Good Night Irene

After losing power for over a day, we have finally regrouped enough to share some of our "  Hurricane Irene " experience with you. We're thankin' our lucky stars that there isn't much to report in the way of bad news. By the time she arrived to our part of the eastern seaboard she had been down graded to a tropical storm warning. Which means high winds and gusts of 50 miles per hour at times with rain and flooding in some places. We had received a recorded message on Friday that chances of an evacuation were possible. We were all on edge thinking it might become a reality. At that point the media was still calling Irene a Category 3 Hurricane. Luckily we didn't have to evacuate but we did lose power early Saturday and although the news media was telling us to stay off the roads, our curiosity got the best of us and we decided to head down to a local beach to catch some waves on the old camera... You'll see in a bit that Boz did more than capture them... He just HAD to get in the water!!!

Our oldest taking in the wind and the waves from ashore!

When he said he was going back to the car to get his ear plugs I thought he was kidding, but then he does the Polar Plunge fundraiser every March with the Boy Scouts so who was I kidding? Does he look happy or what? Yes, that's a smile ( a big teeth showin' smile ) not an I'm freezin' my Yankee behind off smile.

We weren't the only curious ones at the beach. There were three divers who also braved the waters, but most folks were observing from ashore. 

The wind was strong and warm and at times the stinging sand made us think we ought to hightail it out of there, but we stayed a little longer just to feel the moist air and hear the rush of the waves.

The storm was at its worst that evening. With darker skies the cottage hens retired earlier than usual to the coop! I had made sure they were well watered and fed with reserves inside the coop in case we had a long hard rain. But even that didn't happen!

Soon we were on our way home. Taking the scenic rt through a nearby beach community I spotted  more of my coveted picket fences! 

This artistic homeowner has shingles on their home in the shape of waves and the tops of their picket fence has been cleverly designed with its own wave pattern too!Crushed oyster shells on the ground in front of the fence put the finishing touches on this beach house. 

 Back home we let Irene dictate the rest of our day and night. We read, took naps and cooked left over Chinese food on our charcoal grill. We dug out the kerosene lanterns, flashlights, and battery operated candles. We had already stocked up on water, bread and cold cuts, fruit, and light breakfast items.

That evening we had ourselves a no power picnic followed by a rousing game of Sequence! 

Despite now power we made the best of  the situation and tried to have fun! 

We said good night to Irene and turned in. 

The next day we woke up to clear blue skies, still no power ( it was finally restored later in the afternoon ) and lots of leaves and limbs in the yard but jubilant that we had faired well. 

Here's hopin' you did too! 

 What did you do to get through the storm? If you were going to have a no power picnic, what would you serve?

Thanks to all for your well wishes for our safety during storm watch!