Friday The weather was quite nice on Friday evening, so we walked to the Charlestown neighborhood. Along the way we walked through several parks and enjoyed the spring flowers. After dinner we...
Blog posts from USA Travel
Boston, April 2025: food & drink
Friday We wanted to check out Charlestown, and Blackmoor Bar and Kitchen looked like a good starting point on the edge of the neighborhood. They were busy with several large groups, but we found two...
Boston, April 2025: overview & where we stayed
In October we saw that a band we really like (Snow Patrol) was going to tour North America in 2025. They weren't playing anywhere in NC, so we looked through the available options. Boston looked...
Richmond, March 2025
We had two free night certificates expiring at the end of March that prompted a quick trip to Richmond, Virginia. Instead of using both nights we invited our friends to go with us. Altogether we...
Street art and sculpture in Miami
On our return to the US after two weeks in Argentina we had a day in Miami to explore some art and visit with friends. We were supposed to land at 5am(!) but our flight was delayed almost two hours,...
Weekend in Florida: St. Pete street art
We last explored the murals of downtown St. Pete in 2022, so before this trip, I checked out the Shine Mural Festival website and added a bunch of new and unseen murals to our Google map. Below are...
Weekend in Florida: food and drink
Restaurants I really wanted a Cuban sandwich so the first stop after getting our rental car was West Tampa Sandwich Shop. We each got the 'regular' size which was plenty. I got the honey (Obama...
Weekend in Florida: a bird sanctuary, beaches and nature parks
To pass some time between lunch and when we could check into our apartment, we stopped at Weedon Island Preserve and walked the boardwalks to a few overlooks. Didn't see a lot of wildlife or birds...
Weekend in Florida: overview and where we stayed
For years we have been taking a trip to Florida's Gulf Coast area in the January / February time frame to visit family, usually driving and staying for 1-2 weeks. This time we found some good...
2024 Year in Review
Previous years-in-review – 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011, 2010, 2009 In 2024 all our international travel took place via four trips to Europe. And on...
Long Island Summer 2024: wineries + breweries
Lenz Winery We've been members for years, and we love visiting in the summer in the shaded courtyard. Service was great as always across our four visits! On our first visit with our friend Leah, we...
Long Island Summer 2024: food + restaurants
As usual, we tried out some new-to-us spots while returning to old favorites for things like pizza and bagels. Watershed Kitchen + Bar We ate outside on the back patio as it was a pleasant...
Long Island Summer 2024: sunsets at Bailie Beach
Once we secured the correct sticker for beach parking (why does LI have to make things so complicated!?) we headed over a few times during out four week stay. This year we saw a good number of...
Long Island Summer 2024: overnight in Lancaster, PA
As we've done in previous years, we split our drive to NY with a night in Pennsylvania. The drive up was fine, with typical traffic near DC. Left at 8:45am and pulled into our friend’s driveway just...
European Spring 2024: 30 hours in Chicago
Our flight to Spain left Chicago O'Hare on Monday, so we decided to position ourselves in the city on Sunday just in case of travel delays. Unfortunately, Southwest only had an early Sunday morning...
Florida’s Sun Coast: overnight in Savannah
For our trip back to NC we decided to spend a night in Savannah - it would break up the trip into two easier driving days, plus we had a free night certificate at an IHG hotel that we needed to use....
Florida’s Sun Coast: Sarasota sights
During our two weeks in Sarasota we were a 10 minute walk from Crescent Beach so we visited multiple evenings. Even when the color wasn't great we were entertained watching the pelicans and terns...
Florida’s Sun Coast: restaurants
During our two week stay we tried lots of restaurants, ranging from classic breakfasts to a beach cocktail spot, and from in-restaurant to take-away. Breakfast Original Word of Mouth - Quite busy on...
Our Itinerary
2025 Trips
Tampa Bay, FL (Jan)
Buenos Aires, Argentina (Feb)
Villa la Angostura, Argentina (Feb)
Bariloche, Argentina (Feb)
Iguazu Falls, Argentina + Brazil (Feb)
Miami, FL (Feb)
Richmond, VA (Mar)
Boston, MA (Apr)
Kathmandu, Nepal (May)
Bhutan (May)
Slovenia (Sep)
Treviso, Italy (Sep)
Bologna, Italy (Sep)
Turin, Italy (Oct)
2024 Trips
San Diego, CA (Jan)
Sarasota, FL (Feb)
Madrid, Spain (Mar)
Valencia, Spain (Mar+Apr)
Palma, Mallorca (Apr)
Croatia (May)
Long Island, NY (July)
Faroe Islands (Aug)
London, UK (Sept)
Puglia, Italy (Sept)
Matera, Italy (Oct)
Rome, Italy (Oct)
Mosel Valley, Germany (Oct)
Frankfurt, Germany (Oct)
London + Manchester, UK (Dec)
2023 Trips
San Diego (Jan)
Orlando (Feb)
Richmond, VA (Apr)
Northern Italy (Apr)
NC Mountains (May)
Long Island (Jul)
Wisconsin (Aug)
Chicago (Aug)
Oak Island, NC (Sept)
Brooklyn, NY (Sept)
Bordeaux + Rugby World Cup (Sep)
Castilla y León (Sep)
Seychelles (Nov)
Willamette Valley (Dec)