Lori LeRoy

Birdwatching has increased dramatically in popularity since we’ve been working and schooling from home, according to Jim and Nancy Carpenter, my good friends and founders of Wild Birds Unlimited Nature Shop, an “everything you need for birdwatching and feeding” store with locations all over the U.S. We recently drove to Salamonie Lake State Park in northern Indiana because of a tip on a birdwatching Facebook group that said there were at least 50 eagles roosting there for the winter. Driving down the highway, I love spotting red-tailed and Cooper’s hawks high in the trees out in fields, and I love watching bluebirds flit around our yard while sitting at my desk at home. Birdwatching with kids has been a great way for our family to get outdoors, spread our own wings a bit, and learn about our feathered friends.

I’ve been doing Lunar New Year (Chinese) and Tet (Vietnamese) celebrations in classrooms since the boys were in kindergarten, now eight years! What’s really cool is that as the years have passed with the same kids learning about the spring holidays, they have started remembering the food and traditions, and they get really excited when they realize it’s time for our annual party: Dating back more than 4,000 years, Lunar New Year/Tet are basically a combination of several western holidays – Thanksgiving, Christmas, birthdays, and New Year’s all rolled into one. This year, I can’t go into the classroom to help with the party, but in past years, I’ve had parents call or text me to ask me where to find pho or other Chinese or Vietnamse food because their kids come home and rave about what they ate.

We’ve discovered some delicious treats this way – cheese sponge cakes in Japan, KinderEggs in the UK, stroopwafels in the Netherlands; and ketchup-flavored potato chips in Canada. But, with all of our trips cancelled in 2020 and plans to stay stateside in 2021, we were excited to get a subscription to MunchPak Snacks to remind our taste buds that there’s more than Oreos, GoGurts and Goldfish in the world (not that there’s anything wrong with either! MunchPak, and similar snack subscription services (Universal Yums and Snack Crate are others) send you a box of treats from different countries each month. I love the idea of my 10- and 13-year old sons eating the same cookies that kids their age in Lebanon love for their after school snack.

My family prides itself on finding great deals whether it’s a designer purse or pair of socks, but what really gives me goosebumps is a $450 ticket to Tokyo or enough points on my credit card to pay for a hotel in San Francisco for four nights. Purchase multi-day attraction city cards like the Copenhagen Card, New York Pass, or Paris Pass to save on admission to museums, attractions and even ground transportation. We have a membership to the Indiana State Museum (in our hometown of Indianapolis), but have used the member card to get in free at The Leonardo and the Clark Planetarium in Salt Lake City, the U. S. Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville, AL and the Field Museum and Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago, among others. It will be a few more months before I will consider booking any flights, but I’ll definitely be monitoring airfares, considering road trips, and searching for more ways to save money for family travel.