Europe

Europe: the quintessential vacation for epic history. For culinary diversity. For cobblestoned streets. For scenic beauty. A small continent home to both the largest capital city and the smallest capital city in the world.

Weekending in Madrid

We left the kids behind with some good friends and spent a whirlwind long January weekend in Madrid. It was so much fun and we did everything but sleep! We made sure to hit to major highlights but...

Easter in Ireland

People always talk about the luck of the Irish and I think the luckiest thing of all is that they get to live in Ireland. Our family traveled to Ireland over Easter 2022 and got to see many of the...

Christmas in Zürich, Switzerland

On our way to Alsace, France to see the Christmas markets in 2018, we spent a few nights in Zürich. Zürich is well-known for finance, luxurious lifestyles, and fancy chocolates. We visited just...

Our Favorite French Vacation

In 2018, we booked a last-minute long weekend vacation to France and picked La Rochelle and neighboring island, Ile de Ré, as our destination. Jeffrey and I both are descended from French Huguenots...

Journey Around Scotland

With a name like McCown, it may or may not be pretty obvious that I have some Scottish heritage. Scotland feels a bit like coming home to me – except it’s a little chillier than my home...

Hola from Spain

There are so many reasons to love Spain: the varied and vibrant culture, the food!, the wine, the weather… We’ve been lucky to visit Spain several times and we can’t pick a favorite...

Salty + Spirited Portugal

Portugal, often overshadowed by its Spanish neighbor, became one of our favorite travel destinations – so much so that we quickly revisited the small country as soon as we could. This seaside...