Posts tagged #rearviewmirror2019

In The Rearview Mirror 2019 pt. 4

Flashback Friday

October

    Our friends came and visited us in October, and we ventured out to a wide variety of museums and art galleries. Early October was actually a bit chilly and you could definitely tell that fall was on its way. But as always, temperatures fluctuated a lot this year too. We went through Central Parks many times in October and it’s always great to see the colors change as time passes. We also went to a light show by Columbia University. It was ok, not spectacular in any way though. Morningside Park has raccoons that we see from time to time, and in October we saw one again. One of the streets we take to work is always full of nice Halloween decorations, so it was always fun to stroll through that part and check out all the various decorations for this year.

November

    In November fall colors were still lingering in Central Park, and we still had warmish temperatures. It’s interesting how fall seems to hang on forever in New York, compared to other places we have lived. If you venture out in Central Park on some of the trails it almost feels as if you are in the middle of nowhere even though you are in one of the largest cities in the world. I made some cardamom buns and finally made them perfect! I also managed to make my first macaroons. We went to W’s grandma for Thanksgiving and hung out there for a couple of days. It’s always nice to be able to have those days to recuperate from the big city life.

December

    December came with a thin layer of snow, and that is about everything we got. I went to the ballet and saw the nutcracker and I made some saffron buns, absolutely delicious. W and I explored some old and new bars before we headed out to Montuckey for Christmas. We did a lot of hiking, per usual around Bozeman. Actually more than usual because of the thin layer of snow. We rented an Airbnb in Gardiner after Christmas and spent a couple of days in Yellowstone National Park. We checked out some bars in Gardiner and the next day we finally went skiing in northeast Yellowstone! On New Years Eve we went to bed already at 9.30 but we had big and early plans on January 1st.

Posted on May 22, 2020 by Ann Rumbleinthearctic and filed under Flashback Friday, Rearview Mirror, Life in New York and tagged rearviewmirror Central Park Museum Christmas Fall NYC NYC Parks Manhattan rearviewmirror2019 Montana Bozeman Yellowstone Winter X-Country Skiing Skiing in Yellowstone National Park 2020 Life in NYC.

In The Rearview Mirror 2019 pt. 3

Flashback Friday

Memories

Our second summer in New York, but again we were gone for a big chunk of the time. This was the first summer in 10 years that I went back to Sweden. I always hear about other Swedes brag about Sweden in the summertime, and I haven’t really understood why….until now. We managed to go to a Broadway show which was incredible and continued to revisit Central Park, East Village, and Chinatown. At the end of the summer, we thought it was time to conquer a peak, or two, again!

July

    The 4th of July came and went, and the aftermath kind of reminds me of the Swedish Valborg. I was working now but always manage to find some time to go for a short walk around the campus out at Lamont. I made Swedish cinnamon buns for my birthday and even snagged a selfie of myself in front of the mirror. July always brings hot temperatures, and this July was no exception. We grew a lot of herbs, but they all died unfortunately when we went to Sweden. I think I must have forgotten about summertime in Sweden. Also, the fact that we had insanely warm temperatures and sunny skies every day probably helped a lot. Summers up north, where my family’s summerhouse is are incredible. The sunsets are always out of this world. We have the baltic sea right there in front of the house and we fish a lot while we are up there. We have our own smoker too of course, and you cannot get fish that are fresher than this. We did some blueberry and cloudberry picking and even managed to find some spruce seedling. We took a trip west, towards Norway, and then south, through Åre and then continued through Östersund before heading straight back to Stockholm. Dad gave us a tour at the Royal Palace and we visited mom’s old working grounds at the open-air museum, Skansen. The last day we went to Omnipollo brewery and even had time to visit the church and my mom’s memorial there.

August

    Back in NYC W’s mom and aunt were still with us and we went to a fantastic Broadway musical called Hadestown. It was incredible and I still listen to the soundtrack every now and then. Life went on, walks to work, and beautiful views from the lab I run. I went out to Cold Spring with some new found friends and then W and I ventured out in the East Village, again. That part of town also means that we go by East Broadway mall for some seafood. Later in August we went to Ikea in Red Hook and went bar hopping over there for the afternoon. We even managed to find some live music at one of the local bars. I went out to the old Lady that stands tall by the southern tip of Manhattan. I was quite positively surprised by the visit, It was definitely worth it to walk all the way up to the crown. We were lucky and the weather was a bit cloudy and rainy so the temperatures were not as hot as it can be since it’s all within a tin can basically (well, literally). On the last day of the weekend of the month we went out to Cold Spring together and went hiking to Breakneck ridge.

September

   September arrived, but instead of fall colors early on we had warm weather. Of course, because in New York fall arrives later, and also sticks around forever. We went on a road trip to the White Mountains in New Hampshire and stayed in a cute little town called Woodstock. These White Mountains here on the east coast, are very different from the ones we are used to in Alaska. We visited a research site called Hubbard Brook and the next day we conquered not one, but three peaks, all above 4,000 feet. On the way down we saw some incredible waterfalls. And just like Algonquin Peak we were scrambling over boulders and crossed creeks and waterfalls. Back in NYC fall had slowly tried to break through but the colors would last for a long time after this.

Posted on January 24, 2020 by Ann Rumbleinthearctic and filed under Flashback Friday, Rearview Mirror, Life in New York and tagged rearviewmirror Life in USA NYC New York City New York Life New York White Mountains rearviewmirror2019 2020 Cold Spring Central Park East Village Chinatown Life in NYC.

In The Rearview Mirror 2019 pt. 2

Flashback Friday

Memories

Second Quarter of 2019, and it dawned on me how different my life looks now, compared to when I still lived in Alaska. Life back then, in Alaska, was all about snow, skiing, camping, fieldwork and the deep deep boreal forest. 40 below in the wintertime, smoke from wildfires mixed with mosquitos from hell in the summertime. Quite the contrast from big city life in New York City and Manhattan. If you are interested in seeing the contrast between life in Alaska, transitioning into life in Wisconsin before continuing with the rearview mirror of 2019 you can check out these posts below!

April

April came with Cherry blossoms in Central Park, and I went down there the day before we flew to Denver, Colorado. I reflected over the fact that spring is so different in different parts of the US, April in Alaska is very different compared to Wisconsin and New York. In Denver, we saw some good friends and their kitty cat. Denver has a lot of nice graffiti almost everywhere, so I might do a separate blog post highlighting that at a later stage. We, of course, went to a few breweries, bars and managed to get a hike in before it was time to get back to NYC. In NYC I had a day or so before a friend from Stockholm arrived. We did a couple of touristy things, Chinatown, the Highline and Columbia University. At the end of April Spring was definitely full-on. I got a couple of walks in Central Park, W and I went to East Broadway mall in Chinatown again for some seafood so we could cook a nice dinner. Also, at the end of April, I finally got a job!!

May

    May in NYC definitely mean summertime. I explored the area around my new workplace, which is about 40 minutes north of the city. We went to a Yankees baseball game in the Bronx one evening, our first real baseball game together, since the last one (in Minneapolis) turned into a non-baseball baseball game. We also did a short trip up to the Catskills, and I made more no-knead bread. Basically the best and easiest bread you can make. Garvey just keeps getting larger and larger, and even now in 2020 he is still growing. I saw some wildlife in Morningside park one afternoon, a raccoon. They are usually nocturnal so don’t really know what was up with that fella. We hosted a taco evening at our apartment, a good excuse to clean the whole place! W’s brother and girlfriend came to visit us too for about a week, and we had some picnics in the park, of course, managed to squeeze in a Broadway show and some bar excursions in East village. W and I went to see the goats in Riverside park and then May turned into June.

June

   We again went down to the East Village, but this time we walked a fair bit beforehand. We followed Riverside Park and then took the train south. Another evening we bought some food at an Italian deli and went to Central Park. We also went to one of our favorite bars, Mess Hall. More explorations in the city, especially now that we got a second income. Another picnic in the park and I also went down to Battery Park for the last beer with a friend before she moved to San Fran! I spotted a deer outside the window of my lab and W and I had an after-work beer one evening.

Posted on January 10, 2020 by Ann Rumbleinthearctic and filed under Flashback Friday, Rearview Mirror, Life in New York and tagged rearviewmirror New York New York City Spring Summer Big City Life New York Life Catskills East Village Riverside Park Denver Colorado Hiking Columbia University High Line Central Park Gotham City rearviewmirror2019 2020 Park Life in NYC.