Author: mrsem

Two countries…one day! On Wednesday, I boarded an early morning plane to Vancouver, Canada for a day of consulting work and I’m on my way back to San Francisco this evening. A new international travel record for me and something that required a foolproof outfit. Sweater – My hot pink cashmere sweater (bought on sale…

Rob is off in Helsinki on business and I’ve got two teenage nephews with me in San Francisco this week before I have to dash to Vancouver for the day – whew! We’re about to head out on the train to explore Chinatown. It’s a beautiful and surprisingly warm summer day in San Francisco!

After spending the winter in the warmth of the South of France, Hawaii and the Mediterranean, we’re mixing things up and heading north for summer!  Alaska is maybe the one place in America colder than San Francisco in June. Rob and I are going to travel with our friends Seth and Amy for 14 days, via…

Now that we wrapped up the Mediterranean trip, Jenn asked “Could you revisit your “what to pack” post and maybe show all the ways you mixed together the items you did pack into different outfits? It would be fun and helpful for those of us with limited ability to do that.” Sure thing! Traveling the…

Panzanella is a classic italian recipe for a summer salad made with tomatoes and stale bread. When I had extra jalapeño cheese bread on hand, I turned the recipe into a “torta” version with Mexican flavors for lunch. This would be a great way to use up any leftovers from taco night. Mexican Panzanella Salad…

We spent a week in Chicago on our way back from Europe. Rob had a conference for work and our friend Shane decided to come with us after spending the last week in Croatia. What a nice way to get over jetlag and acclimate to life in the United States! We had such a fun…

9 weeks, 13 cities, 2 carry-on bags and 0 guidebooks. Traveling “EmilyStyle” means exploring the world with little planning, small budgets, lots of cooking and a focus on living like a local. Here’s how we did it! Our Mediterranean Route I don’t enjoy working on all the logistics that come with travel. So, we didn’t plan much…

Zadar was the perfect place to end our stay in Croatia. It’s a beach-front town smaller than Split and less touristy than Dubrovnik. Seemed like the Santa Barbara equivalent. The big storm was finally clearing out and we had one last sunny day.  We arrived at night after our drive from Zagreb. The walk down…

I could hardly find any information on driving from Zagreb to Zadar when were researching the last-minute detour. No idea why not, it’s an amazing route and gave me such a different perspective on Croatia. We first left Zagreb at 10:30 am on the A1 autobahn, before turning South on to the D1 at Karlovac…

When life hands you rain…go find some waterfalls!  The highlight of our drive from Zagreb to Zadar in Croatia was a stop at Plitvice Lakes National Park. The $15 entrance fee includes access to the entire park as well as free tram and boat rides. With about four hours to explore, we were suggested to take…