Posts Tagged: vacation highlight reel

Vacation Highlight Reel: Switzerland

You would be forgiven if you looked at this picture and didn’t believe it was real. Today, a little over a month after my family has returned from a vacation in Switzerland, I’m wondering if it was all a dream myself. Before we left, a lot of people asked us why we decided on Switzerland, specifically the Bernese Oberland, and… Read more »

Vacation Highlight Reel: Sweet Virginia

It’s funny to see “Virginia” in my Vacation Highlight Reel category, because Andy grew up there and I’ve been visiting his parents for long weekends and holidays since 1994, when we were newly dating college kids wearing Doc Martens (him) and oversized DKNY sweaters (me). But Andy’s from Northern Virginia, which, he always tells me, is really a DC suburb, and not what real… Read more »

36 Hours in (and Around) Portland, Maine

In his Bon Appetit column this month, dessert guru and Superiority Burger founder, Brooks Headley coined a phrase that I can’t stop thinking about: Good Anxiety. “The impermanence of seasonal produce is one of the joys of cooking,” he wrote. “It gets the blood pumping. It triggers the good anxiety.” It’s exactly the sentiment I experience when I wander the… Read more »

Vacation Highlight Reel: Miami

 So remember all that stuff I wrote about how much we love staying in rentals or Airbnbs when we travel? How, that way, we get to really immerse ourselves in our new environment and are more apt to explore markets and neighborhoods and discover real local flavor? Well, I take it all back — at least for now, while I’m… Read more »

Vacation Highlight Reel: Amsterdam

Back in my magazine editor days I worked on a travel essay about Amsterdam. My girls were young at that point — probably four and five — and I remember the writer talking about what an impression the city made on her when she was a kid. That it was magical, that it was like living inside a dollhouse, and… Read more »

The No-Restaurant Vacation

Back in the day – that is, before we had kids – we took our vacation eats very seriously. We’d start booking tables within minutes of reserving our flights. We’d procure a copy of a magical thing called “The Zagat Guide,” and we’d begin plotting our sight-seeing itinerary around the places that served the most authentic migas/coffee/minestrone/cassoulet/lobster rolls/etc. From a… Read more »

Vacation Dinner Highlight Reel

I can’t promise you this will be a very usable guide to exciting eating. As you know, on vacation, you can toast a pop tart for dinner and it will make you as happy as a four-course meal at Cafe Boulud. (In fact, maybe we’ll try that tonight.) But, as you can imagine, we are getting seriously into our South… Read more »