A Weekend in the Mountains

There is nothing like a quick getaway to refresh your spirit. Even if the white mountains were missing snow, it didn't make it any less magical. To add to it, the little was just so wonderful. He was literally a joy. He hammed it up at every restaurant, shop and locale we visited. Check out some pictures after the jump!

We Are Going To LONDON TOWN!

Yep. I can't EVEN with the excitement. 

After very little deliberation the husband and I have decided on our big trip for 2016. It will be London. And possibly Cornwall. Bude, specifically. 

This will be our very first experience travelling abroad with the little. Over the next couple of weeks I will share our booking process with you. We are using a newly discovered website for booking our lodging. It's called Kid & Coe. They have vacation rentals designed for families!! Check out some of the pics below from the properties.

KID & COE

Please share all of the tips you can think of!! We will have an 18 month old in tow so some kid friendly activities are a must.

xx

A 70th Birthday Outing at Longfellow's Wayside Inn

Care for a Coow Woow anyone?

If you are so inclined, you can swing by Longfellow's Wayside Inn and try one. It's allegedly the first ever mixed drink! Think white rum and brandy - it packs a major punch.  

My mother chose Longfellow's Wayside Inn as the celebration spot for the big seven-zero. It is the country's oldest operating inn and the grounds have a chapel, barn, old school house and grist mill. It made for a pretty wonderful early summer day. 

Vacation Style: Martha's Vineyard

It's almost upon us! Summer is almost here. 

Thank. The. Heavens.

Fruity drinks, salty air, rooftop decks, endless nights and... new outfits, of course! And you know what that means? My very first vacation style guide of summer 2014. I will start with my absolute favorite place to vacation in all of New England: Martha's Vineyard. 

Growing up my family and me would spend two awesome weeks in the Vineyard every single summer. Mom and Pop would rent a vacation house and cram as many people in as possible. Some of my absolute favorite memories come from those weeks in the Vineyard. The atmosphere is laid back, beachy and very New England - think the Kennedy's and your favorite granola-ish farmer's market combined. 

Here are my top 5 things to do and places to see:

1. Grab an ice cream at Mad Martha's!!! I saw Jacqueline Kennedy there once...AND.. Mr. M proposed to me right outside the Vineyard Haven location!

2. Take a dip in South Beach. I always spot seals right offshore. Careful of the waves, though. I had a tragic bikini loss incident there a few years back. 

3. Grab a bus out to Aquinnah and take gander at the nudies. Yep - you heard me right. Martha's Vineyard has one of the only nude beaches left in the country! Oh, and also check out the clay cliffs. They are pretty spectacular.   

4. Watch the very first JAWS film...and then go to the beach at night. I dare you. Did you know JAWS was filmed there? It was! You can even see the JAWS house where the captain lived on the road from Oak Bluffs to Edgartown.

5. Take a ride on the Oak Bluffs Flying Horses Carousel. I spent more hours riding around on this carousel than i'd like to admit. By the end of the second vacation week, I was a gold ring professional. 

Cheers to a summer filled of fashion, fun and love.

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Travel Diary: Kaua'i

This past weekend I took a day trip up to the beautiful coast of Maine to enjoy the early summer weather with my husband and my parents. As we crossed into Cape Neddick we stopped for a late lunch at a small restaurant that hugged the very edge of a salt water marsh. We perched ourselves on the roof deck and, as we sat under the sun and felt the cool, salty ocean breeze on our skin; my husband and I began to talk about our recent trip to Hawaii. That discussion lead to further conversation about all the places I'd love to visit. Places like Thailand, Argentina, Peru, Brazil and Italy. Places like Mexico, South Africa and New Zealand! My mother interrupted, as she typically does, and said "In your entire life, I have never heard you speak about anything as passionately as you do about travel. I think it might be the only thing you actually love". As I was brushing off the typical complimentary-insult I get from her, she began to tell a story about my childhood. According to her, when I was about seven years old my parents took me to the top of the Skylon Tower in Niagara Falls. And, at the top, as we ate dinner in this great big revolving pod, I pushed my face against the glass and said "My gosh. Look how beautiful. I love to travel. I can't wait to see the world". 

Well, she may be right. Travelling is like a love story. And I do love a great love story. Our conversation made me recall one my my favorite quotes in a book. The book is Eat, Pray, Love and the author is, of course, Elizabeth Gilbert:

"Traveling is the great true love of my life... I am loyal and constant in my love of travel. I feel about travel the way a happy new mother feels about her impossible, colicky, restless newborn baby - I just don't care what it puts me through. Because I adore it. Because it's mine. Because it looks exactly like me."

To this very moment I identify so much with that passage and seven year old awe-struck Mimi spills out everywhere. That is how I felt in Kaua'i. That is how I felt as I held tightly to the catamaran railings as we bounced up and down in the small waves,  rounded the mountains and glimpsed the wild, rugged and beautiful Nepali coast for the very first time. It's in those moments where I feel truly at home. 

Where & Wear: Hilton Head

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