Posts filed under Madison Life

It's the Little Things that Make you Happy in Life

The Tour of the Midwest?

Minneapolis

A couple of weeks ago part of W's family did a midwest tour and visited both W's brother in Minneapolis and us here in Madison. W and I drove to Minneapolis to see them all there before we would all travel back to Madison together.

För ett par veckor sedan kom W's familj och hälsade på här i Minneapolis och Madison området. Vi åkte till Minneapolis och mötte upp W's familj där.

Turnblad Mansion

W's mom had already talked about a few things she thought would be nice to visit. One of them being IKEA, of course, but also this mansion called Turnblad Mansion. It was pretty fascinating to walk around in the mansion and see all the Swedish inspired and Swedish things he purchased and built for the mansion.

W's mamma hade kollat upp lite olika svenskheter i Minneapolis som hon tyckte vi kunde besöka. IKEA förstås, men även ett gammalt hus som var byggt av en svensk.

They have a store at the Swedish Institute (where the mansion is) where they sell Swedish and Scandinavian/Nordic items, OVERPRICED of course. We bought some Daim at IKEA, and a smaller bag at the Swedish institute was twice as expensive. WHY does it have to be this way? I mean, you can get American candy over in Sweden for pretty cheap, but yeah, I think we are increasingly seeing more and more Scandinavian, and European for that matter, sweets and food over on this side of the ocean. The other day for instance, I went to Woodmans, and found Ballerina cookies.

Vid svenska institutet, där museet ligger, har de även en affär där man kan hitta lite svenska godsaker. Tyvärr så är allt väldigt dyrt där, som det ju ofta är på museer. Men det finns andra helt otippade ställen man kan hitta lite svenskheter på, som till exempel den vanliga mataffären här i Madison.

IKEA

At IKEA we didn't only buy Daim, we actually bought some furniture!! YAY! And textiles, as in sheets and nice duvet cover!! It's amazing how nice I think the IKEA sheets and duvet covers are compared to the American ones, well they don't really have duvet covers per see, some of them do, but yeah anyway.

Vi köpte inte bara Daim på IKEA, utan även lite möbler förstås. Och lakan och påslakan. Helt otroligt vilken skillnad det är på texturen av IKEAS lakan och de man hittar på affären här i USA, iallafall har jag inte lyckats hitta några riktigt bra lakan jag gillar här. Är så himla nöjd med mitt IKEA påslakanset.

Our apartment is really small, so we needed some smart solutions for the bathroom for instance, but also our closet. We also bought an awesome bookshelf (a sturdy one) that we put in the living room. We have so many books!! I don't have any pictures of our new furniture in the apartment, so I'll have to show you that part some other time!

Vår lägenhet är riktigt liten så vi behövde hitta lite smarta lösningar till både badrummet och vår garderob. Har inte riktigt någon bild på de lösningarna vi hittade i slutändan men får kanske visa det vid ett senare tillfälle.

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Hope your Thursday is Awesome!

Posted on September 15, 2016 by Ann Rumbleinthearctic and filed under Madison Life and tagged Turnblad Mansion Minneapolis Madison travel roadtrip IKEA Furniture Minnesota sommar summer Summer days 2016 Family.

Why U.S Beer and Coffee taste so bad - Or does it?

På Svenska

Wednesday thoughts

Swedes are generalizers

This year has brought new challenges and new opportunities to me and my life. I experienced my first summer in a city that is farther down south than what I ever have lived. It's interesting how large the US is, there are so many states. A lot of time people are generalizing their thought about the US based on a small experience in one town in one state, but with 50 states that doesn't really makes sense. It's like saying that just because french people like bread and cheese that is the norm for someone up north in Sweden, or that the coffee in Europe is really bad, because you accidentally got served bad coffee when you went to that tiny little cafe in Portugal.

Breweries in the US

I love beer, and before I moved to the US all I knew about American beer was Bud Light, which I had never tried before because it's seen as a watery and bad beer in Sweden. Who would buy that? Every now and then I see comments about US beer from European people, that the beer is really bad, watery and bland. I wonder where they have been? There are 20 or so breweries in Alaska and I have been to many of them. I must say, most of them are great, actually awesome. Nowadays I love going to breweries and try to find at least one to visit once I go to a new place.

Micro and Nano Breweries

Obviously there are small breweries that aren't as good as others, as there are large corporation breweries that are worse than the small ones. The last few years there has been such an increase in small breweries, and nano breweries, popping up all over the country. Everyone wants to brew beer professionally, and many people succeed, but not all. Now, how many small breweries does Sweden have? Right. They are popping up there too of course.

IPA

When my mom and dad came here for the first time W introduced my dad to IPA. He hated it. Man, I hated it the first time I had it. This hoppy beer filled with joy. At the end of my parents visit my dad was drinking IPA. He figured he needed to try it again, and again, and then he actually did like it. At that time when the parents were here, the IPA was almost unheard of in Sweden, but a few months later it made it's big entrance to Sweden too. The fridge was stocked with IPAs when W and I came to visit, my dad had prepared it for W of course, and me. I have a hard time drinking anything else than an IPA nowadays.

Coffee

Same goes with coffee. There are a lot of good places in the US to get coffee from, and if you keep going to the store and buy the cheap brands of instant coffee, or ground coffee, well you get what you pay for! I have seen Swedes living in the US complain about the bad coffee this country has to offer, while scoping coffee from a Folgers ground coffee container, or instant coffee. Similarly, you will not ever get any good coffee from a gas station, or most cheap motels. I know my parents always talked about how bad the coffee was in th eUS when we went here back in the day. How watery it was. W’s lab drank coffee that even I had problem drinking, it was so strong. Likewise W’s family like strong coffee. There is nothing wrong with the coffee, it’s how you make it. And there are coffee snobs in the US too.

Did you know that Alaskans are actually considered coffee snobs?

Here are some of my Alaskan beer favorites, I probably forgot a few...

Mother Ale, Denali brewing company
Twister Creek, Denali brewing company
Peninsula brewer's preserve, Kenai river brewing company
German Kölsch, Hoodoo brewing company
American IPA, Hoodoo brewing company
Belgian Saison, Hoodoo brewing company
Beaver tail blonde ale, Kassiks brewing company
Sockeye red IPA, Midnight sun brewing company
Pleasure town IPA, Midnight sun brewing company
Snowshoe white, Midnight sun brewing company
Copper creek amber ale, Silver Gulch
Pick Ax porter, Silver Gulch

Some of the more mainstream ones I enjoy:

Alaskan Amber, Alaskan brewing company
Freeride APA, Alaskan brewing company
White, Alaskan brewing company
Summer, Alaskan brewing company

Some of my non-Alaskan beers I enjoy

Bozone Amber Ale, Bozeman brewing company
Double haul IPA, Kettlehouse brewing company
Coldsmoke Scotch Ale, Kettlehouse brewing company
Moose Drool Brown Ale, Big Sky brewing company
Melvin IPA, Melvin brewing company
Pako’s IPA, Snake River brewing company
Myrcenary Double IPA, Odell’s brewing company
Rupture Fresh Grind IPA, Odell’s brewing company
Drumroll Hazy Pale Ale, Odell’s brewing company

Do you have a favorite beer, in Europe or in the US?

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Hiking Cherokee Marsh Conservation Park in Wisconin

Adventure Tuesday

Time flies, and today I am posting the 6th Adventure Tuesday post. It's fun to share some of my every day adventures. An adventure doesn't have to involve a risk for your life rafting down the Grand Canyon, or climbing the tallest mountain in the world. You decide what your adventure is, your pace and how far you are willing to go.

Cherokee Marsh

This past weekend W and I decided to go to a park that is about 10-15 minutes by car from our house, so basically in the near vicinity of Madison. We had something else planned originally but had to switch those plans and ended up doing this instead.

Arriving at the park I immediately spotted all the water droplets on the spiderwebs even before we stopped the car. The morning started off as a foggy surprise and it definitely continued to surprise us, well at least to me.

We started off by walking up the trail from the south side of the marsh and immediately got some views of the Yahara river which flows into lake Mendota.

As I mentioned earlier the weather was foggy and a bit cloudy. This walk varied between open fields with views of the river and beautiful stretches through oak forests.

We kept seeing more spiderwebs of different shapes along the hike, mixed in with the vegetation.

Again, as many of the other hikes we do, this one was not that far. But I am mostly interested in getting outside and also to take some pictures of all the cool plants and insects I see.

I try to identify time as time goes by, so if some of them are unnamed check back later on to see if I managed to identify them, or better yet, if you know the name of the plant let me know!

It's incredible how many different types of flowers there are here. Ok, there are a lot of flowers and such around fairbanks too, but not like this. Or maybe I am just biased because a lot of these flowers are new to me.

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We did run into the giant wasp here too, but now I know they are harmless and it did make me feel as if they were less intimidating, but man, look at that size. Also I managed to snap a few pics of two different butterflies.