While many others couldn’t, wouldn’t wait out a pandemic to (safely) travel abroad, my partner and I stayed put these past couple of years. But the wait was worth it — we made amazing dream trips happen from road-tripping the American South to celebrating our anniversary in Miami and toasting a birthday in New Orleans. While I bore high levels of wanderlust waiting all this time, I became a more socially conscious traveler, a smarter traveler, and a more empathetic traveler who became hyper-aware of her responsibility as a tourist. We prioritized people on these recent trips - befriending loca ..read more

At the top of 2023, I decided to expand on the practice of boundaries beyond my personal life into my professional life. Not only am I dealing with lifelong generational trauma, financial stress, and anxiety from unstable employment, but I am realizing the freelance work I’ve been so passionate about as a writer is creeping into burnout. So with the motivation of The Nap Ministry, I began communicating and enforcing boundaries. First, via a short Instagram story. Then, through automatic email responses. Later, through email signatures. And more recently and persistently, through direct communi ..read more

The wines kept coming: one glass, then two, then five, every few minutes, refilled with a different white, rosé, or red. I was overwhelmed by the number of wines arriving while winemakers gave their spiels at the front of the room. It was a Finger Lakes tasting, held in a ritzy downtown hotel with lavish table settings, expensive charcuterie, and dozens of empty wine glasses. I had finagled an invite, not knowing it was a formal sit-down tasting — my first ever — and I was in over my head.  Was I supposed to finish every wine?  Beside me, a friend sipped, swirled, and then spewed win ..read more

Strolling through Philadelphia’s Rittenhouse Square often feels like you’ve been dropped into a European town. Trees shadow fountains adorned by bronze sculptures, friends claim grassy picnic spots, dogs play alongside their owners, and in any given direction from the Center City park there awaits a glass of good wine — just as renowned French architect and park designer, Paul Philippe Cret, intended.  At the eastern edge of 18th and Locust streets sits Parc, a grand Parisian-style bistro where family and friends linger over glasses of classic French wines. The Love, a recent New Ame ..read more

Drinking in Philadelphia has come a long way from throwing back City Wide’s. We’ve grown up: named a top five best beer city per GQ Magazine, CNN’s top six best beer town and home to one of famed Esquire’s booze critic David Wondrich’s favorite bars to drink a Sazerac. This reputation has helped lead to a major favorable shift in undoing Prohibition legacy laws. In 2016, Act 39 liberalized state alcohol regulations, allowing brewpubs to sell any spirits alongside their house beer and finally letting Philadelphia catch up with the rest of major American drinking cities. While beer remains centr ..read more

Philly is a big arts town. One of the 30+ reasons why I love Philly is because you’re surrounded by stunning art everywhere you walk in this city. On cold, rainy days I opt to hide away inside museums finding solitude among paintings and figures while contemplating their meaning.  With The Met in New York City revising their admissions policy to keep the center of arts and culture inaccessible to non-privileged folks, I thought I would share the many ways you can experience the best of Philly's arts scene on a budget. Get excited.  First Fridays One of the first adventures I was intr ..read more

Philadelphia is seriously having a moment right now. In 2015 it was named America’s first UNESCO World Heritage City, thanks to the historical significance of Independence Hall, and in the same year, named the number onecity in North America for live music. To top it off, The Washington Post recognized Philly as the 6th best food city in America. Oh, and Lonely Planet recently named Philadelphia the num. one best city in the U.S. But while you might not need anymore convincing on why to visit, you probably do need some recommendations on what to do. So that’s why I’m here, to show you the best ..read more

It took nearly five years but this February I finally made it to Uruguay. My winter escape to the coolest little nation in South America was filled with the kindest people, sun-kissed skin, and heaping plates of meat, fish, wine and beer.  I had the pleasure of sharing my culinary travels through Uruguay with everyone back at home thanks to Parlour Magazine, an online community for women of color who love to travel, who invited me to take over their @ParlourMagazine Instagram feed for a week. From hitting the streets of Montevideo, to hiding away in the country side of Balneario (Punta de ..read more

After nearly five years of dreaming about visiting South America’s coolest little nation, this past February I took the plunge and hopped on a plane to Uruguay to celebrate my birthday. I’ve talked extensively about my love for this country - thanks in part to Anthony Bourdain’s ‘No Reservations’ episode and an entertaining World Cup match back in 2010. I’m thrilled to have experienced Uruguay’s cityscapes, lush beaches, and quirky art walks in between meals of meat platters and Tannat red wine.  Arriving to Uruguay from Buenos Aires by ferry meant I had time for a quick stop over in ..read more

This story is sponsored by Finger Lakes Wine Country. Plan your #myFLX getaway at FingerLakesWineCountry.com! I have found my new happy place. A four-hour-plus drive from both my home state of New York and adopted state of Pennsylvania is a vast region of sloping hillsides, endless acres of farmland and vineyards, winding trails dotted with high waterfalls, and nearly a dozen natural water lakes. This is Finger Lakes Wine Country. I’ve had a crush on the Finger Lakes (FLX for short) since my first sip of their famous Riesling wine at an Edible magazine event in New York City several years bac ..read more