Last Saturday, we got hammered! Probably a once-a-decade storm for us. It started even earlier than projected, about 9:00 on Friday evening. And it didn't end until about 10:00 Saturday evening. That's right! 24 hours of snow! We went from winter storm watches to winter storm warnings; from winter storm advisories to a blizzard warning. At some points, snow was falling at a rate of 2" per hour. It was gorgeous!
We had tickets to the Rockettes and the Radio City Christmas Spectacular, at 4:00, then dinner plans for Jaleo, a tapas restaurant and one of my favorites. The 1:00 show went on as planned, but the 4:00 and 7:00 shows were cancelled. Then above-ground metro stopped running, as the city passed the 8" mark of accumulated snow (the third rail, the electronic rail, doesn't function well then). Then a snow emergency was declared, and even the buses stopped running. Now we had no show and no way to get downtown to a restaurant that was likely to close down too. It was 1:00 in the afternoon.
I kept running around the house -- yes, all 1,000 square feet of it -- exclaiming that it was still snowing! Greg's patience was tried as he kept reminding me that yes, he knew that. Finally, while we had food and drink, nothing sounded good for lunch, just for dinner. And our neighborhood is mostly local restaurants, which all looked to be open, so I got him to go outside with me.
Unfortunately, by this point, we were in the blizzard part of the storm, so it was windy and cold. Needless to say, I was having a blast (except for my toes, which were cold), but Greg wasn't. He humored me a bit with a few photos, and letting me run and jump in the snowbanks. But he wanted inside and food and fast. And on the way home, he wasn't having much of it at all. I was welcome to stay out and play, but it just isn't quite the same alone, as those of you from snow cultures know.
In the end, the District received 14-16" of snow -- amazing! It's still here, and mornings especially are still icy, as we get a bit of melt during the day and refreeze at night. We're supposed to get slush and rain tomorrow for Christmas, which may ruin my plans for a long walk, but it is largely a white Christmas here, which I never expected to have, and for which I'm quite thankful and pleased.
From our kitchen window, as the snow comes down down down. Then, our front walk, which had already been shoveled clear at least twice.
My shoes show about 4" here, and this is on the pre-cleared walkway.
This little sparrow seemed much happier in the snow than my hubby!
I hope they found their motorbike later! The wind also created some amazing snow drifts.
I love it!
These last few are from the museum. The first is mine, taken from the staff break room on Monday, looking at the amazing beauty of the National Mall. The next three are by our horticulturist, who did a spectacular job of capturing the loveliness of the building during the event. I'm so glad Chris shared these with everyone! (They're actually out on the museums' Facebook site too.)
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