TravelRetire in Costa Rica: What I Found When I Finally Went
The country comes up in every retirement conversation I have. So I went. Three weeks, three regions, and the things the brochures keep getting wrong.
Living
Travel
LivingHow to Forgive Someone When Part of You Doesn't Want To
It's not about the person who hurt you. It's about the weight you've been carrying, and whether you're ready to put it down.
DiningHow to Make Chiles Rellenos (The Way It Deserves to Be Made)
The step most home cooks skip, the batter that decides everything, and what the filling tells you about where this dish comes from.
TravelWhat I Actually Buy for Travel Insurance, and Why
After forty-seven countries, here's what I actually buy, what the fine print really means, and why medical evacuation is the one coverage you can't afford to skip.
LivingThe Toxic Relationship Signs Most of Us Learn Not to See
Not the dramatic ones. The quiet patterns that teach you, over time, to make yourself smaller.
TravelThe Best Time to Visit Portugal
The best time to visit Portugal isn't in August. A case for September, and when to go to each region.
The TableWhat Is Mole Sauce (And Why the Real Thing Takes All Day)
What is mole sauce? The honest answer is that it's not one thing. The real version takes all day, and the difference is worth understanding.
TravelThe Best Time to Visit Japan: What Most First-Timers Get Wrong
Sylvia Chen on timing your Japan trip right, why fall beats spring, and what nobody tells you about cherry blossom season.
LivingGrief Support Groups: What Happens When You Walk In
You imagine a room you can barely make yourself enter. The actual room is nothing like that.
LivingHow to Apologize
Not the quick sorry between coworkers. The apology you've owed someone for years, and what it takes to finally say it.
TravelThe Best Small Group Tours: What to Look For and What to Run From
Sylvia Chen on what separates a good small group tour from organized misery, and the operators she trusts.
DiningWhat Is a Sommelier (And Why You've Been Pretending Not to Need One)
The person with the wine list is trying to help you. You're allowed to let them.
The Long TableThe Long Table: How to Make Bread at Home
Jean Hadley on Saturday bread, the recipe she has made for decades, and why the kitchen smells different when there's a loaf in the oven.
The TableWhen the Good Cheap Place Closes
The sign came down on Zarzamora Street, and the neighborhood lost something it can't replace.
LivingIndependent Living vs Assisted Living: The Conversation That Changes Everything
Most families don't start with the brochures. They start with a phone call that changes the weather in the room.
LivingThe Cheapest Places to Retire (And Why Cheap Is the Wrong Word)
The most affordable places to retire are not the saddest ones. They are, quite often, the most alive.
LivingThe Best Golf Clubs for Seniors: What Your Swing Actually Needs Now
Your body changed. Your swing changed. It might be time your clubs caught up.
LivingAustin, Texas: What Retirees Actually Think After Moving Here
I spent two weeks in Austin talking to people who moved there after sixty. Some of them love it. Some of them are already looking at the Hill Country. All of them have opinions about the heat.
LivingThe Marriage That Went Quiet
Not a fight. Not an affair. Not a betrayal anyone could name. Just two people in the same house who stopped arriving at each other.
TravelThe Best States to Retire In: An Honest Assessment From Someone Who Has Driven Through All of Them
Everybody ranks the states. Nobody tells you what they feel like on a Wednesday in January. Here is what I know after seventy years and a lot of windshield time.
TravelRetire in Portugal: What I Found When I Went Looking
Every retirement conversation I've had in three years eventually turns to Portugal. So I went back, walked the streets, and wrote down what I actually found.
LivingThe Best Pickleball Paddles I Have Actually Used
I came to pickleball the way I come to most things: reluctantly, then honestly. Five paddles later, I have opinions.
TravelThe Best Places to Retire in America: What I Found After Looking at Fifty of Them
Most best-places-to-retire lists are written by people who have never spent a week in the places they recommend. I have spent years.
DiningWhy Every Restaurant Is So Loud Now
I can't hear my wife across a two-top, and I'm starting to think that's the point.