Travel entry:July 2025 Hey Reader, Ciao from beautiful Roma! My son and I are wrapping up a few days in the Eternal City before we head north to meet up with the rest of the family. It's been a great adventure so far and I can't wait to share more with you. If you love a good deal, this is one email you won't want to skip. Amazon Prime Day is here and there are some phenomenal discounts on everything you need for travel from luggage to entertainment and more - including some items we brought...
about 2 months ago • 2 min read
Travel entry:June 2025 Hey Reader, After making it through the end-of-school crush, we've now entered the period of pool time, sweaty summer camp days and family travel. It feels good to be here, though I do with the real feel outside was a little cooler (it feels like 93 as I sit on my porch writing this email). As I've probably mentioned, this summer we're breaking our usual rule of going somewhere cool and uncrowded. In fact we're doing the complete opposite: we're headed to Italy! We've...
2 months ago • 1 min read
Travel entry:May 2025 Hey Reader, I'm reaching out to you because I know you're excited to learn more about how your family can save money on travel, and I don't want you to miss out on the BIGGEST opportunity of 2025! Right now the Chase Sapphire Preferred is offering a sign up bonus of 100,000 points when you spend $5,000 in the first three months. This is an epic welcome offer - the highest it has ever been. My husband and I would absolutely jump on it if we hadn't both gotten this exact...
4 months ago • 1 min read
Travel entry:May 2025 Hey Reader, If you’re anything like me, the end of the school year has turned into full-on Maycember mode! Between concerts, sports tournaments, and the usual rush of standardized testing, it feels like we’re juggling it all. We're about to have a 5th grade graduate in our midst too, so there are lots of festivities to plan for! But with the warmer weather rolling in, it’s also that time when our thoughts turn to summer travels. Living in the hot, humid Midwest we're...
4 months ago • 1 min read
Travel entry:April 2025 Hey Reader, I hope you and your family are out enjoying the beautiful weather, blooming flowers and meaningful holidays of the season. After our amazing spring break trip to Costa Rica this year, we're having a hard time deciding where to head next year. If you have any suggestions for where to go next March with our tween and teen, I'm all ears! Do you have a special bucket list destination you're ready to plan? I know that we have so many amazing places in mind but...
5 months ago • 1 min read
Travel entry:April 2025 Hey Reader, Sometimes you learn something new and it really is life-changing. It's no exaggeration that learning how to use points and miles more effectively for free travel has deeply impacted our lifestyle. We don't have an unlimited budget, but we've been able to travel basically whenever we want (respecting school/work schedules) because we mostly don't have to pay for it now. My husband told me last week that he wants to see his favorite baseball team when they're...
5 months ago • 1 min read
Travel entry:April 2025 Hey Reader, You know we love a good travel adventure—but this one was not on our bucket list! Last month we were cruising towards Costa Rica, dreaming of beaches and sloths, when suddenly… our plane circled the Cayman Islands for an hour and then turned around mid-flight. Yep. Thanks to a ground radar outage in Honduras, Southwest had to divert us all the way back to the U.S.! Instead of waking up in Manuel Antonio National Park, ready to explore the jungle, we spent...
5 months ago • 2 min read
Travel entry:March 2025 Hey Reader, We're (sadly) back from our awesome spring break trip from Costa Rica but with the kids back at school today I've had a few minutes to breathe, unpack and sit down at my computer. As I was unpacking - which is my absolute least favorite thing about travel, without question - I realized that I'm a true creature of habit. I spend a decent amount of time packing for each trip but so often I end up bringing the same things over and over again. Since Amazon just...
5 months ago • 3 min read
Travel entry:March 2025 Hola Reader, I'm writing to you from our very sunny balcony on the last day of our amazing spring break trip to Costa Rica. Somehow the two hour time change never quite registered with my body so I've seen some incredible sunrises this week - I'm usually a sunset girl, so I'm not complaining because they've been absolutely beautiful. Costa Rica has truly been a delight and I can't wait to share more over on the blog. For now I'll share a few quick highlights: Wildlife...
6 months ago • 2 min read