Michael Blanding and Alexandra Hall met working five feet from each other as editors at Boston Magazine, where Alex covered food and fashion and Michael wrote about politics and crime. Since then, they’ve traveled the world together, dodging bicycles on the streets of Ho Chi Minh City, breaking an axle on a safari in South Africa, and closing out nightclubs in Paris and Buenos Aires (not an easy feat!). But they’ve always loved returning to New England for its mix of natural beauty and enlightened culture. Michael and Alex pride themselves on having driven, hiked, canoed, or sailed every inch of the six-state region, ferreting out hidden storybook villages, backwoods museums, and underrated restaurants along the way.

Alex grew up on Boston’s South Shore and studied at Wheaton College and the Cordon Bleu Institute in Paris. She is now the Boston editor of DailyCandy, a website divulging the newest finds in food, fashion, and culture. Michael grew up west of Boston and attended Williams College. He is now a freelance writer for various magazines and journalism professor at Emerson College. He has won several awards for his writing, including twice being named a finalist for the prestigious Livingston Awards for Young Journalists.

Together, Alex and Michael have written for publications including Condé Nast Traveler, Bon Appétit, Elle Decor, Continental, Delta Sky, Business Traveler, The Nation, The New York Times, The Boston Globe, and AlterNet. They were married two years ago on the shores of beautiful Moosehead Lake, where Michael wore a kilt and Alex donned red heels and white feathers. They now live in the Boston neighborhood of Jamaica Plain with their cat named Dog, their two-year-old son Zachary, and baby daughter Cleo, who have fast become the best-traveled babies in the world.