You\u2019ll want to \u201crough it\u201d in the wardrobe department. We wore most of our clothes. We carried our backpacks all day on Friday (or your first day), so we wanted to keep them extremely light!! If you take small suitcases you\u2019ll have to drop them off at the hotel before exploring the city.<\/p>\n
Girls all over the city are wearing their GS uniforms, you\u2019ll be able to see each other better if you make your own t-shirts or hats to wear on the trip (we didn\u2019t even bring our vests). We tie-dyed bright pink and purple shirts to wear! You\u2019ll wear one pair of jeans all 3 days (really, that\u2019s fine! Carrying an extra pair adds quite a bit of weight.) We wore our tie-dyed t-shirts one day and our bridging t-shirts the next and the cleanest one of the two for the ride home.<\/p>\n
We brought one warm sweatshirt with a hood or warm hat (it could be as cold as 45 degrees out on the bridge, subtract 10 degrees from the temperature given on the weather report and add gusty wind!) and brought a windbreaker or warm jacket and plastic trash bag\/poncho (wet fog or rain are a good possibility). If you\u2019ve been looking at the photos from our trip you\u2019ll see that we wore our sweatshirts and jackets the whole weekend.<\/p>\n
We brought 2 pairs of undies and 2 pairs of socks and we wore a pair of comfortable, broken in, athletic shoes. The bathrooms were in the hall at the hostel where we stayed so we brought a pair of pj bottoms to wear with a t-shirt to bed. We took a Ziploc bag with toothbrush, little or empty tube of toothpaste, little soap & motel room size shampoo 3oz or less (unless you\u2019re at a hotel where they\u2019ll be provided), hairbrush & hair ties. Towels, linens and pillows are provided, no sleeping bags needed.<\/p>\n
When my troop went to San Francisco we were 6th grade juniors and a few of the girls had started their periods. This might be a good opportunity to talk to the girls about being prepared or reminding them that you will carry some supplies if they discover they need them (for the first time) on the trip.<\/p>\n
We brought plastic grocery bags to put all our clothes in, so we could use the backpack on Saturday and leave the clothes in a locker at the hostel. You can put all the \u201cclothes bags\u201d easily in one or two lockers (not so if you\u2019ve got suitcases). Take a few combination locks to lock them up if you\u2019re staying at a hostel. You could do it the other way around and leave your suitcases and take a small daypack for the day if you\u2019re at a hotel.<\/p>\n
Bring another Ziploc baggie for spending money (my girls took $20 spending money and I had them keep it and do their own budgeting while shopping for souvenirs), few tissues, and chapstick. Take a camera (disposable or inexpensive, extra batteries, charger or film if needed) or phone with a camera. Bring a water bottle (leave it empty till you get through airport security then you\u2019ll fill it up at a drinking fountain) and lightweight paperback book or magazine, deck of cards, pen and paper or whatever will keep you entertained on the flight. Probably a granola type bar would be good in case you\u2019re starving and we took a brown bag breakfast that we could eat at the airport or on the flight. There is a plastic bag ban in San Francisco so bring along your own plastic bags for souvenirs or a reusable bag to avoid a bag fee. That\u2019s it!!<\/p>\n
Learning to pack lightly will serve your girls well for the rest of their lives! It\u2019s great if you can brainstorm your packing list with your girls so they understand why you are and aren\u2019t packing some things. Model the outfit you\u2019d like them to wear and show them what should be packed in their backpacks by bringing the items to a troop meeting. (It might be a good idea to show their moms too! Moms have a tendency to throw in lots of things that they \u201cthink might be needed\u201d.) Remind them that any medication should go to the first aider for distribution.<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s a great sample packing list from Angie\u2019s troop #5109<\/p>\n
Packing List<\/p>\n
MUST BE backpack, duffle, or SMALLEST carry-on
\nSize limitations as per the airline: 10 in x 16 in x 24 in or outside linear dimension of 50\u201d; under 30 lbs; must fit under seat in front or in overhead bin<\/p>\n
Wear to SF: jeans, t-shirt w\/long sleeve under, sweatshirt around waist, sturdy walking shoes (not new shoes to avoid blisters)<\/p>\n
____ Sweatshirt with hood (Troop sweatshirt a good choice)
\n____ Windbreaker (to layer)
\n____ T-shirt for Friday
\n____ Troop t-shirt (Sat)
\n____ Long sleeve to layer under
\n____ 1 pair jeans
\n____ 1 pair jammies
\n____ 2 pairs socks
\n____ 2 pairs undies\/undergarments
\n____ Toiletries (liquids in quart-sized bag; no more than 3 oz. each)
\nToothbrush, toothpaste, floss, hair brush, hair ties, deodorant, sunscreen
\nNo shampoo\/conditioner, soap, towels, or hair dryers (provided by hotel)
\n____ Book
\n____ Water bottle (empty)
\n____ SMALL Daypack (empty & packed in backpack or duffle)
\n____ Spending money in a small wallet ($20)
\n____ Chapstick
\n____ Tissues
\n____ Ziploc bag with SWAPs
\n____plastic bag or reusable bag for souvenirs
\n____ Snacks (optional and limited to granola bars & cracker snacks)
\n(absolutely no candy, chocolate, chips)
\n____ Rain poncho or trash bag<\/p>\n
Adults add: forms, maps, itineraries, envelopes with girl money, items for sack lunch on Saturday (bags, food items, etc), camera, phone<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
You\u2019ll want to \u201crough it\u201d in the wardrobe department. We wore most of our clothes. We carried our backpacks all day on Friday (or your first day), so we wanted to keep them extremely light!! If you take small suitcases …<\/span> Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,9,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-399","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-girl-planning","category-preparation","category-travel-skills"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gssunnytrails.com\/travel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/399","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gssunnytrails.com\/travel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gssunnytrails.com\/travel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gssunnytrails.com\/travel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gssunnytrails.com\/travel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=399"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/gssunnytrails.com\/travel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/399\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":568,"href":"https:\/\/gssunnytrails.com\/travel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/399\/revisions\/568"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gssunnytrails.com\/travel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=399"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gssunnytrails.com\/travel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=399"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gssunnytrails.com\/travel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=399"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}