New York, New York

What happens when you take two 20 somethings who spend most of their time in the outdoors and put them into a city that has the highest population density in the United States? Short answer...culture shock.

The view from my brother's apartment in Brooklyn. He and his girlfriend put us up for a couple days.

We just got back from our two week trip in NYC and Connecticut. I grew up in a small suburb in Connecticut, but my family spent a lot of time in the city. For Jeremias, it was his first time visiting New York. Excited by the prospect of being a tour guide, my mom showed us her home town and told ‘back in the day’ stories.

Old man plays the sax under a bridge in Central Park

We spent our first day in the city getting our tourist on. We went to The Museum of Natural History, followed by a walk through Central Park. There we met the famous Balto, an important dog to the mushing community. Owned by Leonhard Seppala, he was the lead dog of the dog team that brought a life saving serum to Nome, Alaska in 1925. As a tribute to the ‘endurance, fidelity, and intelligence’ of dogs he has been immortalized as a statue in Central Park. Fun fact: Leonhard Seppala’s father is from Junosuando, the next village over from where Jerre and I work.

Posing with the famous Balto.

Walking along the path in Central Park.

The day concluded with another first for Jerre...musical theater. The production of Les Miserables was outstanding. I have been attending theater productions for as long as I can remember, so my family and I were excitedly waiting to hear what Jerre thought. Luckily, he loved it!

The following days were filled a lot of walking. We browsed quite a few stores that were on our to do list whilst visiting New York. The REI in SOHO was one of our stops where purchased a few items that remained on our gear list. REI is a consumer cooperative, which means that is is partially owned by the customers. REI’s customers are valued higher than their profits. This is shown with their one-year no questions asked return policy, and year end dividend based on what you spent that year. At only $20 to sign up it is well worth it. For those that love the outdoors REI is a sort of one stop shop. For you foreign fans of REI, you might be interested to learn about their new international shipping rates. If you spend $150 or more, shipping is only $20.

Taking a much needed lunch break before we went to REI.

A classic breakfast at the diner near my grandmother's apartment in Manhattan.

My favorite place to take tourists in NYC is The High Line. A disused train line from the 1930’s was revamped into a beautifully designed park. The first section was opened in 2009 from Gansevoort Street to West 20th street. With the recent completion of the park you can walk from Gansevoort Street all the way up to West 34th street. Along the way there are different things to see. We took a snapshot at the giant picture window looking over the busy streets below.

Overlooking 10th avenue at West 17th street.

After a culture filled 5 day stretch in NYC we retreated to the quiet suburbs of my hometown, Ridgefield, Connecticut. Sometimes you need to have a visitor to remind you how beautiful your home is. The small civil war era town is filled with history. As Jerre put it, “It’s super cute!” We did some more planning for our upcoming hike, you may have seen our post from BJs. Needless to say we bought a lot of snacks. We also spent a day in Kent, Connecticut. A beautiful hike with the family was exactly what we needed to get back in touch with nature.