Uncategorized

The Sisterhood of the Traveling Dress

My recent post about how to pack for a road trip led to a discussion of my rather odd travel wardrobe.  To be honest, I didn’t even realize that my style was odd, but now that I think about it, I realize that this is yet another example of me being, well, strange.

You see, when I travel, no matter where I go, I wear a dress.

Why?  Because in life, no matter what I’m doing, I wear a dress.  In fact, I’m wearing one right now as I type this.  See?

Me, writing blog posts in a dress.

It’s a terrible photo, but it makes my point.  I wear dresses like most people wear jeans.  They are comfortable, they are attractive (the above being the exception!) and best of all, they require no coordination.  This is particularly important when traveling, as you don’t need to worry about taking all neutral colors.  I can wear a bright pink dress one day and a subdued black dress the next, be comfortable, and best of all, it looks like I care about how I look.

But now you know the secret.  I don’t actually care.  I’m just lazy and comfortable!

To determine exactly when this dress-wearing habit started, I flipped back through my iPhoto albums.  It appears to go back as far as 2006–but then that’s as far back as my iPhoto albums go!

It was actually laughable how many photos of me I have wearing dresses in various settings.  Here are some of the highlights, starting in the past and traveling up through the present day.  As a bonus, you can watch me get fatter and older, too!

Me, in a dress, in Dr. Sun Yat Sen Chinese Garden in Vancover, Canada

On our honeymoon in 2006.

 Me, in a dress, on the beach in Ocean City, Maryland

Random trip to the beach, summer 2008

Me, in the same dress, also in Ocean City, mini-golfing!

Could this shot be any less flattering?

Me, in a dress, at a writing retreat on top of a mountain in rural western North Carolina

I'm also wearing a scarf because it was cold on that mountain!

Are you getting tired of this?  Because I have more, and they just get more and more silly.  For example…

Me (well, my feet anyway), wearing a dress and standing in a stream in Vermont

The bunchy colorful thing is the ankle-length dress I was wearing--I had to hold it up!

Me, wearing that same dress (different day) at Robert Frost’s cabin, Middlebury, Vermont

It was not a snowy evening, clearly! Though it is in the woods.

 Me, wearing a dress, on a boat on Lake Champlain

It was really windy!

 Me, wearing a dress, at the National Zoo in D.C.

We went specifically to see the pandas.

Me, dress, Vegas

He was trying to get the whole building into the shot!

Me, dress, Stonehenge

Brrrrr!

Me, dress, Central Park

Really bad hair day!

Ok, I’m sure you all get the point by now.  And I hope you understand how amused I was, trying to find one single photo of me somewhere wearing pants.  I do have a few from our honeymoon, but I think you’ll agree that this location kind of dictated pants…

Me, wearing pants, Mendenhall Glacier, Juneau, Alaska

A dress was simply not an option.

So, there you have it.  Me, in a dress, almost everywhere I’ve ever been (ok, I left out a few places because I figured by now you’ve stopped reading!)  Thus, I feel perfectly ok with wearing a dress on the beaches of Maine, in wilds of Cape Breton, on the bike paths of Prince Edward Island (with bike shorts underneath of course) and even on a whale watching boat in the bay of Fundy.  Though that last one may be ill advised, what with wind and all.  I’ll let you know how it goes!