MiMis + Boo

wonderings + winederings

A Day in London

If I had a day in London, I would:

Have breakfast at Feya in Marleybone.

Quite possibly the most adorable place I’ve ever eaten, your breakfast will be amazing and gorgeously presented. Get there early: the line will be out the door!!

See the Changing of the Guard at Buckingham Palace. 

Have lunch (and a glass of wine!) at the Admiralty on Trafalgar Square.

Shop!

My favorite way to shop London is by working on my gift lists (Teacher gift bags, Christmas, etc). I love to give people things!

– Hatchards, for a variety of signed (and unsigned) books. I found my Mom (a huge Monty Python fan) a signed copy of Eric Idol’s autobiography. Don’t forget to grab yourself a copy of Harry Potter, written in the Queen’s English. The perfect gift for your favorite Harry Potter fan!

– Fortnum and Mason, for all the nice foodie things! Many unique gift options here, I recently purchased an Alphabet Mug and tea for a girlfriend celebrating a work anniversary. 

– Mulberry, for the quintessential British bag. I don’t typically advocate buying any high end fashion in England (exchange rate), but if you must, make it a Mulberry. Kate and Meghan are fans!

– M+S Food Hall, for lots of yummies to bring home and gift to friends and family! So many things to choose from: some of my favorites include their Extremely Chocolatey Dark Chocolate Rounds and the Caramel Crispy Mini Bites.

Have drinks atop John Lewis in the Roof Garden.

Open from April to September, rain or shine, the rooftop garden at John Lewis is delightful. I recommend the Chili Margarita!

Shop some more.

Have dinner at Yamabahce in St. Christopher’s Place. An amazing Turkish restaurant, their menu offers a variety of pide and some absolutely phenomenal hummus (just order two, trust me). 

But get there quickly: Yamabahce is a pop up restaurant and will eventually close. 

What are your London favorites? Share them with us!

Soaking up Sardinia: Argiolas

I’d be lying if I didn’t admit that the whole reason we started our girl’s trip in Cagliari was because I dearly wanted to visit Argiolas.

(but don’t tell them that!!)

I’ve been in love with the Costamolino for as long as I can remember. Admittedly, I flit back and forth between red and white, but I’m a white wine gal at the end of the day and the Costamolino makes my heart happy.

Argiolas is a third-generation labor of love, founded in the late 1930s by Antonio Argiolas. Their vines cover 600 acres across five estates, each one with it’s own unique soil and climate.

Argiolas wines are difficult to come by in the states. Very rarely do we find the Costamolino (and when we do, we buy it all!), or we see the Costera.

We booked our tour online. If you peek at their website, you will see a few different hospitality options,  anything from a visit and tasting to a Segway tour of the vineyards.

I highly recommend you request to use the shuttle service offered when you book. We didn’t want to drive and taxi’d out to the winery; the cost was a bit ridiculous and the shuttle back per person more realistic.

Francesca was our guide and she was both an amazing wealth of knowledge about the Argiolas wines and family’s wine making process, in addition to being the consummate tasting hostess.

Initially we booked the Original, but switched to the Top when we arrived. In hindsight, we should have went with the Prestige for our tasting.

We ran into a small group of Americans who were working on a web series, Sip Trip Italy, focused on exploring culture through beverage. Led by New York-based beverage professional Jeff Porter, we can’t wait to see their work when it’s available.

There is a cozy wine shop on the grounds and we took advantage of that opportunity to purchase a few special bottles to take home.

I  purchased a bottle of the Turriga for my husband and I can’t wait until we open it! I’ve already enjoyed one of two bottles of the Is Argiolas (yum) I brought home and I’m loathe to drink the second.

What is your favorite Sardinian wine? I’d love to hear what you enjoy and why!

Mardi Gras 2020

My husband is from New Orleans.

Which is like saying your husband is from Syracuse, right? Except it’s not.

Because New Orleans is magical.

We make the annual pilgrimage for Mardi Gras, as our schedules allow, so often that we keep our parade accouterment in a small storage unit for the next time we’re in town. We like to call our group the Big Booty Bead Bandits, but still haven’t figured out how to put that on a t-shirt.

This is as close as we have come:

We go the weekend before the weekend before Fat Tuesday. It’s just crazy enough that the kids get to see only a little bit of what they shouldn’t, and we get to drink all the frozen French 75s we want while feeling like we’re not being irresponsible.

Last year my husband surprised me with a pretty unique gift: a girlfriend and I were official members of the Krewe of Cleopatra, an all-female krewe, and we were going to ride with them during our 2019 Mardi Gras trip.

But seriously, who even knew that was a thing?!?!

We were going to ride in a real Mardi Gras parade, on a float, in a costume, and throw the big beads and toys and all the things at thousands of people who were screaming at us to pelt them in the face as we floated by.

But then it’s like a hundred questions, right? How many throws do we need to buy? What kind of throws? Will we have enough? Will we make friends? And will there be a bathroom on the float??

This turned into months of planning .. agonizing over the throws .. do we have enough .. glittering the cups .. glitter everywhere ..

So we did it, we lived to tell the tale, and we hoped we would love it, but not enough to want to do it again next year.

As if.

Yup, you guessed it, we’re going back again next year, February 14th to be exact, and our throw strategy is going to be on point!

Thank you, ladies, for having us back: we can’t wait to be your Galentines! 

Every year since 1972, on the night of the first Friday of Carnival Season, the Krewe of Cleopatra rolls through the streets of New Orleans, parading with unparalleled spirit and flair, kicking off the city wide celebration in an unforgettable way.

Antiquity remembers Queen Cleopatra for being both the embodiment of grace and femininity. Her political opponents respected her as a formidable leader of strong will. The members of the Krewe of Cleopatra community look to these qualities as inspiration in their modern lives. Ladies of all ages and backgrounds are welcome to apply for Krewe Membership and the opportunity to enjoy an experience of a lifetime, riding this Mardi Gras season.

Krewe of Cleopatra

Soaking up Sardinia: Cagliari

Cagliari is the capitol of Sardinia, a buzzing old world metropolis loaded with character. The city is a great home base if you’re planning to take day trips to the beaches of Chia and Villasimius, or tour some of the southern wineries, like Argiolas and Audarya.

We started our adventures there, arriving in the morning and heading straight for the Carrefour, where we grabbed beach towels, a beach umbrella, a cooler, and stocked up on snacks and water.

Remember, we rolled on, so we needed to grab our beach gear locally.

Oh, and sunscreen. We fell in love with some sunscreen, one by Vichy and one by Garnier. Sadly, we can’t find either in the states.

After settling in our sub-par AirBnB (outstanding location, meh accommodations) we did a late lunch. Not a restaurant worth recommending; however ..

.. it was there that I first tasted the Is Argiolas and it was glorious! The Costamolino has long been my favorite Vermentino, but no longer.

We made our way up to Via Santa Croce, which is where we planned to spend our first evening in Sardinia: drinks and dinner in the Castello at sunset, overlooking the city.

Oh Aperol. Where have you been all of our lives?

Aperitivo at Libarium Nostrum, high up on the medieval ramparts of the city, was where we began our Sardinian love affair with the Aperol Spritz.

I’m convinced that one only drinks the Aperol Spritz in Italy, but if you must do it elsewhere, you can get the recipe from the experts and try your hand at it in the comfort of your own home.

So. If you’re not familiar, aperitivo is that golden hour (or two!) where one enjoys drinks and a light snack prior to the late dinner that is the norm in this part of the world.

Libarium Nostrum doesn’t take reservations for apertivo, but we had no problem finding a good table when we arrived around 1800. You can book a table for dinner, but we wanted to keep moving and followed up our aperitivo with dinner at Ristorante Pani e Casu.

My husband and I learned the hard way, when we visited Sardinia back in 2015, to book dinner reservations well in advance. Thankfully, Pani e Casu not only takes reservations, but I was able to make one over the phone between our broken Italian and English.

We discovered a gorgeous bottle of red wine here, Cannonau di Sardegna DOC Nepente di Oliena, from the Cantina Oliena that we continued to drink throughout our trip.

… and the girls experienced (and loved!) their first cinghiale!

Our second (and last) dinner in Cagliari was at the Pizzeria Cerere. I was able to book this reservation over Facebook.

You can believe the Yelp! and Trip Advisor hype .. the chef is a true artist and his pizzas are absolutely amazing. We felt right at home here, as both our chef and hostess were quite friendly and attentive. Grazie!

We had some other places to visit on our list, but ran out of time: Dulcis Pasticceria, Panino Rustico, the San Benedetto Market, and INU Winebar, to name a few.

Maybe you’ll have an opportunity to check them out for us when you visit Cagliari! Come back for more of Soaking up Sardinia,

xxx,
G

Newsflash: Four Women Rolled on for a Nine Day Trip!

Disclosure: Some of the links below are affiliate links, meaning, that at no additional cost to you, I earn a commission if you click through and make a purchase.

Yup, we sure did .. and lived to tell the tale!

We were renting a car and road tripping the island of Sardinia, so there would only be enough room (and barely!) for our four rollers.

I’d tell you what our packing lists looked like, but they were different for all of us. I rolled all of my clothing (my husband swears by this!) and seem to have been able to fit more into my roller than the rest of the group.

We made a point of booking lodging with a washing machine (line dry) mid-way through our vacation, which is what really made this possible.

IMPORTANT: Make sure you read the carry-on baggage rules for whatever airline(s) you are flying. Don’t make the mistake of assuming they are all the same! Each one has different size and weight allowances and you don’t want to find yourself on the other side of a Ryan Air counter having to pay more than you think is fair to check your bag.

Two of us flew United’s day flight to London Heathrow. United has size allowances for their carry-on baggage, but no specified weight. If it fits in the bag sizer, you can roll it on.

Conversely, we flew Ryan Air the next day from London Stansted to Cagliari. Only Priority passengers can roll on to Ryan Air flights, subject to both size and weight allowances (10kg). We paid to check our bags on this flight as they were both over 10kg and we didn’t want to risk it.

What do I mean when I say we didn’t want to risk it? Airlines don’t always follow their own rules and it’s possible you will get on board with a roller that weighs more than it’s supposed to. One girlfriend was flying Air Italy from Olbia to Rome. Their carry-on baggage weight allowance is 8kg, her bag weighed 23kg, and no one asked her to weigh.

(I just don’t like taking chances!!)

If you haven’t already noticed, I’m super obsessed with baggage weight. I’ve been carrying the Tarriss Jetsetter Digital Luggage Scale* for four years and it merits a permanent spot on my packing list. You can select your weight measurement (mine stays on kg) and it is 100% accurate. In my opinion, a must-have when traveling around Europe (or anywhere!).

Okay, back to the rolling on!

Because we were rolling on, we weren’t bringing some things we would need for our vacation. We had a plan to purchase the following items when we landed:

– Beach towels (used at the end to cushion the wine we brought back)
– Beach umbrella
– Cooler
– Shared toiletries (shampoo, conditioner, lotion, sunscreen)
– Water, snacks, beach lunch fixings

Additionally, we brought quart sized Ziploc bags (to make ice) and a small clothes line with us.

Toiletries were a cinch with my Anrui’s TSA-approved toiletry bag*. It’s clear, it’s the right size, and surprisingly, fit quite a lot and held up quite well!

I also purchased a JBL GO2 Waterproof Ultra Portable Bluetooth Speaker* to use on the beach. I was worried that the noise would bother people, but we kept it down low and more than once caught our beach neighbors singing along.

Last but not least, no girl’s trip is complete until you’ve got personalized cups for your squad! Our go-to is DecoratedBliss on Etsy. She does beautiful work and ships quickly.

What works for you? I’d love to hear your tips and tricks for reducing your travel load and rolling on!

* Disclosure: Some of the links above are affiliate links, meaning, that at no additional cost to you, I earn a commission if you click through and make a purchase.

Soaking Up Sardinia

This summer my entire family went to camp.

My daughter (10) went as an overnight camper, my son (17) went as a counselor, and my husband (age withheld) went as a senior counselor.

Me, not so much. That’s a lot of nature and I had other ideas.

I was going to spend my camp time in Sardinia .. packed with beaches and wine and Malloreddus alla Campidanese.

Thankfully, I found three girlfriends crazy enough to sign on to this adventure, no questions asked, with nothing more than our travel dates to start with.

Where in the heck is Sardinia? Don’t feel bad for asking .. all of us received blank looks from friends when asked what our summer plans were.

Friends: “What are your plans this summer?” Us: “I’m going to Sardinia with friends!” Friends: <blank look> “Where the heck is that?”

Sardinia is an Italian island located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea. Home to some of the most beautiful white sand beaches, clear waters, and fabulous Vermentino and Cannonau wines, it’s little known to the majority of American travelers, but well known to most Europeans.

You may have heard of the Costa Smeralda, the mega-rich playground of Porto Cervo, or okay, maybe George Clooney having to visit the hospital in Olbia after getting into a motorcycle accident during the summer of 2018?

Image by Carmignani, Luigi & Oggiano, Giacomo & Funedda, Antonio & Conti, Paolo & Pasci, Sandro. (2015). The geological map of Sardinia (Italy) at 1:250,000 scale. Journal of Maps. in press. 10.1080/17445647.2015.1084544.

The major airports in Sardinia are Cagliari (S), Alghero (NW), and Olbia (NE). You cannot fly direct from the U.S., but you can grab a connector in many of the major European cities. Even some of the Euro-Budget airlines (Ryan Air, Easy Jet, Transavia) fly to Sardinia.

The northern portion of the island, the La Maddalena archipelago, has some history with the U.S. Navy, as the home port of a Submarine Tender for several years. This is how I first encountered the island, but admittedly, as a 19-year old Sailor, I didn’t take advantage of even a smidge of what Sardinia has to offer.

Over the next few weeks I’ll be sharing our adventures with you, from climbing up Cagliari’s medieval ramparts for sunset drinks, to climbing down to Cala Compultitu for a day on the beach.

Hopefully you will be inspired to think outside the box when planning your next beach vacation!

Come back and visit as I share what it’s like to be Soaking up Sardinia,

xxx,
G

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© G. Lee Healy

THEME BY ECLAIR DESIGNS