed up to Bellingham to visit family I handed the bag over to my mom.
August 2008 - The boys and I spent the summer on the West Coast visiting family. While there, my sister threw a surprise early birthday party for the boys. The toys wouldn't fit in the luggage we brought so, I found the blue bag in the closet, loaded it with light things and headed back to Virginia.
January 2009 - Mika was packing up from her month-long visit here and between shopping trips and Christmas gifts the bags she came with wouldn't fit all of their stuff. I searched through my closet and pulled out that blue bag one more time. At one point there was a hard plastic bottom to the bag to make it a little more sturdy, but that is now gone. So, I handed it over to Mika and she loaded it up with the stuff that wouldn't fit in the other bags. Just to give her some added comfort about the bag and its contents making it to Washington safely, we strapped one of those luggage belts around the bag. And off it went.
The blue bag only travels one-way and yet it has flown over 22,000 miles in 3 1/2 years. Not bad.
I wonder if that blue bag could survive an International trip? Maybe we should get a new blue bag.