Moon Spotlight Newport

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 Reykjavik, Paris, and Buenos Aires (not an easy feat!). But wherever their travels have taken them, 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 corner of the six-state region, ferreting out under-rated restaurants, backwoods museums, and hidden villages along the way. Alex grew up on Boston's South Shore and studied at Wheaton College and Le Cordon Bleu Institute in Paris. After years as a senior editor for DailyCandy and editor for Fashion Boston, she is now back at Boston Magazine as executive editor for lifestyle. Michael grew up west of Boston, attended Williams College, and was a staff writer and editor at Boston Magazine for five years. Now a freelance magazine writer, he has also taught journalism at Emerson College, Northeastern University, and Tufts University. His first book of investigative journalism, The Coke Machine: The Dirty Truth Behind the World's Favorite Soft Drink, was recently published. Together, Alex and Michael have written for publications including Conde Nast Traveler, Bon Appetit, Town & Country Travel, New England Travel, Yankee, Boston Magazine, Elle Decor, Continental, Business Traveler, The Nation, The New Republic, The New York Times, The Boston Globe, and AlterNet. They were married on the rustic shores of Maine's Moosehead Lake, where Michael wore a kilt and Alex donned red heels and white feathers. They now live in Boston's Jamaica Plain neighborhood with their cat, Catsby, and their son Zachary and daughter Cleo, who have fast become two of the best-traveled kids in the world.