Irene

We were in Tivoli for Irene, thinking it would be safer than Jersey as 45 mile an hour winds were predicted for Sunday. So Chris came up Saturday afternoon and we waited out the storm at Gigi and Grandad's. Tivoli lost power around 7 a.m. on Sunday and never got it back while we were there. Sunday was fairly uneventful for most of the day -- windy and rainy in the morning, but we played and hung out by daylight and candlelight. We were able to cook because G & G have a gas stove, so that was good. By late afternoon it seemed clearer, so we went out for a walk and found that the lane was flooded on one side, so we had to go back around on a very wooded road to get to the house from the other direction. This proved difficult when we returned from dinner in Red Hook, which did have power, and found a huge tree down in our way. We tried another approach, but more trees down, and the wind had picked up. I did get nervous when we went back to our original approach and the rather blustery construction guy who was helping clear the road said that he had seen 6 or 8 large trees come down on the road and there we were with our car and our babies in it!! We hightailed it out of there and waited at Matt and Christine's til the road was clear and then got home as quickly as we could, but in total darkness by then because there was still no power and we hadn't brought flashlights with us, thinking we'd be back from dinner before dark. We figured it all out, though, and amazingly the girls went to sleep fine and slept through the night.

Here we are at our impromptu hurricane party at Christine and Matt's:





Monday we drove back and made it home to South Orange safe and sound. The only glitch was that it took 8 hours rather than 2 with various road closings! Eventually we drove out to Pennsylvania and came back to NJ from there. Thank goodness Chris knows the road so well -- he didn't even need to look at a map. When we got home our house had power and water, and no flooding in the basement or elsewhere, so we feel very lucky. A few neighbors were not so fortunate, and Maplewood (the next town over) still doesn't have water, so we are counting our blessings.