I made the most of my recent trip to visit family in Fairfield, Connecticut — a big birthday celebration, breakfast and coffee at my absolute favorite coffee shop in the world, walks on the beach, card games, shopping with my mother-in-law at the Serena & Lily design shop and the Marea flagship store, and finally a visit to a resort I’ve long wanted to see, The Mayflower Inn & Spa in Washington, Connecticut. Only an hour or so drive from my in-laws house (also about 2 hours and 15 min from NYC), I made the trip to the hotel mid-morning and was back before happy hour. It was a beautiful drive through parts of Connecticut I had never seen, and I especially loved all the old homes in Litchfield. I stopped for lunch on my way home and had the most delicious caprese pesto sandwich from a place called Petraroia Deli.
Here are a few snaps of my visit to the spa and peak around the hotel. Some of the features include: a top notch spa (truly the best facial I’ve ever had), wellness programs (including a stunning relaxation room, yoga, and pilates classes), and Celerie Kemble designed interiors which are so beautiful and inspiring. This isn’t a place you stay for a week – more of a long weekend, quick stay for spa, food, antique shopping, and exploring. If I had more time, I would have followed this insider guide from Style Expert Jane Keltner de Valle to a T.
And this is going to make me sound really weird, but as I was leaving the dressing room at the spa to check out, I looked over and gasped as I saw Dani Shapiro also in the dressing room. Shapiro is the host of one of my favorite podcasts, Family Secrets, and author of several books including, Inheritance, which inspired the podcast. She was so kind and gracious and after I reached out to her on Instagram to apologize for the gasp and Fan Girl moment in the quiet spa, she wrote me back to say that writers and podcasters do their work alone so it meant the world to “know it has landed.”
Family Secrets is not a lighthearted listen – it is a collection of deeply moving, heavy, emotional, occasionally disturbing true stories of people experiencing family issues that alter the course of their lives. If Shapiro wasn’t an author, I would say she would make an incredible psychiatrist – her insight into others’ experiences has me hanging onto every word, and taking to heart her observations and wisdom about how to navigate complicated and sometimes painful relationships in my own life. Life is hard. And sad, sometimes. I like how Dani tells these complicated stories and tries to make sense out of things that don’t often make sense.
Here’s an excerpt from one of her recent episodes with Julie Fingersh, author of the memoir, “Stay”.
“I was finally coming to understand that our birthright is this. We are entitled to our own lives. No matter what happens to those we love, we are entitled, and we don’t have to be anything other than who we are. When the people we love struggle, we can love them, and we can try our best to help them, but we cannot save them. It is enough to learn how to save ourselves.”
From Family Secrets: The Perfect Happy Family, Jun 12, 2025
Anyway, I highly recommend it if you like good stories. And by the way, there’s no chronological order so you can read the descriptions and jump into any one of the episodes that interests you in all 12 (yes, 12) seasons.
The moral of the story is go out and do something for yourself today, such as treating yourself to a luxurious spa day. :).
