May-cember Is Real
It is a Tuesday night in early May and I am standing in my daughter's school auditorium, phone in one hand, program in the other, Resy notifications going off in my pocket while I try to be fully present for the last performance of the year. May-cember is real. Here is how I move through it.
I Overpack Every Time. Here Is What I Know Anyway.
The cost of overpacking is not the airline fee. It starts before you ever leave the house, in the weight of too many decisions, the friction of dragging something heavy up stairs built centuries before wheeled luggage existed, and the frustration of arriving somewhere beautiful feeling burdened instead of free. Over years of leaving Maui for long stretches across multiple countries and cultures, I have developed a philosophy that has made me better at it. Not perfect. Better. Here is what I know.
We Don't Take Trips
I stopped asking myself where I want to go a long time ago. Instead I ask who I want to be with. Every departure from Maui, thousands of miles of ocean between us and everyone we love, has to be justified by what is waiting on the other side. This is the most practical travel advice I can offer.
How I Use the NYT 100 Best Restaurants List to Plan a Summer in New York
Every May, without looking for it, the NYT 100 Best Restaurants list finds me. And the thrill lasts about thirty seconds. Then I get to work. Here is the exact system I use to turn a great list into a living tool, and how you can do the same for any city you are planning to spend real time in this summer.
Summer Travel Planning: One City, One Beat (And How I Actually Plan It)
After years of overstacking our summers, too many cities, too much driving, arriving back on Maui hollowed out instead of restored, I stopped building itineraries and started building beats. One city. One purpose. One note in a greater song. Here's how I actually do it, and the simple tools that make it work.
Summer Travel Planning: Why I Book My Return Flight First (And How I Actually Do It) — A Real-Life Strategy from a Maui-Based, World-Traveling Mom
I start every summer trip the same way. With the last flight. The return home. Once that's locked in, dates, destinations, decisions are easier to define. It might sound counterintuitive, but booking the end first is the most practical move I know. Here's why it works, and the tools I'm using to do it smarter than ever.
Yo: An Introduction (Part 2)
Yo. Where I’m from, this word is an invitation. It implies community. It carries an understanding. It is an energetic call of inclusion. It is ours; an elegant, Ebonic two-word distillation of an ethos. The opposite of formal, it means that we are the same, equal. It means that we have an understanding, an expectation. It is a call to listen.