The Heirloom Edit №18
Somewhere between the Black Forest and prom season, I found my exhale...
This one is coming to you a little late for the week. I stepped off the plane in Boston and straight into “Maycember.” Prom, sports events, concerts, end-of-year everything. If you have school-age kids, you know exactly what I mean. I’m currently squeezing in finally writing this while sitting in the car between events.
We’re still deep in the Mallard Lodge renovation, which has hit a few of the inevitable slowdowns that come with poorly-designed properties and ambitious timelines. Nothing catastrophic, just the particular kind of patience-testing that is common when renovating.
Adding a trip to Europe into this season was a bit of a wild card. We didn’t exactly choose the timing. Mack was offered a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to tour the facilities of his favorite car manufacturer in Germany, and we were given a narrow window to visit. It was tricky timing, we missed some smaller things for the kids that made us sad, but we were able to make it work.
And honestly? Once we sat down to plan it, we found the break was really needed. The past year has brought a lot of change.
We’ve been curious about visiting the Côte d’Azur for years, so we decided to make a proper trip of it ahead of the factory tour. We learned that our travel lined up with the Grand Prix Historique — so we flew to Nice, spent a few days in Cap-Ferrat, then headed to Monaco for the race. This motorsports-forward itinerary may sound like it might not be my scene. However, I’m a longtime racing fan who comes from a car-focused family, so I was actually very excited.
Cap-Ferrat was peaceful, with gorgeous architecture and scenery. I would definitely go back to that area. Our originally plan was to stay there and travel into Monaco for a day trip, but we booked too late for that to work. This would have been a good plan.
Monte Carlo was… surreal, in exactly the way you’d expect. It’s undeniably beautiful — the harbor, the Belle Époque architecture, the sheer improbability of it all. Arriving and hearing those old, louder race car engine noises echoing around the hills as the cars zipped around the tight streets — that was an extremely cool thing to experience (although, I’ll admit, by day three I was a little tired of being woken up at 7:30am by them).
Honestly, though, it’s also become such a symbol of performative/influencer luxury that it was hard to fully enjoy it. If you’re out in public, you’re dodging people posing and recording beside rented supercars or in front of designer’s windows. Overall, I’m glad we went. I don’t think I need to go back. Like other beautiful and popular places we’ve been lucky enough to visit (Santorini comes to mind) I think social media has taken its toll.
Germany, though… Germany was a different story entirely.
We were there in high spring, driving through the southern countryside, and it was one of the most quietly beautiful things I’ve seen in a long time. The Black Forest was genuinely stunning: dense and green, mossy and ancient-feeling, broken up by village after village of historic buildings and window boxes overflowing with flowers. It felt like driving through a place that has learned, at some cost, that beauty is worth maintaining.
We stayed overnight in a breathtaking, recently-renovated hotel in Baden-Baden called Brenners Park Hotel. It was by far our favorite of the trip. In hindsight, we’d reconfigure our trip so that we spent more time there, and we definitely hope to return someday (maybe with the kids, as it seemed family-friendly).
At one point in our travels back toward home we passed a few hours sitting across from each other at a Biergarten in a suburban park outside Stuttgart — nothing fancy, just wooden tables under the trees, cold drinks (a violet spritz for me, which had become a signature for the trip), and early afternoon light coming through the leaves. People were meeting up with friends, taking their dogs for walks, just… exhaling. There was a pace to it that I found myself wanting to borrow. It was one of those rare and meaningful travel moments where you’re not doing anything remarkable, and somehow that’s exactly the point. I didn’t snap a photo, I didn’t record anything… we just sat across from each other and took it in. I know that memory will last longer than any reel possibly could.
With that vision for the future in mind, I came home with a full heart (and a very full inbox). There are so many things up ahead as our two younger kids wrap up their year and my son completes his last few weeks of his high school experience. So here we are, back to Maycember.
The Curio
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I've been refining my travel packing philosophy for years, and this trip was the true test—I was limited to two carry-ons because we moved around so much. This luggage set has vintage-inspired styling with all the modern features that actually matter (spinner wheels, TSA locks, a hard shell that doesn't show every scuff). For the actual travel day, this weekender bag (here’s my savings link for $20 off!) is roomy enough to hold everything I need for a long flight or weekend away, and this bag keeps my documents, cards, and phone in one slim, accessible place — the add-on external phone holder with strap is the detail that makes it genuinely useful. Anyone who has been around here for a while already knows that I love a Hillhouse nap dress — this navy dress is a vacation MVP: one piece that works for a afternoon wandering through villages, a nicer dinner, a swimsuit cover up, and everything in between. This cashmere wrap is something I've carried on every trip for years now — planes are cold, evenings on the water are breezy, and it doubles as a lightweight layer over almost anything. For the beach and market days, I sourced a packable straw hat and a tote that fold down to almost nothing, plus a magnetic hat clip that solves the eternal problem of where to put your hat when you're not wearing it. And the Oak Essentials travel set — my favorite lip balm and skincare in that clean little pouch — is the kind of small luxury that makes a long travel day feel a little more civilized.
I hope that these help you wherever your summer adventures may bring you, near or far. Tell me below, do you have any fun destinations coming up?
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