Big & Tall Travel

It’s only a few short days until my beautiful wife and I are off on another journey abroad. We’re both very excited for this trip to Iceland and through Canada. We have a lot planned, and a lot to post about our adventures.

Now, though, is time to pack. And packing is turning into a bit of a conundrum for us…well…me. We’re expecting daytime temperatures to be between 54F and 60F; nighttime temps will cool only slightly. But we’re only going to be in Iceland for a couple of days.

We’ll then step onto our first Silversea cruise. I imagine the weather while on the Silver Shadow will vary but will likely be consistently cooler at sea than in port.

All of our port stops are in Canada. From the looks of things, it looks like we should expect temperatures between 65F and 90F in the various ports. Herein lies the conundrum….

On a Caribbean cruise, I could plan on packing a few sets of thin, breathable Columbia shorts and shirts. However, on this cruise, the weather is going to necessitate both warm weather clothing and also a good bit of cool season clothing. In other words….lots of layers. Lots of layers will require more than a bit of space for a big guy like me.

To make matters worse, Silversea requires more elegant dress than what you’d find on many of the other lines. Fortunately, tuxedos are no longer required; however, I’ll need to have a nice complement of suits, blazers, chinos, and slacks. And shoes.

Perhaps I’m most worried about fitting all of my shoes into my luggage. I’m planning on bringing a pair of sandals, a pair of sneakers, a pair of boots, a pair of overboots, a pair of brown dress shoes, and a pair of black dress shoes. Most people may be able to fit all this footwear easily into their luggage. For me, though, my size 15 EEEE shoes are not compact. Just my shoes are going to just about fill a carryon.

Then there’s my cool season clothing: flannels, jeans, duck pants, sweatpants, hoodies. All of these take up a significant amount of space.

This may be the first trip we’ve taken for which my wardrobe takes up more space than my wife’s!