Montana was great. We went fly fishing every night in the stream right by our sod house (an entire post on that later!).
Me taking a break from said fly fishing with my mom.
Mom: who caught more fish than than the rest of us combined.
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My favorite part of travel is the ephemera — ticket stubs, postcards, bits of maps, gum wrappers, sugar packets — all the little things about another culture that showcase how different or how similar it is to one’s own. However, I’ve never really come up with a good way to organize it all. I blogged here about a great way to showcase it in one’s home, but, I LOVE this journal from Anne over at Pret a Voyager. She details her chic philosophy on travel journals here and also links to some other beautiful journals that offer lots of inspiration on how to create a journal that reflects you and your trip.
[Our silhouette on the wall of Olafur Eliasson's I only see things when they move. 2004. at MOMA]
Tim and I took a week’s vacation last week. After a frantic few weeks of trying to drum up a Big Plan (see earlier posts on Italy, South Africa, etc.), we decided instead to take a “staycation” (a dreadful but useful new entry in the popular lexicon) in New York to explore this wonderful city we call home. Over the past few years we’ve amassed a huge list of things we want to do in New York — restaurants, museums, stores, experiences saved for someday later. To plan our staycation, we pulled out the list and started working our way through it. We covered a lot of ground in a week, but still barely scratched the surface of all the things we want to do. Herein, a sampling of our adventures…
I just finished reading Julia Child’s autobiography My Life In France. It is a love story, an ode to France and a tale of someone finding their passion later in life (she was 37 when she first started cooking French food!). In this age of precocious talent (American Idol finalists at age 17, people writing best selling novels at age 23 or starting hedge funds that make millions by 25 etc etc) I think it is easy to forget that you can be successful at any age, and make a change in your life at any time.
And, of course, if you love France, the book is a love poem to France, Paris, French culture, so it’s doubly delicious. In one section of the book, they go to the French Riviera, and I couldn’t resist posting this hotel there, the Miramar Beach Hotel.
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A project took hours longer today than I planned….I’m aching from sitting at my computer for 7 hours.
I’d much rather be here… in South Africa, in a treehouse bedroom, at sunset, with delicious wine and my husband.
I’m reaching the bitter end of the term. One more deadline this Friday and then I’m wrapping up for the summer! We’re taking a week off before diving into summer work and I’m trying to figure out a relatively easy-to-get-to getaway weekend within driving distance (so… NY, CT, MA, VT, NH). The bonus: Last Christmas Tim’s parents gave us three free nights at the bed and breakfast of our choice through bedandbreakfast.com, which offers some 6,000 bed and breakfasts as part of its network.
New Yorkers: What are your favorite get-aways? Any suggestions upstate?
The place I really need recommendations for is Flordia — I’d love to go someplace relatively untouristy and beachy — the Keys? I’ve never been, so have no idea what parts are more authentic than others. Your suggestions are much appreciated!
Right now I’m considering:
Squam Lake Inn, Holderness NH (Our wedding party stayed here (we were married in Holderness).
Veranda Inn, Nantucket MA (Looks cleanly designed and nice — I hate the chintz-grandma factor of b&bs)
A Little Inn on Plesant Bay, Orleans MA (We were lucky enough to go last summer with Tim’s family and it was just perfect. Doesn’t the Cape and beach sound nice?)
Adams Inn, Washington, DC (we have friends who we’d love to see in DC and I could go museum crazy)
Of course, NH will be on the cool side at the end of May, but Orleans could be nice. Side note: Is anyone else sort of drowning in random (but nice to have gift cards)? I’m in gift card overload (from our wedding, which was two years ago) and have made it my summer resolution to use them all up since I had a scary moment where I thought I’d lost what amounts to almost $2,000 of wedding gift related credit at a variety of stores by misplacing the whole stack. This will not do.
Come on, let’s go! I spied this lovely on Absolutely Beautiful Things, which always raises my spirits. I particularly like the wisteria growing on the porch. The house were I grew up had wisteria just like this. I used to babysit three of the sweetest kids in the world who lived in a tiny cottage about the size of this one.
How lovely does this outdoor garden look? Damn the exchange rate.
Happy Monday!
I recieved a lovely email from a reader over the weekend raving about mokki cottages and she even sent a picture of her parents’ mokki:
She writes:
I grew up in Finland and I have spent so many wonderful summer days and endless midsummer nights near a lake or bay enjoying the peace and quiet of a mokki! It is something extraordinary; to give up electricity and many times running water, to spend a weekend or even a week far away from the busy modern life.
I have to say that ‘endless midsummer nights’ sound pretty wonderful to me. Thanks for sharing Minna! Any other cottages out there you’d like to share, dear readers?
