Rain

One of my favorite things about New York is the rain. There are have been some crazy, unpredictable Summer Storms. I have always loved the rain. It is fun to live in a climate where it does rain occasionally.

Rain outside the MET

Central Park

Lightning hit the Bloomberg Building last week

Walking up Amsterdam 

California

Last week I had the opportunity to fly out to Southern California, for a family reunion. Fortunately, I got a surprise trip to the beach with my gorgeous little sister. Then we got in the car to head north, to the Seirra Nevada's. 

Once in the mountains we hiked into the Muir Trail Ranch for a week cut off from the world. It was so much fun to be cut off from the world with my extended family. Having no cell phones or distractions made for a lot of time to talk and reconnect with my family. The Sierra's are a very unique set of mountains consisting of a lot of rock, mostly granite. It was so fun to hike, camp, fish, and just chill in the mountains with my favorite people. I love the mountains and always will. The transition into the mountains was a little weird coming from the city that never sleeps, but it was totally worth it. 

My lovely little sister, Claire, and cousin Rachel

There is this awesome type of tree in the mountains that literally smells like vanilla and butterscotch. Naturally, everyone had to take a whiff. 

My cute cousin Rebekah is the best older sister to little Seth

Man Horses - I am not a horse person

Grandad - He taught me how to fly fish this week

My tent mate Jamie or as Grace and I like to refer to him, Fabio 

Boston

 A few weeks ago I went to visit a friend, Ms. Erika Nash, in Boston, Massachusetts. I love Boston. I wasn't really into the tourist thing so we just got to hang out all weekend. It was so much fun! I can't believe all the things we fit into the weekend. We rode bikes all over Boston, ate great food, met new people, watched the world cup game, participated in ChowderFest, and got to explore what Boston has to offer.

Museum of Science

Free Ice Cream for Riding your Bike

Eight of Boston's popular restaurants participated in ChowderFest - I don't know if I recommend clam chowder for breakfast but it was a fun experience. 

Golden Dome on the State Capital 

"Make Way for Ducklings" Statue (one of the best children's book ever)

Newbury Street

Oh, The Places You'll Go

I have had some awesome adventures over the last month. Here is a brief overview of the things you missed. 

Belmont Stakes 

Brooklyn, New York

Taping of the Late Show with David Letterman

Chelsea Meat Market

Roosevelt Island Tram

Mets Game and REO Speed Wagon Concert

Baking

I finally caved and bought a few pans this week so that I could get back to baking. I spent all morning in the kitchen making bran muffins and bread. It was so nice to be cooking again - only problem it made the apartment super hot.

Smell

The sense of smell is one of our stronger senses, the average human can recognize nearly 10,000 different smells and odors. Yet it lacks key adjectives to describe what we perceive as smell. I have been taking a Professional Food Writing Class and I'm learning all about food and the senses we use to describe it. Smell is harder to describe than you would think, sit down and try to describe the smell of something. Surprisingly quite difficult right?

I bring up smell because we remember and recognize so many different smells and New York is definitely a city of smell (India also comes to mind). It is crazy how you can walk out the door and be overcome by a familiar odor, good or bad. I would try to describe the smells of New York but given the lack of adjectives I wouldn't give it justice. Maybe I can pull from the memory of 10,000 smells that we all recognize; think roasting nuts, fresh breads and bakery's, dog poo, rain, and asian food. Depending on the day and what part of New York you are in the smells are different, yet somehow familiar.

In Case You Haven't Heard

I got a JOB! A paying job. Now I have a little structure to my life. It is even better than that because I am working in a bakery which has always been a dream of mine. I am working at Levain Bakery in New York City. For those of you who know my work history it is just like J-Dawgs but we sell cookies instead of hot dogs. Check out their website www.levainbakery.com . They have so many good treats and I've had basically all of them in the last two days. My working situation this summer is ironically contradictory, healthy by day - bakery by night.

Central Park

If I don't fall in love with the city of New York after this summer I will always love Central Park. Over the last 6 weeks I have been keeping a list of fun things I have seen in Central Park: Skateboarders, boxing class, opera singer, art classes, raccoons, huge bubbles, horses, brides, pretty dogs, a bike crash, epic playgrounds, hidden trails, rollerbladers, quidditch game, skate boarding dog, and a long boarding crew.