somewhere that feels like “home”
As I stepped into the hotel breakfast Saturday morning, I knew I was home. Not my real home of course, but a place that was absolutely familiar to me. A place I love and I miss. France. Having traveled to France more than a dozen times now, I still very much don’t belong here. I
local isn’t all that great
For me, at least. Yes, I love connecting with my neighbors. Volunteering locally. Being a pedestrian. Buying locally. But I get lost when I am local. Backwards right? I don’t get lost in a physical sense; I’ve lived in the county for 16 years. I generally have a good sense of where I’m headed —
not trip planning
For the first time in what seems like forever, I am not in trip-planning mode. I’m not studying maps. I’m not searching for what I want to do while “there”. I’m not looking into lodging. Camille finishes classes next week; Chloe finishes school the week after. And, because of finances/vacation being drained by our trip
Mondays are for Dreaming: Coney Island
This week’s Monday Dream is once again not my dream but more my daughter Chloe’s dream. Though I admit, this is one that, in some aspects, has much more appeal to me than returning to Disney once again. Chloe’s dream is to move to Brooklyn. Brooklyn! A strange choice for an eight year old born,
Mondays are for Dreaming: VW Poptop
Oh yeah. I’ve dreamed about this since I was four years old. I knew very little about the world, but I knew I had to have a “pop-pop” (according to my mother). My parents disappointed me; they bought a VW van — a plain one, no popping involved. In that van, we took a long
Mondays are for Dreaming: Paris
How clichรฉ can you get? But yes, today I dream of Paris. It is hard to believe that a year and a half has passed since my last trip to the City of Light. As a child/teen, I visited Paris twice and thought I was the luckiest kid ever. Fresh out of grad school, I
Mondays are for Dreaming: (The Wonderful World of) Disney
Ah Disney. Every family dreams of heading to Disney. Or not. I personally don’t dream of Disney. But my kids sure do…almost as much as they dream of going back to The Wizarding World of Harry Potter. It’s not that they’ve never been to Disney. Truth be told, they’ve been to Disney on three continents.
Mondays are for Dreaming: Wild West
I dream of not only showing my children the world, but also our country. We’ve made many a road trip here in the US, but not the big iconic one….the weeks long journey “out west”. My parents took me and my sister on such a journey when we were both young. Rob and I went
best of both worlds
As we sit here in the hotel in New Orleans (it is pouring at the moment and we are waiting for my mom to get back from her conference reception), the girls are zoning out to Hannah Montana and I’m looking through photos form our past few weeks. Two weekends ago we were at the
Mondays are for Dreaming: Civilized Air Travel
Sitting in the Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood Airport, having just had my first TSA pat-down, I can’t help but dream of the days of civilized air travel. As we traveled through Turkey this summer, I was struck by how uncivilized the whole process has become here in the US. As we enter an American airport, I have
Mondays are for Dreaming: Home!
So often am I dreaming of trips we have taken or trips I want to take, that I forget to live in the moment and cherish the sweet little hamlet we call home! As I had written in a previous Monday Dream (White Christmas), I was dreaming of snow. And snow we have. Not because
Mondays are for Dreaming: Planning for 2011
Yesterday, as I reviewed our travels from 2010, I was amazed at all the places, new and old, that we visited in one year, and I realized that a simple goal of “travel more in 2011” is neither realistic nor practical. In 2010, I dusted off this old blog, spent time cleaning it up and
Mondays are for Dreaming: Knowing When to Divert the Flow
As I sit here, watching the sun rise over the Atlantic Ocean, I am having a difficult time dreaming of being anywhere else at the moment. Despite the frigid temperatures, the beach is still the place I dream of the most. I love visiting and learning about other places, of course, but the beach is
Mondays are for Dreaming: Pont du Gard
“Mommy, the Romans didn’t have train tracks, right?” “No.” “Okay, but they did have bridges, right?” “Yes, remember the big one we went to in France?” “Not really.” Quick internet search for photo. “Oh, yeah, I remember that place!” (Whew.) Between this exchange, which happened two minutes ago, and having recently read Great Kid Trip
Mondays are for Dreaming: Hakone, Japan
When I woke this morning, I was not dreaming of Japan. But, as I sipped coffee and read the news this morning, this article from the Washington Post jumped out at me: Going Our Way: A plan for first-timers in Japan. Curious as to what they might suggest, I was thrilled to see that Hakone
Mondays are for Dreaming: White Christmas
The holiday season is in full swing here in our little hamlet of Pine Lake. This past weekend, we celebrated with our Pancake Breakfast with Santa, Cookie Exchange and Lighting of the Lake. Our house is decked with a tree, lights and pine rope. Holly, the contemporary Sirius/XM holiday music station is almost always turned
Mondays are for Dreaming: The Beach
This Monday I’m dreaming of the beach. I’m disappointed in myself for dreaming of the beach…can’t I come up with something more exciting? But no, when I imagine myself going somewhere this week, it’s the beach. As for which beach, I’m actually not all that picky. Sure, I’d like it to be clean and fairly
Mondays Are For Dreaming: A Wall Walk
Back in the summer of 2006, we spent a couple of weeks in Scotland, combining vacation with a business trip of my husband’s. During our week in Edinburgh, where we loved our self-catering apartment whose kitchen window looked out (up to) Edinburgh Castle, the girls and I took one day to make a crazy journey
wanderlust
i am so torn. I love our little Pine Lake hamlet. We’ve spent the past month exploring the new wetlands, watching the ducklings grow. We’ve watched the change of seasons from winter into spring into summer. We’ve celebrated and mourned with our neighbors. I love our city. But I’m ready to go…. And go we
Thursday Thirteen
My friend Kat over at Sunshine and Lemonade posted a list of thriteen places she’d like to go. My thirteen is a little different from hers. I’d say that her lists includes quite a few places that I’d like to take my kids (Colonial Williamsburg, Yellowstone), but only one or two places that I have
GBK Gwyneth
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