Irene Came... and Went

This past weekend, we had our first hurricane experience when Hurricane Irene hit the East Coast. I know that Irene was devastating for some parts of the East Coast, even some places close to us (such as New Jersey), but our experience was fairly mild.

Friday

On Friday, we already had plans for Matt to take a half-day, and we were going to take advantage of different gift cards/vouchers that we had been holding onto for a while. Since Friday was a lovely day weather-wise, we decided to go ahead with our plans. We met at The Palm for lunch. It was a super delicious lunch, and we got off cheap as we had a $50 AMEX gift card for The Palm. Then we headed over to Discovery Times Square to visit the Pompeii exhibit, where we had a LivingSocial deal for the exhibit plus a $5 credit for the Cake Boss Cafe (LOVE the Cake Boss!) in the Discovery Times Square shopping/eating area. The Pompeii exhibit was done well - very informative and moving. At The Cake Boss Cafe, we enjoyed an incredibly yummy Red Velvet Cake and a light, fluffy, creamy Lobster Roll (one of the Cake Boss's favorites so thought I'd give it a try). Afterwards, we went to the grocery store to stock up on water, non-perishables and some grocery items to get us through the next couple of days, as Friday's forecast still predicted Irene would cause some minor damage and possible power outages in NYC. I remember thinking on Friday, "The weather is great today. This must be the 'calm before the storm.'"

Saturday

We woke up Saturday and were surprised by the mildness of the weather. It wasn't raining, but the air was very moisture-heavy. We decided to head out for a run before the storm prevented us being able to get out. After we got back, we just hung around the apartment waiting for Irene to hit.

Around 2ish, we were feeling really cooped up, and there weren't any real storms yet. We decided to head out and see if we could find something to do. Most businesses were closed, but some were still open, mostly 24-hr supermarkets and bars. There were LOTS of people out. Apparently, a lot of others felt like we did - that so far this was a fairly mild weather event, not much different than a regular rainy day - and wanted to be out and about. We hit up one of the bars that was still open and had a few pints. Then we decided that we should head home as the storm was really supposed to hit Saturday night, and we should get indoors.

Once back home, we made dinner and rented a movie; a real low-key Saturday night. When we went to bed, there still hadn't been any big weather events. However, we thought we might get the storm overnight and made all the necessary preparations for a possible power outage overnight.

Sunday

Sunday, we woke up and were surprised by many things: 1) both of us thought we might be woken up in the night by strong winds rattling the windows; 2) both of us thought we would wake up to no power; 3) we were again surprised at the mildness of the weather. It was raining, but no more than a usual rainy day. We started thinking that maybe there was no hurricane! We looked at a weather radar to see that Irene had already passed NYC, and we were just having some residual rain. The rain actually stopped at about 10AM. At that point, we decided to go out for a run, one we had resigned ourselves to miss because of the hurricane.

Until we stepped outside, I am not sure either of us really believed there had been a storm of any kind. But, there were fallen branches on the sidewalks and other signs of strong winds. Once we got to Central Park, there was actually a very large tree that had been pulled out of the ground by the storm. At that point, we thought "OK. There was a hurricane that came through." The park was closed, but we managed to get a run in around the perimeter of the park. There were only a few other fallen trees and small rain streams/rivers we had to run around. Besides us, there were lots of other people out - NYers walking dogs, getting in runs, etc. and tourists who were determined to see NYC, hurricane or not.

After our run, we decided to go out for brunch :) Many (but not all) of the restaurants/bars were open. We had brunch at Sura, a new Thai place we had been wanting to check out. They were open, didn't have a long wait, and we thought a Thai twist to brunch could be interesting. I had a grilled duck crepe, which was super good. And Matt had steak and eggs, with a very tangy Thai marinade on the steak.

After brunch, we didn't want to go back to the apartment, as we had been there most of the weekend. So, we decided to check out a bar we had passed often but never gone into, The Abbey Pub. The Abbey Pub turned out to be a great neighborhood bar with a friendly, local vibe.

All in all, our first hurricane experience was almost a non-event. Basically, it was a bunch of waiting and trying to pass the time by checking out new bars/restaurants that were brave enough (or crazy enough) to stay open. I can only hope that this will be our only hurricane experience or that others are similarly mild!