This Week: Flight 001 (Travel section launch party post!)

My friend Jeanne believes travel is essential, that among its many benefits, visiting unfamiliar places helps her appreciate home all the more. But until recently, travel wasn’t one of my priorities. For years, my sales career required frequent travel to exotic locales like St. Louis and Minneapolis (in January!), but I’d create excuses to avoid planning and taking real vacations: hotels are expensive, the thought of flying makes me nervous and the entire experience is unpredictable by its very nature. I’ve always loved the trips I took; I suppose not traveling more often might have been a form of self-denial, but that’s not a trait people generally attribute to me. Whatever the reason had been, Jeanne’s assessment, along with writing this blog, has changed my opinion. Of course traveling is essential. Visiting foreign countries has fundamentally changed my perspective in ways reading a book never could. And visiting the much more temperate California earlier this month saved my sanity and made the rest of the Chicago winter at least bearable. That’s not MasterCard priceless. It’s just priceless. As a result, I’m planning to travel more often, and so far, I’m having more fun than a kid on corn syrup. Thanks Jeanne.

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Now that travel’s on my agenda, I’ve added a Travel category to the menu at the top of the page (beneath the logo and to the right Mom), which will include guest posts by people like KitchenLab‘s J. (Nick) Nichols who wrote about he and wife Rebekah Zaveloff’s annual trip to Southern France and actress/singer/writer Cady McClain who contributed a piece about New Orleans and the importance of play. Traveling done right is a form of play, which wraps up this post quite nicely. Thanks Cady.

But Wait. There’s More . . .

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To kick off the Travel section, I’m finally posting about Flight 001, a retail shop stocked with travel goods: luggage, very cool baggage tags, pillows and blankets, etc. It’s a smorgasbord, the Whole Foods of travel stores. I discovered it in Greenwich Village when I dropped in to buy a baggage tag and wound up spending ten grand. Just kidding, but you get the idea. And there’s one on State Street in the Gold Coast. Visit in great haste, especially if the nearest store location requires an airplane trip.

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Travel Tip: If you can’t make it to France this year, visit Jeanne’s shop Figaro Antiques for the next best thing. Figaro Antiques has locations in Vintage Pine Antiques and Interiors (across the street from the big fancy Whole Foods) and Andersonville Galleria.

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Flight 001. 1133 North State Street. Chicago. 312.941.1001 (hey, what a coincidence).

Rubber Tag Set. $18

Seat Pak. $28

J. Fold Cargo Messenger Bag. $128

Small pill aluminum shaped container. $4. (I’ll bet each of us have somebody in our life for whom this Flight 001 Travel Essential would make the perfect gift).

Cool logo too.

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