Somerville, Mass – Daddio and I went camping once. It took several tries to set up the tent (borrowed, in our defense) and we never did manage to get the fire lit. Still, we had a fun weekend and it was…
World Food for Kids: USSR Edition
Moscow, Russia – Contrary to what you might think, Moscow is an amazing food city. Its cosmopolitan character is reflected in its restaurants, which run the gamut from cheap Lebanese street food to gourmet French fare. When in Moscow, we…
Airplanes, Babies & the Kindness of Strangers
Moscow, Russia – The last time we flew to Moscow, the twins were just shy of one year old. I carefully planned our itinerary so we would have a long overnight trip, direct from New York to Moscow with no…
Vacation Week
Somerville, Mass – Vacation week is some kind of a sick joke. It is wrong on many levels: 1. The twins are in preschool. They do not need a vacation from preschool. 2. It’s not just vacation from school. There’s…
Journeys & Arrivals
Alajuela, Costa Rica – One of my travel truisms is that all the best places are hard to get to. You can’t just take a direct flight to paradise. It requires multiple flights, perhaps on tiny airplanes. Or – even better – multiple…
Raise a Kid Who Loves To Travel
Somerville, Mass – My friend posted on Facebook: “I was defiant against the term `stay-at-home parent’ this summer. Stay at home? We were OUT! We napped in the stroller! We went to the park! We took the T! We drove…
All Aboard the Potty Train
Somerville, Mass – In case anyone is wondering why I have been so quiet lately (anyone? anyone…?) it’s because I have nothing to write about. We haven’t been traveling, even locally. We haven’t been going anywhere, really. Lately, we have…
Finnish Childcare
Kirkkonummi, Finland – This was one of the major stress factors leading up to our trip: what are we going to do with the twins in Finland? In the past, we have exercised various options for childcare while traveling. Our…
Fairytale Kingdom
Tallinn, Estonia – According to the official Tallinn tourism website, “Tallinn is a fairytale kingdom for kids of all ages, full of fun filled activities sure to give the whole family a blast!” After that explosive introduction, it goes on…
Maritime Museum of Finland
Kotka, Finland – You wouldn’t guess that this gritty, shipbuilding center would be our first “tourist” destination in Finland. But less than a week after our arrival, we made a beeline for the Maritime Center Vellamo, a massive wave-shaped building…