Category: New England & Quebec
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Marche Jean Talon
Another trip to our beloved Montreal. We’ve been living in Vermont for less than two years and we’ve been eight times. Each time, our heart swells a little more by how much we love Montreal. Casey and I call our last trip our best trip, because we did it all right. We brought guests with…
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Boston
If you hadn’t caught on to my life yet, I run a literary and art magazine called Canto Cutie that showcases the work of Cantonese diasporic artists and writers. I’ve been creating, printing, and distributing this magazine since 2020, when I was living in an apartment in San Jose. Pretty much day one of the…
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New Bedford
In 2022, I took the magazine on an unofficial tour! First to Boston for the Boston Art Book Fair and then Brooklyn for Zine Fair NYC. In Boston, I stayed in New Bedford for three nights. New Bedford is a small town before the Cape about an hour outside of Boston. I had a lot…
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Richmond
Richmond is a cute town in Vermont that some friends have told me that I should move to. Too bad, because we love where we live already! I’ve been there a few times, and each time has been really magical. The first time I really got to hang out here was with my friend Nicole,…
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South Hero
South Hero is the southernmost Champlain island and only a thirty minute drive from my home. Summer weekends are where the Islands really shine, with their farmer’s markets and Vermonters going to their dachas. Except they don’t call them dachas, they call them “camp” and we’ve always been jealous of our friends who go to…
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Shelburne Museum
We’ve had over twelve guests come stay at our guest room this summer. It’s partly due to my urging of everyone come visit us, but also because Vermont is the perfect vacation destination in the summer. There’s no place like it. Californians can’t get enough of the green, New Yorkers can’t get enough of the…
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Watertown
Watertown is a city west of Boston that I had a great time selling zines at. I met a lot of great people here.
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Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal
This trip was our first time where we spent the night! And our first time using public transport. By now, we knew our way around and could lead others around the city. This time, we actually went into Notre Dame, instead of just hanging around outside. The expected highlight of the trip was going to…
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Rue Sainte-Catherine
I really love planning Casey’s birthday. For one birthday while we were living in San Jose, we drove up to San Francisco and enjoyed a day of eating mushroom risotto at a fancy French restaurant. Foraging and identifying mushrooms was our favorite pastime at that point. For this year’s birthday, I wanted to treat him…
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Mile End
We discovered a funky new neighborhood in Montreal. Mile End is where many Orthodox Jews live, so there are many bagel shops. There’s also a small little Lululemon store here. My cousin Molly and her husband visit Lululemon in every city they visit. We also stopped into what I thought would be an Asian snack…
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Casino de Montréal
Casey’s parents were in town so we knew we had to hit the casino. Despite all our excitement, the casino did not have craps. We were a little bit disappointed. If you’ve read any of my posts about Las Vegas, you can learn more about how Casey and I are craps diehards. We live for…
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Montreal Botanical Garden & Museum of Fine Arts
Our first foray up to Montreal was with two of our friends from California. Surprise – the border crossing was extremely easy and it took only 1.5 hours to make it to downtown. We walked around the Montreal Museum of Art and then the Botanical Gardens. Because it was our first time there, we chose…
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Northampton
One Saturday, I drove down to Western Massachusetts for a zine fair and had the time of my life. Making zines have brought me to places I have never been and has been the best ice-breaker in new environments. I’ve taken part of zine fests in New Haven, Northampton, and Watertown, and a book festival…
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Boston
Fourth time’s the charm. I came for the first time in 2018 with my friend Samantha. I got my bearings – the Isabella Gartner Stewart Museum, Fanuil Hall, Boston Market, Little Italy. My second trip was with my sisters in 2021, where it was more of an eating trip. We ate a lot of lobster…
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Laconia, New Hampshire
I had never spent much time in New Hampshire, other than an hour stroll through Lebanon. I drove to Dover for a swim meet at the height of summer. I really underestimated how much time it would take. It was a three and a half hour car ride and when I arrived, I was in…
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Newport, Vermont
The race of the summer is the Kingdom Swim. I had heard about this swim my very first week living in Vermont, and while I was too late to register for it in 2021 since I arrived in the summer, I registered in snowy March for the race in July 2022. I spent all year…
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Burlington Coffee
The summer of 2022 brought guests from all over to stay at our cozy ranch home. We finally got the guest bed set up and our tiling finished on the first floor. Our first guest came in June – the first of many. My friend Victoria and her husband came to visit first, kicking off…
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Vermont Womenpreneurs Summit
Strangely enough, during the pandemic I got to speak and give more presentations than ever before. Zoom made it possible for me to get involved in activism, the indie publishing scene, entrepreneurship, and more. Prior to Covid, I had only given a few talks. I had given an art talk at an exhibit opening and…
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Vermont Bookstores
It doesn’t matter where I am, I absolutely love bookstores. It all started when I was little. My mom would let me have my pick of anything at Border’s. As I got older, I loved going to Half Price Books in Austin. I knew that the downtown location had gems in different languages, and the…
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Smuggler’s Notch
This winter, I learned to ski. And not only that – I grabbed skiing by the horns. Or the poles. I took three lessons at Bolton Valley, a mountain about 40 minutes from my house. I heard about it from just about everyone living here that was the preferred mountain for locals. I got to…
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Jay Peak & Downtown Burlington
For Casey and my one year marriage anniversary, it was also pretty much the one year anniversary of us deciding to move to Vermont. We decided about this time last March to move here. To celebrate this amazing time as an end to the most wonderful year, we decided to do a few things we…
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Cambridge
I did not expect to like this small town very much but I’m glad I was wrong. Harvard’s campus is wonderfully picturesque, but I loved their university museum most of all. I even became a member. I’ve never supported a museum before this so this is my amazing venture into being an adult with cash…
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Salem
Every witchy girl has a bucket list destination, and it’s Salem, Massachusetts. Myself included, I had to visit during a Halloween. For the weeks leading up to the trip, I read posts on Reddit about how much locals hate the tourists and what is a tourist-trap and more. Despite all of that, I still went…
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St. Albans
Before we even decided to look for a house in Vermont, we came to visit. Casey was working from home so I just took the car and drove around the entire northern portion of the state to see what’s up. I drove all the way up to Swanton, which is the northern most city before…
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Waterbury
So if Los Angeles is the Los Angeles of California, I would say that Waterbury is the Los Angeles of Vermont. Waterbury is very fun. On one street alone, there’s Ben and Jerry’s factory, a cidery, cheese factory, distillery, coffee roaster, brewery, state police office, and huge gun outlet. It’s basically the eating capital of…