TIMING IS EVERYTHING!

PLANNING TO TRAVEL

You may think this travel blog is all just rainbows and unicorns; frivolous musings of our cavorting around the world and around the corner, but behind the scenes at VFH Central there is serious planning going on to get us to these destinations. It’s a 24/7 intense process of details and prices and itineraries. Well, at least that’s what Janet tackles with alacrity every day in her high-tech control room. Me, I kind of lean in the rainbow and unicorn realm as I tend to just show up somewhere and write about how "lovely” or “magical” or “cool” it is to visit wherever we land.

Greg's way of traveling

Without her, we go nowhere. Me, I’ll drive around in circles, but she is laser sharp in her directions and costs and agendas. She even plans our meandering drives with stops and special routes which appease my “careless” shuffling.  

“Trips aren’t ‘thought-activated,’” she’ll say and to that I’ll wisely murmur, “Yes, Dear!” Then I mutter under my breath, “spare me the details.”

Without her attention to details and her pursuit of deals, travel costs would be exorbitant, and now that we’re finally seeing light at the end of this nasty COVID pandemic it is time to dust off Janet’s control room console and ‘get ‘er done.’

SPARE ME THE DETAILS

As traveling companions go, we’re very compatible. Janet burrows into the details and hunts down the best prices for air travel, etc., and I hand over my credit card.

Between Apps on her phone and emails and websites that she constantly monitors, Janet consistently provides our travels with the best cost-saving tactics. When we planned a trip to Croatia two years ago, she suggested we open credit cards that gave us the requisite miles. Even though we consistently fly on American Airlines (to gather frequent flyer miles) she goes off other sites that offer the flights at some discounted rate. A few years ago, she discovered that we could fly to England during the Christmas season for half the price if we departed from BWI Marshall Airport instead, catching first a puddle jumper to the normal Philadelphia – Manchester flight we usually take.

She monitors prices and when she gets an inkling that prices will rise, she will make the purchase.

I know, my head’s spinning too!

Here’s a quick list of her “sources."

Janet says Kayak is great for comparison shopping, and with Google Flights you put in your itinerary and it shows on a calendar the different prices for different days. 

Janet says the cheapest days to fly are generally Tuesdays and Wednesdays and the lowest fares can usually be snagged on Wednesday morning. Prices fluctuate daily and hourly.

KAYAK 

GOOGLE FLIGHTS  

AIRFARE
WATCHDOG

She gets daily emails from Scott’s Cheap Flights and Airfare Watchdog. Both follow airports and send daily alert emails for deals that pop up. For instance, there was recently listed a round trip flight from Philadelphia to Denver for $59.    

SCOTT'S CHEAP FLIGHTS

AIRFARE WATCHDOG 

SCOTT'S 

Hopper is interesting because the smartphone app actually predicts if prices for the flight you are interested in will go up and send you an alert to your phone warning you of this. 

HOPPER

HOPPER 

Good luck with your search. Janet says this is JUST SCRATCHING THE SURFACE with the information. Me? I'm going to drink another Unicorn shot

JANET SEARCHING FOR DEALS

 

UNICORN SHOT

Remember to visit the official VFH store!

© 2021

By greg dunaj

SPRING ALCHEMY

GREY TO GOLD

A year ago, this past weekend was our last “normal” time. The promise of an approaching spring soon melted into a grotesque twisting of expectations. The COVID pandemic hit the world HARD and we didn’t see it coming. With the lengthening of days came the fear of shortened lives caused by this troubling virus that has afflicted everyone. A year ago, this past weekend, we were piling in to the newest brewpub in the neighborhood, Troubles End. Who knew it was just the beginning of our troubles? Soon thereafter and ever since we’ve been hiding in our caves and avoiding society. The news filled our eyes and fed our fears with daily death counts and hope was ridiculed and locked away in some basement. 

It’s been a tough, sad year.

Goldfinch in winter

And, yet, spring approaches anew and again we here at VFH Central are filled with hope. There are now three vaccination medicines for this deadly pandemic. It may be safe to emerge from the basement? Perhaps it is safe to believe in the alchemy of spring, where the steel white cold transforms into the vibrant happy colors of spring.

HOPE

What this pandemic has done for us is to help us appreciate our surroundings and to notice the subtle nuances of our lives. Already crocus is blooming and our tulips in the front yard are beginning to sprout. Too many years we’ve pounded out the door to jobs that never allowed us the leisure time to see our world. So, for this your humble homebound scribe is grateful. Last year with the uncertainty of the pandemic pressing on us we were too scatterbrained to notice, but now we finally have hope for our future.  

Alchemy at work

Readers of this wandering travel blog know we have gained solace in feeding our birds. We’ve enjoyed several snowstorms this winter and we’ve delighted in seeing the birds flock to our perches, their colors still seasonally muted. Still, it’s fairly easy to tell the males and females, but now as spring approaches the hues of the gold and purple finches are more pronounced each day. The soft dusty colors of the Bluebirds with their orange chests become more vibrant each time they flock to our feeders.

One feeder is just outside our kitchen window above the sink and most of the birds don’t mind us ogling them, although there is one particularly skittish Red-bellied Woodpecker that despite his massive size flits off quickly each time we near the window. His colors are striking in the morning sun. 

Even the dour colored sparrows are a marvel so up close, although, it is the transformation of the Goldfinches turning from their winter colors to the brilliant yellow of spring and summer that really gets us going! It is the alchemy of spring turning muted colors into gold, fear into hope.

Summer colors

Remember, all who wander are not lost.

Love, always

Janet and greg

©2021 by Greg Dunaj