The Johnslingtons

My sister Merin moved to Vermont for grad school in 1999 and never (really) left. She meant to, but a few months shy of wrapping up her master’s at UVM and moving back to California like she planned, she met a sweet Irish guy in a bar downtown. They started dating, she graduated and moved… Continue reading The Greatest Hits of Greater Burlington, VT

After the disappointment of Plymouth, we hoped to brighten our spirits with the next destination on our New England journey: Amherst. But first! A stop for lunch at the Framingham home of Dan’s high-school-marching-band buddy Erin. We spent several thoroughly enjoyable hours there catching up with Erin, a talented author, teacher and all-around lovely person,… Continue reading A Mellow Mini-Break in Amherst

Here’s a game. Complete this phrase: “The Pilgrims landed at [insert place here].” Plymouth Rock. Right? And when you think of Plymouth Rock (no Googling, people!), your mental image is probably something like a windswept, craggy shore featuring a historic-looking rock big enough to moor a boat full of Pilgrims to, right? That’s what we… Continue reading The Rock Is…

I met Lindsay six years ago in prenatal yoga, where we bonded over our relatively low-key approach to pregnancy and both having husbands named Dan. In the time since our daughters were born three weeks apart, she’s become one of my favorite friends. Fiona and Rylan play almost miraculously well together, and our families always… Continue reading All up in New England

After spending such a long time abroad, it was perhaps inevitable that re-entry into our home country would be a little rocky. But “a little rocky” is a generous term for the absolute disaster that was our travel day from Ponta Delgada to Boston. Now, right up front here, I’m going to accept some responsibility… Continue reading Coming to America

While our last stops in Europe were emotionally bittersweet (so many feelings about going back to the States!), they were also gustatorily triumphant. We alluded before to Portugal’s sometimes perplexing nature, but on this second trip through we kinda nailed it. And… we nailed the food, too. Most of what we consumed was real, real… Continue reading Lisbon and the Azores – The Best Stuff We Ate

Fiona’s last stop in Europe was a country we’d already been to on this trip—Portugal! But this time, we explored two new destinations: the capital city, Lisbon, and an archipelago (group of islands) called the Azores. Lisbon is a really cool city that’s actually a lot like San Francisco. It’s on the water, it’s super… Continue reading Where in the World is Fiona? Portugal! (Again!)

Back in May, we were trying to figure out the most intelligent and efficient way to come home. We knew we were going to be coming from the south of France, we knew we were going to land on the East coast, and we knew knew we still wanted to check out Lisbon. Looking at… Continue reading Awed by the Azores

I didn’t want to like Lisbon. Not because Lisbon had ever done anything to offend me, or that I had ever been beaten up by a gang of roving Lisbonians (Lisbonans? Lisbans? Lisbonaires?). My issue was that everyone loves Lisbon. Whenever we mentioned that we were going to Lisbon, we heard: “Lisbon? Oh, it’s so… Continue reading A Lovely Layover in Lisbon

France, right? Birthplace of haute cuisine. Michelin star central. The inventors of so many classic cooking techniques and recipes, you could spend months there, just eating. Us? Well, we were not particularly aggressive – in two weeks, we had just one bistro meal. It was good, though. Anyway, here’s what stood out: Croissants and donuts… Continue reading France – The Best Stuff We Ate