One of the things we knew we wanted to experience while living in Europe were some of the amazing Christmas markets that happen every year. With Fern’s brother scheduled to come to Paris for Christmas this year, we decided we’d do the trip with him, and chose Strasbourg as our destination. Due to a massive […]

Here in Paris, the kids have a one-week break over “Toussaint” (or “All Saints Day”), which falls at the end of October/beginning of November. After debating where we should try to go for a few days, (narrowed down to Amsterdam, Copenhagen and Munich) we allowed the kids to vote. They chose Munich. We left on […]

Back in late September, Fern had a business trip to Warsaw, and the kids and I decided to join him to spend a weekend there. When the idea first came up, I will admit I thought, “Warsaw? Shouldn’t we meet in Krakow?” I had visions of dingy, depressing, Soviet era buildings and nothing to do. […]

Since we spent the better part of the summer either getting ready to move or getting settled after moving, we decided to take one last getaway before school started. We debated and debated as to where to go…and had thought we were settled on either Portugal or Croatia. We wanted to relax, though, since this […]

As has been our tradition the last several years, we left the USA and spent Thanksgiving abroad since it’s our kids’ only long fall break.  This year, we decided to add a new continent to the kids’ list and strike an item off our bucket list as well by visiting Peru. First, let me start […]

Tokyo for spring break after a few weeks commuting to DCA for my interim gig sounded like a good plan. right! Well, a 14 hour plane ride. a 1 hour train. A short taxi ride that was a bit funny as the driver got totally lost and drove us into a dead end street and […]

We started our 789 journey with strong tailwinds, so we got into Paris about an hour early. We decided to stay at the Renaissance Paris Le Parc at Trocadero which was perfectly situated for all things Paris.   A short walk from our hotel we discovered a great boulangerie and got plenty of croissants and […]

This summer we spent some time in Spain and the kids fell in love with the history and heritage of my dad’s family.  Speaking Spanish at home has become a priority as the kids grow older.  As we contemplated what to do over the MLK holiday the kids quickly decided that they wanted to explore […]