During my last trip to the Eastern end of the US, one of the trips I took with my parents was to a few NE Ohio / Amish wineries. The thing I miss the most about being in Arizona aside from my family is the abundance of wineries within a 10 minutes drive of my house. I always had this in Ohio, and in Michigan, I could easily go home to it. I don’t get the same here. I got so excited I ended up with 8 bottles after only visiting two of the four wineries I wanted to hit.

My parents were sure they could have it shipped somehow and I told them if they could do that, to do so, and I would reimburse them the cost. However, as it ended up, you can’t do it unless you lie about the fact that you are shipping liquids.

I then started searching TSA laws and looked at how others shipped wine. Once I realized that I was able to take an unlimited amount of wine with me as long as I checked it, it was time to scheme.

Fortunately, I was headed back for another trip and was able to stop over for a weekend. My dad and I engaged on some insanely crazy packing of the wine in my luggage. We made a cardboard frame for my suitcases. Next we wrapped each bottle a few times with bubble wrap, placed them in cardboard wine bottle shippers, and packed them with newspaper. Last but not least, was putting clothes and all that all around them.

I found out when I checked my luggage that the airline doesn’t even care if you have wine in your suitcase, which made me glad I was so anal in packing them. I also decided before I even got off the plane and headed to baggage claim, that if they didn’t make it, I wasn’t sure I was going to check *any* baggage ever again.

In the end, all was well. All 8 bottles made it. Six stayed with me and two headed to friends for keeping the sugar baby company in my absence.