The Johnslingtons

No, I didn’t run around the world. But I did go for runs in lots of places as we circumnavigated, and I wanted to write about that a little bit. Bringing my running stuff was a relatively late decision, made a couple of weeks before we left. I’d never brought my gear with me on… Continue reading A Run ‘Round The World

While we would have preferred to travel the world largely by plane and train, there were quite a lot of places we wanted to see (and people we wanted to visit!) that required driving. And so we ended up renting a lot of cars (and one very memorable campervan). We tasked Fiona with naming them… Continue reading Car Me by Your Name

And then, both at long last and far too soon, exactly five months and one day after we left San Francisco for this crazy around-the-world adventure, we were packing up our bags and heading to Burlington airport for the final flight of our trip. We were going home. I felt a lot of feelings about… Continue reading The Home Stretch

New England in the late summer is a cornucopia of deliciousness! Here’s what we loved: New England, we (and our tummies) love you.

It’s no secret that I love hiking – it’s my favorite vacation activity, beats (for me) meditation, and is usually when Julie and I have our best conversations. We’d done a good number of hikes on this trip – up huge mountains, along bluffs, through rolling hills and country lanes… In Vermont we did one… Continue reading Long-Ago Memories on the Long Trail

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