Category: travel
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On fall travel
I’m in the process of preparing for our next international trip, which means I’m eating, sleeping and breathing Vienna. Mozart. Klimt. Schnitzel. Strudel! Suffice to say, I truly relish preparing for a trip. I plan out every detail — how we’ll get from the airport, what museums we’ll see, where we’ll have lunch and what…
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Have a cozy weekend
The sky is overcast, the trees are ablaze with color and I’m craving my favorite bowl of chili. I didn’t realize how much I love autumn until I moved to Switzerland. That’s one thing Southern California just doesn’t get right. I may be wishing for California sunshine the rest of the year, but not…
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On wholeness
Coming off of an awe-inspiring weekend in Grindelwald, I entered a week that felt heavy with unsolvable problems (the fires in Northern California, to name one). Yet the older I get, the more comfortable I have become with “heaviness” being a part of life. I don’t intend for that to come off maudlin. I…
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Quintessential Switzerland: Grindelwald
Three years ago today my husband and I got on a plane to begin a new life Switzerland. An experiment we’d try for a year, we said. Don’t pack too much, we said. Don’t get too comfortable, we cautioned. We’ll have our fill of adventure and be back before we know it. Yet, here…
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The importance of the unexpected
While reading a New York Times article this weekend on “How to Bring your vacation home with you,” one thought struck a chord with me: …Research seems to support the idea that the best way to maximize the benefits of your vacation is to take shorter and more frequent breaks. Perhaps. But my personal…
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On how to win an argument in Switzerland
While waiting in line at the bakery this weekend I witnessed one of the rarest creatures in this country: A public disagreement. It’s the second one I’ve seen in my nearly three years of living in Switzerland and the two were eerily similar. They both involved the unspoken rules of waiting in a queue.…
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On making family travel traditions
I can’t stop thinking about an article I read in the New York Times in which editor Wendall Jamieson discusses why he knowingly went into debt to provide his children with memorable, international vacations before they went to college. Here’s an excerpt: I’m writing this now because that trip to Japan, in April of…
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Small town vacation: Beaufort, N.C.
Life is slow in Beaufort, North Carolina. Syrup-y slow. Rocking-chair-, sipping-iced-tea-, watching-the-sunset-slow. Which is a good thing because it gives you a chance to notice all of the charm packed into this small town at the southern end of North Carolina’s Outer Banks. My family’s been vacationing here for more than a decade, so we’ve…
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Travel style: Planner or last-minute?
Things got heated last night between my husband and me as we discussed what should be the happiest of topics: Future travel destinations. We don’t disagree about the location, lodging or budget; we disagree over the timing. Whereas I’d like to plan an international journey at least one month out (at minimum..because really I could…
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Have you ever experienced travel burnout?
You’re probably thinking “first world problems,” right? Well, I’m not talking about being sick of flying or going to Paris or seeing new, exciting things. I’m talking about actually getting sick after traveling just too much. We returned to Switzerland on Thursday after a one-month stay in the United States. We weren’t visiting new places…
Paige Langton 