Sandy Up Here in Inwood

On our Monday morning walk to the mail box all we saw of the impending storm was a puddle and a fallen tree. 

Tuesday we walked around the Inwood/Washington Heights area to explore and see what Sandy did to us. Thankfully no flooding, but lots of fallen trees.

We hear that the Subways may be closed for another week to get everything cleaned up and able to run again. We are waiting to hear about buses, to see if we can go back to work today or tomorrow. 

Happy Halloween everyone!

Hurricane Sandy

Sunday night they shut down the trains at 7pm and the buses at 9pm. 

Stations were closed down Sunday night leaving all these huge stations empty. Under the subways they started putting up wood flood gates and sandbags to prevent as much flooding and damage as possible.  Below is Grand Central Terminal.

This is the New York Stock Exchange building on Wall St. in the financial district located at the south eastern corner of the island.  This was obviously taken before it got too bad.

This is right next to IKEA. We saw this building on Saturday and it was lined with cars and well above sea level. Not any more. This was from Monday evening in Brooklyn. 

This is Battery Park on Monday.  This is one of our favorite areas located on the south western corner of the island. Pictures showed Coney Island looking like this too but with more damage from wooden gates and docks being destroyed.

We stayed safe inside watching scary movies and enjoying the power we still had. The wind picked up pretty good on Monday evening but besides some misting and a few spurts of rain, we have been pretty dry up here.

We tried to eat as much of our ice cream as we could in case we lost it to a dead fridge. I know, it's a tough week. Tuesday afternoon showed less fierce wind and just a light rain every now and again. Trains are still closed until further notice so Zach is working from home and I am still trying to get a hold of my boss who most likely was out on Long Island all weekend.

Happy Tuesday everyone!

(Pictures of the city taken from Weather.com) 

Taxi Boat View

On Saturday we headed out to the IKEA in Brooklyn to make an exchange and pick up a few more items. To get there you can either take a bus ride or a water taxi. Obviously the water taxi is way cooler and quite a bit faster. This was the view on Saturday before Sandy started rolling in. 

Happy Tuesday everyone!

Parks and Brunch

After a lovely tour around Columbia and the cathedral we took a walk in Riverside Park while we waited for our lunch reservation.

Instead of eating lunch we had breakfast, so that's kind of like brunch, right? We had so much fun hanging out with Lexi all afternoon. It is the best, having family we enjoy being around so close.

Happy Monday everyone!

Cathedral of St. John the Divine Part II

I was a little confused why there were airplanes in a church, until Zach made the comment that it was for 9/11. Then it made a little more sense, and became that much more beautiful.

Below that statue was some of the mangled rubble from the trade towers.

I could not get over how huge this place was. It was grand and so open and all the details made it truly breath taking. Thanks for showing us around Lexi! 

Happy Friday everyone!

Cathedral of St. John the Divine Part I

All I can really tell you is that it is huge and beautiful and will take your breath away. If you are ever in Manhattan on 112th and Amsterdam, you need to stop by, and give yourself an hour to explore all the rooms and take it in. 

More on this tomorrow. Just too good to fit all into one post. 

Happy Thursday everyone!

People Watching Wednesday

1. Psychics

I knew they existed and that some people got into that kind of stuff but I had no idea it was big enough to actually be a business. On the street Zach and I were offered a couples special 2 for one. Do you know how much those people charge? Its like 10-20 bucks, and that's just for the people on the side of the road. Right by my office there is a psychic office. And every time I walk by I see at least on person sitting in there having their fortune read. I really thought it was something people joked about not actually something people put any stock in.

2. Guy in a Hoody
I was walking to the grocery store on my lunch break yesterday when a guy walking next to me quickly turned almost knocking me over.  He had this smirk on his face that made me, for a split second, fear being robbed. He quickly walked around me, instead of plowing me over, to sneak up and wrap his arms around a guy walking the opposite direction. It then dawned on me as I turned to see what was going on, they knew each other. They were friends and immediately started laughing when they recognized each other. For a second I was freaked out, the next I was rolling my eyes and laughing. Teach me to stereotype.

 Happy Wednesday everyone!

Columbia Part II

As we continued our tour we were introduced to some great art and a beautiful house that used to be an insane asylum. I was a little disappointed to hear it was not haunted and filled with spooky stories.

Lexi told us the tooth sculpture is supposed to move. Zach gave a valiant effort but no amount of pushing made it budge. Though Lexi assured us it had moved at one point, Zach was not convinced.

We finished the tour with the school mascot, Roaree the Lion. We fell in love with the campus and have decided that if we could afford it we would register for a load of classes next semester just to spend our days in such a lovely area. 

Happy Tuesday everyone!