Map & Menu turns four this week! We came up with the idea for this website on a snowy drive home from the Berkshires in 2012 and pressed publish on our first post just a few weeks later. It’s hard to believe that it has been four years since we shared our post on the Berkshires inn where it all began. Since our launch, we’ve traveled to places we likely would have never seen or experienced without the impetus of this site. Operating Map & Menu has opened doors for us, allowing us to meet and work alongside people and businesses we truly admire. We’ve also come to rely on the site as a visual diary for what our lives looked like at any given point in time. Easy access to these memories has proven to be invaluable to both of us.

With that in mind, here are some Map & Menu highlights from the last four years we’ll be reminiscing about as we toast the site this week!

March 2012

Our first big Map & Menu road trip from Maine to South Carolina featured stops at some of our favorite East Coast spots – Hotel Fauchere, Fearrington, Palmetto Bluff, and the Inn at Perry Cabin.

July 2012

The summer after we started Map & Menu, I shot a wedding in France, so naturally we made a week of it and visited Europe together for the first time since college. Our stay in Provence was incredible and remains one of our all-time favorites!

August 2012

The first trip (of many) we took to Vermont, and the one that started our yearly tradition of spending a couple of days in the Green Mountain State every August with Orvis.

February 2013

Before Hunt & Alpine and Central Provisions opened their doors to the public, we were invited to sample their soon to be award-winning cocktails and food at their joint Hush, Hush event. The photographs taken that night opened the doors for me to shoot commercial images for both restaurants. The food and drink, kicked off a love affair with both establishments that’s still going strong.

June 2013

We stayed at the Salt House Inn for a quick night before shooting a wedding the next day and fell in love with what would eventually become the Salt Hotels brand. The photos we took of our room ended up being featured in an issue of Conde Nast Traveler and on some of our favorite websites.

August 2013

Inspired by a regular feature in Food & Wine, we decided to make our own list of favorite dishes in town – Portland, Maine in 10 Bites. We had no idea this post would be so well-received, and although it’s over two years old, we still stand by all of our recommendations! Although now I’m hungry for an update…

September 2013

Good things happen in Vermont. We stayed up after an amazing meal at SoLo Farm and Table to publish the above 10 Bites post and woke up the next morningto an email about writing a piece for The Guardian that was published in the UK paper a few weeks later.

Winter/Spring 2014

The first half of 2014 flew by, as we were on the go quite a bit. Trips to Charleston, Atlanta, the Florida Keys, North Carolina, Upstate NY, New York City, and Scotland kept our wanderlust at bay.

November 2014

We were married in the tiniest of ceremonies by the sea, on the date of our ninth anniversary – easily the happiest day ever!

February 2015

Taking Orvis with us to Bald Head Island for his first trip to the island was incredible. There were no fancy meals or swanky hotel rooms – just the three of us on the beach, two of us bundled-up and laughing at the other’s sheer joy.

Spring 2015 – Ongoing

Last spring we began collaborating with hotels and brands on imagery. The first projects took us from the Mad River Valley in Vermont to the Caribbean island of Nevis. We participated in our first Instagram takeover and enjoyed spreading the word about a talented, young Maine chef.

So much has happened in the past four years. One of our original reasons for beginning Map & Menu was for it to be a journal of sorts for the two of us, and looking back through these posts reminds us of all of the tastes and adventures we’ve shared, and the ones out there, still waiting to be enjoyed. Thank you for following along as we’ve grown and changed over the years. Thank you for the comments, the emails, and the recommendations – we can’t wait to share the next four years with you!