Posts Categorized: Travel

Maine-Style Fish Chowder

When we were in Maine a few weeks ago, we road-tripped to Damariscotta, a picture-perfect town on the Damariscotta River famous for its pristine, hearty oysters. It’s one of those small towns that seemed to have every business necessary to live the good life as a food lover — a butcher-gourmet store, a seafood market, a robust used bookstore, an… Read more »

Pan-Fried Fish with Smoky Brown Butter

Well, I finally did what I’ve been threatening to do since February’s London visit: I recreated the fish we ate at Noble Rot, that cozy black-wood-paneled restaurant on charming Lambs Conduit street in Bloomsbury that I still haven’t shut up about. We ate some pretty amazing food in London, but I think the fish we ate at Noble Rot is the… Read more »

Where I Eat and Food-Shop in Westchester

[First posted 2016; Updated July 2022] Forgive me broader readership, I’m going super local today. Many of you probably know that I live in Westchester County, which borders New York City to the north and is flanked by the sailboat-dotted Long Island Sound to the East and the mighty Hudson River to the West. With the exception of college in… Read more »

6 Mini New York Itineraries

Last week, one of my daughter’s college friends was visiting New York for the first time and asked if we had any suggestions for what to do and see and eat over the course of a single weekend. It was fun (if overwhelming) to think about, and reminded me of a loose formula I used when the girls were young and we’d… Read more »

A Long Weekend in Vermont

Wow it’s been a while since I wrote a travel post. That might be one of the reasons why this recent long weekend in Vermont was so memorable — I think because I’ve been holed up in my dining room staring at a screen for an unhealthy amount of hours all day every day, I was so appreciative of even… Read more »

Maine: Where We Ate in and Around Acadia

Greetings, Everyone! We’ve just returned from Maine where we spent eight days in and around Acadia National Park and Mount Desert Island (MDI). Almost every single one of those days was postcard-perfect weather, which we decided to accept as the universe evening the score for 2020 in general. Since we were coming from New York, which has a “similar or… Read more »

Vacation Highlight Reel: Death Valley

Over holiday break, we traveled to Death Valley National Park in California. Why, You might ask, if you are like everyone else we know? To be honest, even though it’s a place that’s always fascinated us (IT’S CALLED DEATH VALLEY) we ended up there mostly because we were late with the planning, and the flights to Las Vegas (the closest… Read more »

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 »

The Big Trip: Sicily

I don’t think it’s a coincidence that for the past few years, right around this time in January — just after the holidays, when the cold is burrowing deep into our bones and our next vacation feels far far away — is when we sit at the kitchen table, four laptops open to google maps, calendars, camp websites and Orbitz,… Read more »

Vacation Highlight Reel: Austin

Traveling with teenagers is different than traveling with young kids, but one thing that never changes is that feeling you get when their reaction to experiencing a city or an adventure for the first time is exactly what you had hoped it would be. The first time I went to Austin — maybe five years ago — I remember wandering… Read more »

Vacation Highlight Reel: Rome

This past August, my family was lucky enough to travel to Rome and Sicily, a dream vacation that checked all the boxes: Culture, coastlines, family roots, and carbs. So very many carbs! Today’s highlight reel is an attempt to capture Part 1 of the trip, three-and-a-half days in Rome. Part 2 was Sicily. If you are going to Rome, there is… Read more »

The Rivertown Public Market

I wanted to take a second to tell you about something cool happening in my hood. You are looking at a photo of the Dobbs Ferry Waterfront Park, located on the Hudson River, about 20 miles north of New York City. It has been the site of many things in my life: A place to take the kids for a… Read more »

Bringing Italy Home

Forgive the radio silence over on my end. Those of you who follow me on instagram likely know by now that we are traveling in Italy (Sicily via Rome) and eating our weight in pasta, gelato, and pizza everyday. It’s the trip of a lifetime, and I know I say that every time we travel, but what can I say?… Read more »

72 Hours in Seattle

Hi, it’s Abby. My mom asked me to write an introduction for this post about our last-minute trip to Seattle a few weeks ago. I was invited to play in a soccer tournament there and this one was different than most because there was only one game a day, which means there was plenty of down time to explore a… Read more »

Friday Eating & Reading

Last week, we used a Western Mass camp drop-off as an excuse to explore the Catskills (right across the MA/NY border) and had the nicest 48-hour mini vacation. Scribner’s Catskill Lodge was our home base and if you’re local, I can’t recommend it highly enough. (Ask about their mid-week discounts if you can swing mid-week.) Read of the week: How… Read more »

Why I Love Home Swaps, London Edition

I am so pleased to introduce today’s guest-poster, friend and novelist Sonya Terjanian, author of, most recently, The Runaways. Her book follows the dovetailing stories of a teenage girl and a middle-age mother of two, both of whom find themselves at crossroads and decide to indulge their instincts to escape unfulfilled everyday lives. Most of the action (often harrowing, page-turning action)… Read more »

Where We Eat in Charleston, SC

I know! This post is a long time coming! First, allow me to be the millionth person to tell you that Charleston, South Carolina is now one of the biggest restaurant destinations in America. As most of you know by now, we are New Yorkers who spend a week or two a year on Kiawah Island, about 25 miles outside… Read more »

48 Hours in Montreal

A few weekends ago, Andy and I took a 55-minute flight from New York to Montreal to celebrate our 20th anniversary. I had never been, and we were only going for 48 hours, so we had some crucial decisions to make, especially as those decisions related to eating and drinking. There is only so much one can consume over the… Read more »