Friluftsliv...that "Free Air Life"

Norwegians embrace something called Friluftsliv (pronounced free -loofts-liv) which to the best of my understanding, means to be fully uplifted and enchanted by nature. The literal English translation of Friluftsliv is "free air life," but there is no single word in English to fully capture its essence and authentic meaning.

Friluftsliv seems to be considered a code of life and a way of being in Norway, and according to this article, this in-depth appreciation for and exploration of the world outdoors is even taught in "folk" high schools (though I'm not sure exactly what a "folk" high school is all about).

Last Sunday was an absolutely beautiful fall day here in Minne, with the colors peaking and the air still warm and inviting. I am the first to admit that I'm not the most at home in the great outdoors. Friluftsliv is not instinctual for me. I'm not one for bugs and dirt, and I have turned down invites to camp without a worry for what I might miss as I opted to stay at home with wine in hand while streaming Netflix. But I could not pass up a day outdoors last Sunday, breathing in fall with all of my senses, without a concern for clock time or my incomplete checklists of tasks and to dos. Time well spent need not be monitored.

So, I laced up my running shoes run the 10-mile path around the Chain of Lakes (#56 on my 2016 List), to capture some of the spirit of Minnesota Fall as best as my iPhone camera lens would allow, to let myself be completely captivated, curious, inspired and swept up by nature.

I took over 100 photos...and here are just a few of my favorites. An ode to Autumn. An attempt to walk the path of Friluftsliv, if only for a taste.

On the way to Lake Harriet near Dupont 

 A fenceline on the way to Lake Harriet

 The last stretch before the Lake Harriet ped and bike path

Lake Harriet, with some of the MPLS skyline peaking through

Lake Harriet

Lake Calhoun pedestrian path

An Isle in the Lake of the Isles

Colorful branches shade the Lake of the Isles

 Lake of the Isles lilypads 

Lake Calhoun

More fall foliage along Lake Harriet

   Lake Harriet ped and bike paths

The American Dream

For those who know me personally, you may know that earlier this year, B and I bought a house. I am immensely proud of this, an "American Dream" type of milestone that, for a while, I thought I could never reach. As a long-time, self-proclaimed homebody, home ownership is the single element of the American dream that I have most wanted to make a part of my reality.

A decade ago I was living in expensive Chicago and trying to enjoy my young, urban life, doing my best to decompress from 60+ hour work weeks, while trying (and failing) to keep my head above the waves of my personal debt, waves that had been ripping and swelling since I turned 18.

Although I had a job and a career that paid decently, I was always playing 'catch up' with my credit card bills, car payment, cell phone and utility bills, and chipping away that effing expensive student loan, the loan that made for damn certain I would start my adult life in 5 figure debt. My credit rating was pretty deplorable, like a D grade or something, and I think the only reason it wasn't totally flushed down the toilet was because I paid that damn student loan on time each and every month, the only bill I managed to never pay late thanks to auto pay, my only financial saving grace.

At this time in my life, several of my friends were starting that very grownup journey of buying their first homes, either with their life partner or completely on their own. Given my frustrating financial situation, I resigned myself to the looming reality that homeownership was likely never going to be in the cards for me, not with my ocean of debt and my difficulty reigning it in. I was envious of my monetarily stable friends, and shameful of my financial failures.

Still, I never threw in the towel on eventually getting my financial game on track. I finally got fed up enough with juggling my debt, so I read some books on personal finance, and I set up a strict monthly budget and excel spreadsheet to track my expenditures (it's actually the same spreadsheet that I still use today -- I tried Mint.com, but I am better with a more 'old school', self tracking approach). I scaled back on 'extras' and immediate gratification purchases, putting that saved money toward paying off each of my debts, one at a time (Thank you, Dave Ramsey and the Debt Snowball Method!). I started setting aside the tiniest amount of savings each month. Getting out of the red and into the black was my laser focus, and would be for the next few years. It sounds a lot easier than it actually was.

And then finally, a few years later, homeownership started to seem like not such an 'out of reach' idea after all. I had practically eliminated my credit card debt and car payment. I was still on track with that student loan (that I finally paid off not too long ago), and I even had some legit savings.

I'm proud that I cleared my personal debt, born from a combination of my young, stupid mistakes and sheer, unavoidable necessity. It took sacrifice, it took planning, it took hard work and sticking to my demanding (but ultimately well-paying) career path, and it took time (years!), but I persevered. I can't imagine if I'd be able to do it if I were graduating from college today, with the ever inflating cost of education, or if I had chosen a different, if not more noble career path, like public service or the arts. But, that's a completely separate topic, and one where I have MANY strong opinions.

Fast forward to today, and my financial life (and pretty much my whole life) is a different story. Now living in Minne, I'd describe my living situation as 'urban light' and the cost of living is much more sustainable than Chicago (but it's still a bigger city...). My survival budgeting and money saving practices born in Chicago days have become long-term, indestructible habits. B and I were able to pay up front and out of pocket for our very classy (IMO) wedding soiree in 2014, and last year I was even able to take a small break from the necessity of the 'corporate hustle' to re-evaluate my interests and goals (and perhaps surprisingly, it turns out I actually like a lot of aspects of the 'corporate hustle' and it's nice to discover that on my terms versus financial necessity). All the while, I saved funds to pool with Bs to put toward a down payment on the house we purchased together earlier this year.

My home. My little piece of the American Dream, one that I am so thankful to have, and that I will not take for granted.

Welcome to our house!

Closing day (2 days after my 36th! birthday!)

And...I even planted that little potted herb garden that I wanted so much. Next year we're expanding our 'farming' to include tomatoes and other veggies.

"Herbalicious!" Nothing smokable here, just basil, mint, rosemary & parsley.

And, don't get me started on the laundry list of cool house projects (mostly outdoor given the warmer months) that B has taken on! Turns out my husband is a pretty handy fellow, lucky (braggy) me!

Our outdoor movie projection screen. It's going to get a big work out this football season!

Our new firepit, designed and installed by B. S'mores, anyone?

B's first major project as a homeowner - staining the deck, matey's!

A Hefty Pour

I love to learn about wine. In fact, 6 of my items from this year's edition of "The List" are wine related. Now, here we are, two-thirds of the way through the year, and I can finally check off one of these wine related items, which is to visit a winery I've never been to before. In fact, I can check it off twice!

Over the past few weeks, I've had the pleasure of visiting two wineries I have never before visited, including Fenn Valley Vineyard in SouthWest Michigan (not far from where I grew up), and Loma Prieta Winery, located in Los Gatos, CA (less than an hour from the Santa Cruz coastline). Here's a little taste of my two very different (but both enjoyable!) experiences.

Fenn Valley Vineyards

At the beginning of August, B and I took our annual excursion to visit our families in Michigan. My family lives in SW Michigan, and my sister and brother-in-law were visiting from TX at the same time, so it was also a little bit of a family reunion of sorts.

Because B doesn't get loads of time off, we built in a little quality vacation time for just the two of us in the midst of the swirl of family. To accomplish that mission, we rented an AirBNB overnight on a sailboat at the Yacht Club and Marina in Saugatuck. Saugatuck is a charming little Lake Michigan Coast town, with plenty of cute shops and restaurants, and of course, the Lake.  I can't say that we'll ever take up residence packed tightly in a tiny v-birth sailboat for a night again in the future, but we LOVED drinking bubbly on the bow, watching the sunset across Lake Michigan, and soaking up a wholly new-to-us experience.

Fenn Valley Vineyards is just a short jaunt from charming little Saugatuck, tucked away in the Lake Michigan countryside, and we decided to check it out before reconnecting with my mom and step-Dad back "inland." With the slogan "The Lake Effect Everyone Loves," Fenn Valley has been a premier coastal MI wine producer for more than 4 decades.  Along with a variety of reds and whites, they also produce the famous "Michigan Cherry Wine" and even boast a few sparklers, which is a favorite style of mine (and probably a favorite style of ALL true wine lovers!) In fact, they day we visited Fenn Valley, they were disgorging their latest sparklers and had to close a portion of their operations to the public (they do daily wine production/facility tours) due to the natural CO2 release from the disgorgement. I guess that makes sense -- don't need anyone passing out due to lack of Oxygen!

My "everyday" wine drinking palette tends to prefer dry, high acid, citric white wines, so when we completed our tasting, it was a little surprising that my favorite wine of the day was a 2012 Late Harvest Vignoles. Apparently, weather conditions contributed to a very unique harvest that year, that ultimately resulted in an unusual, yet deliciously fragrant and sweet vintage. It was a nice, unexpected departure from my "usual", and a tasty reminder to allow myself to stay openminded and explorative when playing in the infinite possibilities world of wine.

If you find yourself in MI, I recommend a visit to Fenn Valley.  The tasting fees are low, and the pours are HEFTY. Not a bad way to spend an afternoon!

That's me and my hefty pour at Fenn Valley in SouthWest Coastal Michigan!

Loma Prieta Winery

Just days after B and I returned to MPLS, I hit the road again. This time, I was off to the West Coast where I was hosting a bachelorette party for one of my oldest and best(est) friends, WJ.  WJ lives in San Francisco, adjacent to Sonoma and Napa, which are arguably among the best wine valley regions in N. America and the world, and I've been lucky to spend a tiny little slice of time in both regions during past NoCal visits. Napa and Sonoma were both in the mix as potential locations for our Bachelorette weekend; however we ultimately decided to take a different tactic for the weekend and head down the coast to Santa Cruz for the weekend instead.

We had a "wild" bachelorette weekend in the literal sense that we spent a lot of our time soaking up nature, with an awesomely rejuvenating hike through the redwoods of Nisene Marks State Park and getting our Namaste on with a private cliffside yoga session overlooking the Pacific.  But it wouldn't be a #NoCal bachelorette without a winery visit, so we made sure to carve in time to visit the gem that is Loma Prieta.

Loma Prieta sits in the midst (and mist) of the Loma Prieta Mountain, about 45 minutes outside of Santa Cruz, in Los Gatos. The day we were there, the weather was an uncharacteristically warm 80 degrees, and the views stretched to infinity, offering a perfect setting for an afternoon of wine drinking.

Loma Prieta is considered a "boutique" winery, due to its limited production (less than 3K cases. For comparison sake, the Mammoth Mondavi sells MILLIONS of cases annually). Ironically, LP is the LARGEST producer of "Pinotage" in N. America.

For the uninitiated (which included me until a few weeks ago) "Pinotage" is a hybrid grape that was first born in S. Africa, in a marriage of Pinot Noir and a grape called Cinsault, which originated in Southern Rhone, France. LP does a fine job with this special hybrid. I especially enjoyed a unique Sparkling vintage (2014) Blanc de Noirs so much that I bought a bottle for WJ and her "fancy" (aka fiancee), and then I MADE THEM OPEN IT the night before I flew home, just so I could have a glass. Y'all already know I'm "Klassy-with-a-K" like that!

If you find yourself in Santa Cruz...or in San Fran...its well worth the trip to this, perhaps unexpected little winery outside of the "classics" of Napa and Sonoma that you may already know and love.  Need more convincing? Just check out the views!

Blue Skies, smiling at me at Loma Prieta Winery (hey! That rhymes!)

Cheers, mates! I can't wait to check a few more of my wine related items off my 2016 LIST!