Flights to Pittsburgh and Plane Snacking Strategy {Travel Tips}

Pittsburgh here we come! Tonight my husband and I will take two flights to get us across the country to my hometown for a week long visit. It's been almost a year and a half since I've been back home and this summertime trip is long overdue.

Bagheera, our cat, is less than thrilled to be left behind in Seattle but is always excited to see a bag to jump into. Hopefully I can continue my ongoing trend of carry on bags only later today!

Packing for a trip back to Mom and Dad's house is always so much less pressure than when we're going someplace new and staying in hotels. In this case we just bring what we need and they provide the food, lodging, and access to vehicles! 

What we will certainly need are plane snacks. I always load up on snacks to keep us entertained and full so that we avoid any hangry situations or purchasing crappy or overpriced airplane food. Annie, Justin, and Ophelia are coming along with us this time.

Here is my go to strategy for plane snacks:

• Novelty items - these are all snacks that we don't eat regularly so they're a little more interesting to us.
• Convenient sizes - the almond butter with pretzels are in such a small and convenient package, I'd never buy these for my real life but they're perfect for a plane ride, especially for a carry on traveler.
• Variety - several snacks with some salty, some sweet, some cheesy, some chocolatey. [Typically I like to get a few more healthy snacks like nuts and dried fruit, but that didn't come to fruition this time.]
• Divide and conquer - the large boxes aren't going to fly (pun fully intended) so I'll divide the contents of each box into two ziplock bags. One I'll pack away for our return flight and the other comes in my personal bag. The same goes for the other items, I save half of the quantity of each for the return trip. 

While we're in Pittsburgh we have a long list of places to go, friends to see, and foods to eat! The major priorities are:

1. Visiting Frank Lloyd Wright's Fallingwater House, I've never been but grew up just an hour away
2. Catching a Pittsburgh Pirates (baseball) game at PNC Park
3. Going to Kennywood Park to ride old, wooden roller coasters and eat park food!
4. Scarfing down a few dozen donut holes from Better Maid Donuts
5. Drinking Dunkin Donuts coffee, an East Coast staple

And, of course, I can't wait to visit with my whole entire family, old friends, and my parents' dog! We're going to our family cabin for a few days, which is one of my favorite places on this planet. My Mom and Dad remodeled their kitchen and dining room since I last went home and I look forward to making good grub and a big mess in someone else's kitchen :)

Happy July 4th Weekend, yinz guys.