The husband and I have successfully navigated (pun intended) a road trip through northern Arizona that included a visit to the South Rim of the Grand Canyon and finished with a weekend stop in Las Vegas before returning home. I have many highlights of the trip to share and I will do so soon.
My plan had been to publish a couple of ‘what I wore’ posts while on the road but I had some technical difficulties with the laptop so I was not able to do as I had hoped. At this point, my first priority is to do a wrap-up on the vacation capsule and discuss the successes and lessons learned (see What’s In The Suitcase? for the first post on this topic).
I knew that Day 1 would mostly be sitting in the car as our travel time to Prescott, Arizona would be about 6 hours so I decided to wear the darker jeans which have a bit of stretch to them and fit comfortably at the waistband. I paired the jeans with the black and white mini buffalo plaid blouse and the khaki military-style jacket. Completing the look are my black shopper tote and my version of stylish but comfortable shoes. Made by Spring Step, these shoes have about a 1 1/4″ heel, an adjustable strap, and are detailed with laser cut-outs and contrasting stitching. I loved them so much that I bought them in gray as well.
We were in the Prescott area for the first four days of the trip. On Day 2 we spent most of our time exploring the city which included looking at model homes and a little bit of window shopping. Cooler weather called for warmer layers so I wore the slim, straight-leg tan twill pants with the grey waffle knit loose-fitting top and the off-white flyaway cardigan. Did you catch the detail on the back of the sweater? I wore my black comfy shoes again along with my black mini bucket purse and a lightweight infinity scarf.
Our plan was to visit Sedona on one of our days in the Prescott area and because inclement weather was on the horizon for Day 4, it was on Day 3 that we went to see the infamous red rock monoliths. I went for a bit of a southwestern feel with the tribal-striped cardigan sweater and turquoise jewelry. Paired with the lighter-colored jeans, the white blouse, and my athletic shoes I was ready for trekking along the many trails or wandering through artist studios and souvenir shops. My one wardrobe mishap happened on this day. I got a huge mustard stain on my blouse at lunch so it was out of service for the rest of the trip. Fine, whatever.
The weather forecast for Day 4 called for a 30 to 40 percent chance of rain which did happen. What was unexpected was the bit of snow showers that we also encountered. Call me a happy girl! Perhaps in homage to the cloudy skies that day, I dressed in tones of gray. Dark gray flyaway front cardigan on top of the lightweight heather gray pullover sweater with the black snake-skin patterned jeans and black boots. This last day in Prescott was spent on more exploration of the town, a visit to the local mall, and a stop at one of the Indian casinos in the area (and we won a few bucks, too).
If you have been keeping track, you’ve noticed that I have not yet worn any item of clothing twice (except for shoes and purses) but we are now at the halfway point of the trip and that will change. On Day 5 we were headed to the Grand Canyon which meant a long spell of riding in the car so again I went with the stretchy dark jeans from Day 1. This day’s look wound up being ‘denim on denim’ as I paired the jeans with the lighter denim blouse and the black marl cardigan sweater. For added warmth, once we arrived at the South Rim, I tucked my jeans into low-heeled, tall boots and wore a pair of soft-knitted gloves. It was in the low 40s that day and unbelievably there were people out and about in shorts and flip-flops. I guess there are some who don’t know that it snows in parts of Arizona in the Fall.
Day 6 was a full day along the South Rim, riding the shuttles to the viewpoints on both the east and west sides of that area. Even though it was a clear and sunny day, I knew that the air temperature would be brisk so it was a day to layer up. Gloves and tights provided additional warmth to the lightweight black marl pullover sweater with my black jeans from Day 4, the khaki jacket from Day 1, and the infinity scarf from Day 2. My comfy black shoes were indeed comfy and in the shopper tote, I carried a bottle of water as well as our SLR camera (we also had our phone cameras).
We said goodbye to Arizona and headed on out to Las Vegas on Day 7. Along the way, we made a lunch stop in Kingman and toured the Route 66 Museum. We were headed into warmer parts so I paired the tan pants from Day 2 with the buffalo plaid blouse from Day 1 which would be topped with the corduroy barn coat if needed for warmth. We made one more stop on our way to Las Vegas at Hoover Dam. It’s quite a spectacular sight and worth a quick look even if you don’t have time for the tour. The best part of this leg of the journey is that we gained an hour as we traveled back into the Pacific Time Zone.
“What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas” doesn’t apply if you go shopping and/or if you eat a lot. The only specific plan we had for the second to last day of our trip was to meet up with friends at 8:30pm for dinner to celebrate a birthday. After breakfast, the husband suggested that we spend a few hours at one of the outlet malls to which I excitedly agreed. During the day, the temperature was decidedly warmer than we had been experiencing in Arizona so the tissue-weight blouse with a black confetti pattern finally got its turn to be worn during the shopping excursion (a review of my purchases will be covered in another post). The lighter-colored jeans from Day 3 made another appearance as did my faithful comfy shoes. We had neglected to take photos earlier in the day so I did some quickie selfies in the hotel room after we returned.
A change of clothes was in order for the evening and I paired the black knit skirt I brought with a black tee bought that day (my only cheat on the capsule) and the off-white cardigan from Day 2. Boots and tights finish the outfit along with a pendant necklace. It was nice to dress up a bit after so many casual days.
We head home on Day 9. Our typical routine after a weekend in Vegas is to sleep as late as possible and make it out of the hotel room just before check-out time. We make a stop at Stateline about 45 minutes later for breakfast and then it was back to the highway for the final leg of the journey. Back into the stretchy jeans (third wearing) tucked inside low-heeled tall boots, the waffle knit top from Day 2, and the gray cardigan from Day 4, and I’m ready to return to the comforts of my own home.
If you remember from the previous post, I had packed 24 articles of clothing (not including undergarments, socks/tights, and shoes). Even better, it all fit into one suitcase although I did have a tote with my toiletries. A scarf and two pullover sweaters were the only items that I didn’t wear at least once so the vacation capsule had an 87.5% wear rate and there were ten items that I wore at least twice so the repeat rate of the items worn was 47.6% (if that even is a thing).
All in all, I think I hit a happy medium of having packed enough clothes for variety and flexibility but not overpacking and winding up lugging around a lot of clothes that I didn’t wear. Next time though, I’ll give thought to adding more pops of color as sometimes felt that my palette for this trip was a bit bland.
What do you think of my attempt at a vacation capsule?
Comments are closed.