My sister in law is Irish. This past holiday season she and my brother traveled from New York to Dublin with their one year old and two-and-a-half year old boys. I’ll just say their flight over was such that three months later they still can’t bring themselves to talk about it and they’ve sworn off […]

Miami is such a big and happening place that it would be impossible to cover it all in one weekend. For our most recent visit in February we decided to stay in Coconut Grove. And I fell in love again with this charming and quaint neighborhood. Coconut Grove, or “the Grove” as locals call it, […]

We all know our own limits when it comes to tasting and drinking wine.  And that’s obviously very important.  It’s just as important, however, to know your kids’ limits as well.  No, of course I don’t mean their limits with respect to tasting wine.  I mean their limits with respect to how many wineries they’ll […]

A friend once said that air travel is like going to the spa: she gets to sit down, read a magazine and someone brings her a drink. She clearly doesn’t have kids…. As you all know, when you travel with kids, you often don’t sit much, you for sure don’t get to read a magazine, […]

Welcome to San Francisco. You can call it the City or San Francisco or occasionally SF but please, please, whatever you do, don’t call it San Fran or Frisco or any other nickname that comes to mind. You’ll peg yourselves as tourists immediately (if you haven’t already done so by showing up in the city […]

We used to live in San Francisco. As huge wine geeks, we took ample advantage of our proximity to Napa and Sonoma (and Anderson Valley) by making frequent day trips to “wine country.” It was so easy to hop in the car, drive the hour plus up Highway 101, drop into a winery or two, […]

I love the fact that my daughters speak my native language – Portuguese. Even though we have never lived in Brazil, Portuguese is still their first language (I guess it’s called mother tongue for a reason). Not for long, I realize, but I am enjoying it while it lasts. However, no matter how good their […]

My love for Christmas markets dates back to 2003, when I lived in Hamburg and worked at the Rathaus (city hall) Christmas market. Despite the fact that I had never been as cold in my life, I absolutely loved the experience. The scent of toasted almonds, the friendly people, the fun atmosphere and, of course, […]

As I walk by the beautiful Amazonas Theater in Manaus, Brazil, I feel dizzy and lightheaded. Maybe it’s the Christmas lights that have taken over every corner of the main square, or the wavy pavement pattern that inspired the famous Copacabana beach in Rio. Or perhaps it’s because I have just spent 8 days on […]