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The choices I make, and the choices I don’t
I was out with some frequent traveler friends after the travel show and the topic of how others perceive us came up. Because most assume travel has to be expensive (and whatever you hear, it isn’t free), they also assume that people who travel frequently either: I’m here to report that I don’t have either! I’m not claiming poverty, but in the DC suburbs we live solidly in the middle of the road. So how am I spending almost a…
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Do you take Oblications? Here are some tips to save!
I just ran across a piece on ABC News that says a whopping $197 Billion a year is spent on “Oblications”: trips we HAVE to take to cross off an obligation as opposed to taking that dream vacation we WANT to take. Are you heading to your In-laws’ family reunion, Nephew’s Wedding or In-Laws’ Nephew’s graduation this summer? Welcome to the Oblication! While I can’t attend the event for you, I can help take some of the sting out of…
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Washington, DC weekends archive
Baltimore Aquarium: The perfect two hour tour As a ten year member of the Baltimore Aquarium, I’m shocked at how most visitors get the place exactly wrong. With that in mind, I put together this two hour tour that I’ve been using with the Deal Kids since they were toddlers and tested just yesterday with 3 kids ages 3, 6, and 9. Baltimore Aquarium tour 1. Buy your tickets in advance! Know you’re coming more than once in a year?…
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Florida archive
Cheap FL Airfares + $5/Day Car Rentals = Last Minute Spring Break, 2017 I wrote a few days ago about how travel hackers do Spring Break. I should have mentioned another way we do it: twice! In the post I shared the details of our end of the month trip to Disney. Over the last couple of days I’ve MacGyvered a last minute Spring Break deal so cheap it seemed silly to stay home. Last Minute Spring Break Details Airfare sales keep rolling…
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Are you a Third Culture kid?
Are you, or do you have, a 3rd culture kid? While the term generally applies to Military and Foreign service families, I’ve noticed this can also apply to children who travel frequently, especially if their peers don’t, to families with Internationally adopted kids or for kids whose parents are of two religions. Here’s an “official” definition, by socialologist David Pollock:A Third Culture Kid (TCK) is a person who has spent a significant part of his or her developmental years outside…
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Drone Parenting, or why I threw my kids off a mountain in Guatemala
DC Suburbanites are known as being tightly wound, ambitious over-achievers. We’re also often accused of being “Helicopter Parents”. You know the stereotype: our kids are surrounded in bubble wrap, given trophies for going to the bathroom, and god forbid a teacher give a kid anything under an A as he’ll get an earful from Mommy! I consider myself more of a “Drone Parent” (maybe I should trademark that). I’m more of an “eye in the sky” than a hoverer, ready…