By Guest Bloggers Eli and Nadia Keshodkar
Nadia and her son Eli, age ten, are avid travelers and passionate national park lovers. Nadia works as a part-time social worker at NYU Langone and lives in Long Island City (Queens), NYC with her husband and two sons (Eli and Eisa, age seven). She loves to travel and explore new places and food with family and friends — a passion she’s shared with Eli. Eli is a rising fifth grader in a dual language (Spanish) program. He loves Pokémon, basketball, and football, and his goal is to travel around the world and one day live in Copenhagen, Denmark. They shared their experience spending their summer traveling through many of our national parks, made possible by Eli’s Fourth Grade Park Pass.
Hi, I’m Eli and 10.5 years old and live in Long Island City (Queens), NY! I just graduated from 4th grade. I have a younger brother Eisa who is seven years old and just finished 2nd grade. This past year was tough as we were doing remote learning and mostly had to stay indoors. I couldn’t wait for this year to be over and for summer to start. Our family of four loves to travel together and my Dida (Dad) is always looking for our next adventure! It’s kind of cool that my parents have tried to incorporate our interests when planning our trips. One year I was learning about the Dead Sea and really wanted to see it so we went to Jordan. Both my brother and I are obsessed with Pokémon and that inspired our trip to Japan. Unfortunately, that trip couldn’t happen due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This year I had been asking my parents to do some trips within the United States since I hadn’t really seen much of the USA. Enough about me, let me pass it on to my Ammi (Mom)…
This summer we decided to explore different national parks and I called it our summer theme. I even found this perfect t-shirt for the boys to wear. Eli rolled his eyes but I knew he was excited about our vacation!
Our trip was inspired by Eli’s Dida wanting to run a half marathon in Montana (Glacier National Park). We decided to do a road trip from there and started planning the itinerary. It seemed like everything was coming together nicely. Eli had been learning about different national parks in his class so was excited to add some to our itinerary.
He was very excited about going to Washington not only because he likes the Seattle Seahawks but because of Mount Rainier! Back to Eli now…
When we got to Mount Rainier I remember it being really hot outside (we were there during the heat wave!) but there was still a lot of snow on the trails and the mountain!! That was something I never experienced before. It was kind of crazy wearing shorts while hiking up in snow. Unfortunately, some of the trails were closed off because of the snow so my family and I did a two mile hike on the Skyline Trail. When we got to the top Eisa and I had a snowball fight!! I have to admit that I complained a bit during the hike because it was so hot but once I got to the top I threw snow on my face and felt refreshed! It was definitely worth it!! Back to Ammi now…
As Eli said, our family loves to travel and in 2019 we started having the boys document their travels in a journal. Eli loves taking pictures with his Fuji film camera which takes instant photos. He then puts them in his journal and writes a description of each picture. As a Mom, it feels like a win-win as it helps him practice his writing skills during the summer without complaining!
We found out about this pass when it was mentioned on a Facebook travel group and then with a quick Google search we learned more about it and were very excited to use it during our summer of national parks adventures! Eli was super excited when the ranger at Mount Rainier asked for his signature for the pass. From the smile on his face you could sense his pride and sense of ownership. He also made sure to remind us that it was because of him we were able to get into the parks for free! My rising 3rd grader can’t wait until it’s his turn for the pass.
To my fellow traveling families – if you have a 4th grader you must take advantage of this pass.
Eli and I would like to say thank you for reading our blog and learning about our family’s love for traveling. Mount Rainier was an exciting and great experience and we can’t wait to visit again! Just hopefully not during a heatwave!
The Every Kid Outdoors program is a great way for families to experience our national parks, providing fourth grade students with free entrance to public lands. To learn how to get your pass, visit the Every Kid Outdoors website (everykidoutdoors.gov). The voucher or pass grants free entry for fourth graders, all children under 16 in the group and up to three accompanying adults (or an entire car for drive-in parks). You can find more details about this and other national park passes at nps.gov/planyourvisit/passes.