Year: 2013

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Charleston2013-9832

Charleston, SC

Just as frost was reaching Brooklyn, our plane bounced through the humid, Southern skies into Charleston for a quick weekend look at a city I've long wanted to see. As we drove to our hotel Friday night,I'd already happily concluded this wasn't really a city. Charleston (pop: just over 125,000) felt more like a quaint small town. The walk to dinner in the warm evening mist started to relax the Northern tenseness out of me--and the crispy cornbread did the rest. Saturday morning brought one of my…

Pumpkinseed Hill-9230

Pumpkinseed Hill

My nose was itching for some leaf must and my feet for their crunch, so last weekend, Walker drove me up to my second cousin's spectacularly refreshing and beautiful pumpkin farm in Connecticut. We stepped out of the car onto the gravel slope and the rich smell of autumn--earthly, dry, and cold--made the drive worth it all instantly. And then, there was this: Buzzing with rich fall colors, over 50 varieties of winter squash and pumpkins, and themed after the Wild West, there was a lot to do, an…

Maui2013_Red Sand-8618

Maui 3: Red Sand Beach

Last trip to Maui, I didn't plan ahead. Walk had been to Maui, and all his suggestions were perfect for our relaxing honeymoon. This time? I borrowed books from the library, read blogs, and stocked up on ideas. One of the best suggestions was visiting the Black Sand Beach (more coming in another post) and the Red Sand Beach. It seems the island doesn't want visitors on this beach, but we finally figured out the path, which went through the unmarked lawn of a community center, then through some …

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Maui 2: Exotic Fruit Tales

Leave it us to find a farm through a farmer's market, and then drive around the backside of the mountain to find it. But hey-ho, was it worth it. One of the best parts of the island were my morning papaya acai bowls, the deep green juices, and this: the sugary mangos and funky tastes of this exotic farm. Welcome to Ono Organic Fruit Farm. We arrived late to our tour, but the spread was still out for us. We started with four varieties of bananas, including the Apple Banana, and my favorite, the …

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Milky Way from Maui

Just a quick little moment to exhale here. This was the glory from the Maui beach at night. Wherever you are, find a star tonight, and hold onto that glimpse of the wild unknown. p.s. Photo credit, as always, to my in-house profesh camera man. He's amazing.…

Maui2013_Lanai-7440

Maui: Part 1

I've been shamefully slow, I know, at posting here. The mash between summer and fall is right now, with busy work schedules, New Yorkers shamelessly wearing boots and jackets in 70 degree weather, and the beginning of local apples' appearance. But a few weeks ago we were blissfully away from it all in Maui. All these photos were taken from our lanai, which incidentally overlooked the smaller islands of Molokai and Lanai. Being jetlagged backwards is great--we woke up for the sunrise over the i…

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4 Things Fast

This summer was mercifully a little cooler than past summers, and we had so many beautiful moments, and not enough time to tell you about them. Here are four summer moments--instants of a full, fun few months. Fallen, damp petals at Brooklyn Botanical Garden This baby--so anticipated, so loved. Her dad came in from Afghanistan four hours before she came. Music from our roof. Summer nights thrown over the city. Happy fall, and good night!…

Lanai-6

The best.

Like three years ago, we woke again each morning to the sound of fast, tall waves. We walked, we made no plans, we breathed and watched the horizon, something we can never find in New York. There was a calm of belonging. For three years we've been together, three years since we started celebrating instants here. So much, so much has happened, and yet tonight, I don't want all the big things to out-shout the little, daily treats: a post-it in the medicine cabinet, his hands on my back welcoming m…

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Jackfruit

While we're working on editing up pictures of the pink Maui sunset, I thought I'd share something fun. Discovering new foods is my version of retail therapy. Enter the Jackfruit. The morning after we landed in balmy Maui, we ambled down to the farmer's market (ok, I basically ran), and oh oh oh the produce. We left with bags bulging with candy-like mangos, a machete-hacked coconut, Surfing Goats' Farm goat cheese, a wheatgrass shot, and the soft, dino-skinned Jackfruit. It sat in the fridge a …

Ireland2013-6422

Ireland | Part 3

The smell of peat. I first glimpsed it in a whiskey distillery 4 years ago. Burned, dark, the odor of pure earth. I still don't understand how chunks of earth can be cut out of the ground and burned, but so it is. That was the smell of our beach holiday in Ireland. We drove to the west coast and slowly off pavement, to gravel, to grassy gravel, to a near field, when we ended up in the middle of some flowers on the seacliffs. The winds pulled us out of the car into the house, where we cooked and …