Grand was The Palace Hotel. If one didn’t know this upon booking, the entrance and lobby said it all (after, of course, I paid $60/night for valet parking).  As I walked to my room I couldn’t tell if I would be staying in an old, rundown establishment in need of a restoration, or a newly […]

My flight from Boston to Beijing on United was $750/roundtrip. A week later, for MLK weekend, it’s $800/roundtrip Boston to West Palm Beach. Perhaps the prefect example of supply and demand, I was caught in the crosshairs of the airline industry’s pricing model. But a weekend family vacation, as rare as they are, is hard […]

Every time I’m back in Beijing – usually once a quarter – it feels like just yesterday I was here. At the same time, this country – both the physical nature as well as the culture – evolves so quickly that once a quarter tends to feel like years. This year 80million Chinese will get […]

“I have an idea. Let’s go skiing this weekend. Out west.” Rachel started Monday night’s dinner with an intriguing topic. It was her birthday, so I couldn’t push back on what I thought was a ludicrous idea. Sure I wanted to go skiing this weekend, and sure I didn’t want to ski in New England, […]