Located in north eastern Washington, DC, Kenilworth Park & Aquatic Gardens National Park gives the Washington, DC annual cherry blossoms a run for their money. So-to-speak. While the gardens are not as well-known, they are certainly beautiful in their own right.

Road Trip Travel Tips. Are you making plans and gearing up for a summer road trip? Or, for that matter, any other time of the year? Truth be told, road trips are by far my most favorite way to travel, followed by train travel which runs a close second. There’s just something really special about a road trip and the flexibility traveling by car offers.

“Roads were made for journeys, not destinations.” Confucious

• We recently returned from another week-long visit to Martha’s Vineyard in spring of 2025. I thought it would be a good time to update our content and add a few new photos.

Martha’s Vineyard. Who doesn’t want to spend a week on the island, it’s beautiful! In full disclosure we’ve never visited during the busy summer season, so I can’t speak to that. However, we have spent time on the island in the spring and fall, which are truly lovely seasons to visit. The days are still warm and the tourists have either not yet arrived before Memorial Day, or they’ve left by Labor Day.

It’s Cherry Blossom Time in Washington, DC. If you know about Cherry Blossoms you know this time of year on the East Coast (and elsewhere I’m sure) is glorious!

Natural Bridge State Park. After several arctic cold months, spring finally started to show itself. Now, I’m someone who loves winter, but the winter of 2024/2025 was unusually brutally cold and the idea of spring was a good one. It enticed us to hit the backroads of Virginia to find Natural Bridge State Park. It did not disappoint.

Cartão de cidadão. Or, citizen card of Portugal. This is a little story about how I applied for my Portuguese citizen card – citizenship – through family linage.

UPDATE!

Recently, I was contacted by someone who saw a comment I left on a Portugal Expat Facebook post. She was seeking information about my process as she hopes to apply for her Cartão de cidadão through a family member. With that being said I thought I’d post a little update on my application.

2024. In many ways, the days of 2024 passed in the blink of an eye. But, the year also seemed to be one relentlessly long election year. Although we had a good year, we are happy to put 2024, and the election, on the shelf and get on with the business of living.

2024- I’m not a big fan of New Year’s Eve and all that it entails.  I’d much rather snuggle up for the evening with the one I love most, with a big bowl of popcorn and watch a classic movie, such as the one I share every year at this time, “When Harry Met Sally.”  Post a comment and tell us how many times you’ve seen Harry and Sally find their way to each other.  As we move forward in to a new year filled with hope for new beginnings and world-wide healing, we once again share this post.  Cheers!

We relocated to the east coast, near Washington, DC, approximately 10 years ago. In all of that time, we haven’t had the joy of a white Christmas, nor have we seen the National Christmas Tree, in person. It was long past time to make at least one of those two things happen.

Grateful -vs- Thankful

I originally wrote this little ditty nearly 10 years ago.  Where do the years go?!  It turns out that over the years this little grateful – vs – thankful tale attracts a great deal of traffic to our site, about this time, every year.  Which tells me I’m not alone in my thought process of trying to distinguish between the two.

Given the state of world, and at a time when it can be difficult to remember what it means to be grateful for what we have, I thought it might be the perfect time to write a new introduction and republish it.