New York | THIS IS FANNY

Bear with me

Fanny Sura23 August, 2018Leave a comment

Good Evening! I’m getting really excited about our camping trip coming up this weekend. It will be nice to go away and be right in nature. But I’m also slightly terrified! Today I feel a bit calmer, but yesterday I was freaking out a little. I started to read what to do if you would meet a bear, because there are plenty of bears around here so it’s good to at least have a clue of what to do and not to do.

Black bears will not typically not do anything. Grizzly bears, maybe…? But I read that it’s bigger chance of being in a car accident or get struck by lightning than getting attacked by a bear.

BUT, we have a barking fluff monster. Jim and I can read and figure out how to stay safe in a situation of meeting a bear. But Thor, he would just bark – which can at best scare the bears away…or – and trigger the bear to think we are a threat. Aaah!

I’m overreacting of course. There is a village somewhat nearby and unless the bears have learned there is food around, they won’t come. But, I’m still a little freaked out. We don’t have bears in our forests in southern Sweden, so I have never really thought about anything around bears. I basically only knew that you can play dead, but there are a few other steps before that. I’m glad I have read a bit more about it now. Still not sure how to handle the situation if Thor starts to bark. Time will tell (hopefully it will never tell!!)

Tomorrow I’m going to pack everything. I have a list of things to bring and most of it is actually just sitting on the kitchen counter waiting to be packed up. Flashlight, mosquito spray, mosquito spray for Thor, repellent candles, blankets, snacks and food, coffee, camping fire blanket, garbage bags etc. and water is already in the car. This will be an awesome trip!

In New York

Mountain Lakes Park

Fanny Sura22 July, 201826 July, 2018Leave a comment

We had a pretty active day yesterday. Got up early to watch the sunrise, had coffee on the terrace, I went to the gym for an hour and after I had showered, we packed a bag with water, snacks and mosquito spray. We drove for about 40 minutes to Mountain Lakes Park in North Salem, NY.
We started walking and soon we came to a lake filled with water lilies. I’ve never seen so many before. I was completely amazed by this!
We continued on and realized we had walked to an end, so we had to go back a little bit and then go back on the path we wanted. So incredibly nice, basically noone there, we were alone for the most part.
At some point I heard something that sounded like a baby bear crying. The thought of running into a bear had never crossed my mind, cause I didn’t grow up with bears in the forest (I grew up in the south of Sweden, we saw occasionally a moose but even that was rare). I started walking a little faster and kept looking around until we had walked far enough for it to feel a little safer. Running into momma bear on our hike would be amazing to see but absolutely terrifying to experience:)
We walked to what we thought was the lookout point. We sat on a wooden bench and had snacks before we continued. Very shortly after that, we ended up at the actual lookout, haha. There were several people hanging out looking at the view of the three lakes. We only stayed for about a minute, not even. We were pretty tired at this point, especially our little fluff butt.
Thor tried to stay awake in his travel bag by my feet in the car but eventually he fell asleep. He walked 6 MILES!! Our tiny 7.5 lbs baby walked 6 miles yesterday! Can you believe it? And he “climbed” a mountain (it was slowly going up and then down, you didn’t really notice that you walked up a mountain). I am so proud of him. I wonder if his little muscles are sore today, haha:)

In New York, Swedish in America

Soccer and Birthday Party

Fanny Sura8 July, 201817 July, 2018Leave a comment

Yesterday we walked to downtown Stamford to find a place to have brunch and watch the game. We had been to the gym before and ended up leaving home a little late, so every place was packed. But we actually found two seats and was able to kinda see the game. Too bad it was a crappy game though (but hey, Sweden made it this far, they should be proud). We had fun at least. We saw someone with a Swedish jersey at the place, but the whole area was mostly British people or people who were cheering for England (three bars next to each other streaming the game so everyone was at the same place which made it an exciting area).

In the afternoon, we dropped Thor off with our neighbor and then walked to the train station. Train to Larchmont, NY, and then a 20 minute walk over to Mike’s house. Jim’s boss (Mike) and his twin brother are turning 50 today so they had a 100th Birthday Party yesterday. Very cute setup in their backyard with tables under a big tent. The food was really awesome too, just simple fried bbq stuff. There were plenty of kids there as well and they all ran around having fun and later some of them went kayaking out to the ocean (the water comes in by M’s house). A very relaxed birthday party outside in the sun. Some people J used to work with showed up and we had a really nice evening.

In Connecticut, New York

35 degrees and boat day

Fanny Sura1 July, 2018Leave a comment

Sweaty days now. 35°c today and pretty humid. It’s good to know someone with a boat then. When you’re face is melting off it’s nice to just jump into the water.
Jim’s boss has a boat and his family is away for a week so he asked us if we wanted to go out with his boat. We drove a bit up with the boat to Connecticut (he lives and has his boat in Larchmont, NY). And then we stopped to swim and relax. Lovely! I would never consider owning a boat of my own, but I do love to go out in the ocean, be surrounded by water. On the way back I sat in the front. So fast and bumpy. I had to really hold on. So much fun!
Anyway. We were out for a few hours and then we had to head back home to Thor. We were so tired after that. The sun really wears you out:) I’m doing laundry now and at the same time doing some stuff on my computer while eating “ballerina” cookies. Jim started to give me Swedish treats on Friday. I have got a kex chocolate, a bag with a licorice mix candy bag and I also accidentally found Kalles Kaviar (caviar) in the fridge on Thursday. Mmm, a real good b-day weekend:)
And tomorrow is my birthday!!

In New York

a warm day in NYC

Fanny Sura15 April, 201815 April, 2018Leave a comment

Yesterday around 11 am, we took the train into New York City. We got off at 125th Street this time and took the subway down to 86. Bought bagels and coffee and walked to Central Park. So. Much. People! Finally warm weather and every single person was outside. But we expected that. After our little picnic, we had a nice stroll in the park, walked back to East Side and took the blue subway down to W4th in West Village. Hung out in a bar, walked around, went to a few stores and soon we decided to walk to Tribeca and eat at Wolfgangs, one of our favorite places when we lived in the city. We were the only ones there which was really nice. We were back at Grand Central before 6 pm to take the train back home. Thor had been with our neighbors until 5, so it was a good time to come. We had an awesome day in the city!

Video from our day will come up on my YouTube channel on Wednesday!:)