I think all the preparations for hurricane Irene turned out to be a bit over the top. We were expecting to see a big storm start at about 6pm yesterday but by the time we went to bed at about 11pm it was raining but completely still outside. We thought we'd probably get woken up with the noise from the storm but slept right through and when we looked outside this morning, it was completely still again. One of our friends was out at about 2am last night and said it was really windy but no more than you'd get just with a regular storm. We couldn't see any damage, just a few leaves and twigs on the ground. Our only problem was that we lost our tv, internet and phone connection, it's only just come back on but that was no big deal compared to what people have had to deal with in North Carolina and Virginia.
Fingers crossed for a peaceful week ahead, no more earthquakes or hurricanes please!
Sunday, 28 August 2011
Saturday, 27 August 2011
The calm before the storm
Hurricane Irene is slowly making her way up the east coast of the US at the moment. She is due to hit Virginia Beach about now and we're expecting to start feel in the effects of it in the next few hours at about 6pm. We're not in the direct path and are just expecting to feel a strong storm. We've had to clear everything off our balcony and I took this photo of our pool this morning, all the sunbeds and umbrellas that usually surround it have been taken away. There is a yellow tape cordoning off part of the patio area at the back of the photo, I'm not sure if that is hurricane related or earthquake related!
This morning I noticed this store at the end of our street had all been boarded up. It's on the corner so I guess they're more likely to be hit by flying debris than the other shops so better to be safe than sorry.
I think most places are closing late afternoon to try to encourage everyone to stay at home. We're hoping that we don't lose power, our apartment has a generator so we've always been ok here before. We usually lose water when there is a big storm so we have lots of bottles or water and have filled up anything that we can find that will hold water so that we can flush the toilet! I was talking to someone on my photo safari this morning and she was telling me that her parents live in Ocean City. There is a mandatory evacuation there but her parents had said that they were going to stick it out. That was until the authorities turned the water off yesterday. I guess that's one method that they can use to try to get people to leave!
This morning I noticed this store at the end of our street had all been boarded up. It's on the corner so I guess they're more likely to be hit by flying debris than the other shops so better to be safe than sorry.
I think most places are closing late afternoon to try to encourage everyone to stay at home. We're hoping that we don't lose power, our apartment has a generator so we've always been ok here before. We usually lose water when there is a big storm so we have lots of bottles or water and have filled up anything that we can find that will hold water so that we can flush the toilet! I was talking to someone on my photo safari this morning and she was telling me that her parents live in Ocean City. There is a mandatory evacuation there but her parents had said that they were going to stick it out. That was until the authorities turned the water off yesterday. I guess that's one method that they can use to try to get people to leave!
Photo Safari
This morning I went on a photo safari. We were supposed to travel around DC taking photos of the monuments but not long after we met up it started to rain. We ended up spending most of the time in the Renwick gallery which isn't the most exciting place in DC, then went on to Union Station. I found it really useful as I didn't know how to use hardly any of the features on my DSLR and now I have a vague idea with what I'm doing. It was just a bit of a shame that we couldn't spend more time outside practicing.
The instructor taught us how to make people walking in the photos disappear which was clever. The photo below shows this, it's not ideal as you really need to use a tripod, I had to balance my camera on a yellow wet floor cone but you get the idea.
The other tip I found really useful was how to use the auto exposure button when taking photos where light is shining through a window. The photos below show the difference just be pressing one little button!
Whenever I take photos inside I'm never very happy with the results so hopefully this will help me out, I've just got to try to remember everything now!
The instructor taught us how to make people walking in the photos disappear which was clever. The photo below shows this, it's not ideal as you really need to use a tripod, I had to balance my camera on a yellow wet floor cone but you get the idea.
The other tip I found really useful was how to use the auto exposure button when taking photos where light is shining through a window. The photos below show the difference just be pressing one little button!
Whenever I take photos inside I'm never very happy with the results so hopefully this will help me out, I've just got to try to remember everything now!
Tuesday, 23 August 2011
Rumblings in DC!
Today we experienced an earthquake in DC. It was crazy! It measured 5.9 and was by far the biggest quake we've been in.
We had a very small tremor here last summer and have been in a small earthquake before in Italy and who can forget the famous Birmingham earthquake of 2008! All of those experiences were in the middle of the night and although they woke us up we'd not felt any shaking.
Today was completely different. I was sat at my desk this afternoon when the floor started vibrating. At first I thought it was the industrial shredder or generator starting up in the basement under my office but then the vibrating turned into more of a shake and my desk started to move from side to side.
Chris's office is a couple of floors above mine and they felt the impact more than me, he could see the door frame move to the side and things fell of the shelves. It probably went on for about 30 seconds and I just sat frozen in my chair the whole time! I'm glad it wasn't any stronger because I don't think the Embassy building was built to survive earthquakes, there was lots of creaking!
The only building that was damaged in the city was Washington Cathedral. We drive past it on the way home from work and I could see that part of one of the spires had fallen down. There was a complete over reaction to it all though and the traffic was awful with everyone panicking and leaving work early.
And as if an earthquake isn't enough drama for one week, there are reports that Hurricane Irene could hit the east coast this weekend!
We had a very small tremor here last summer and have been in a small earthquake before in Italy and who can forget the famous Birmingham earthquake of 2008! All of those experiences were in the middle of the night and although they woke us up we'd not felt any shaking.
Today was completely different. I was sat at my desk this afternoon when the floor started vibrating. At first I thought it was the industrial shredder or generator starting up in the basement under my office but then the vibrating turned into more of a shake and my desk started to move from side to side.
Chris's office is a couple of floors above mine and they felt the impact more than me, he could see the door frame move to the side and things fell of the shelves. It probably went on for about 30 seconds and I just sat frozen in my chair the whole time! I'm glad it wasn't any stronger because I don't think the Embassy building was built to survive earthquakes, there was lots of creaking!
The only building that was damaged in the city was Washington Cathedral. We drive past it on the way home from work and I could see that part of one of the spires had fallen down. There was a complete over reaction to it all though and the traffic was awful with everyone panicking and leaving work early.
And as if an earthquake isn't enough drama for one week, there are reports that Hurricane Irene could hit the east coast this weekend!
Saturday, 20 August 2011
Miami
I had to go to Miami for a few days this week for work. Unfortunately I didn't get much time to look around and Chris wasn't able to come with me but one of my Miami based colleagues did give me a little tour of South Beach so I got to see some of the art deco buildings that I was so interested in seeing. Hopefully we'll have time to go back down there at some point and spend a bit more time exploring.
Friday, 19 August 2011
Indianapolis
We had a bit of a crazy time last week. Chris ended up in hospital after having some chest pains, it turned out that he had an inflamed muscle in his chest, it was a bit of a scare but he's fine now. We had planned to go to Indianapolis at the weekend and considered canceling our trip but in the end we decided to still go.
We left work early on Friday and started our drive up to Indiana. The traffic was slow but we managed to drive to Springfield, Ohio before stopping for the night. We arrived in Indianapolis mid morning on Saturday and parked up at our hotel before heading out for a wonder around the city.
First stop was the delicious South Bend Chocolate Company for a snack. We hadn't done much research about Indianapolis so we sat down with a map and tried to plan our route around the city. Our reason for coming to Indianapolis had been to visit the Indiana State Fair and I hadn't paid much attention to researching what the actual city was like but we were pleasantly surprised, it was really nice.
As we headed towards the city's monuments, we stumbled across a marching band parade which turned out to be the Drum Corps World Championships! I love marching bands so we stood and watched them all for ages.
Chris had read that there was a USS Indianapolis Museum which he wanted to see, it turned out to be inside the war memorial which was weird but both the memorial and museum were really impressive. We didn't have a lot of time so we had to walk around it quickly which was a shame because there were a lot of interesting displays.
After walking through the monuments we headed towards the canal. It was really hot, I think we'd both expected it to be cooler than DC but it was just as warm. The canal was lovely but we ended up walking a lot further than we'd planned to and were both pretty tired so headed back to our hotel to check in.
We stayed in a Crowne Plaza hotel which was set in an old train station. Our room was actually a converted train carriage.
In the late afternoon we headed out to the Indiana State Fair. We had tickets to see the Sara Bareilles and Sugarland concert that evening but wanted to have a look around the fair first. There was loads to see and eat! Chris had a corn dog and I had a hot dog which was very boring because you could get just about anything fried.
Anyone fancy deep fried butter? And how do you deep fry kool-aid?
This was by far the most popular store. It was basically pumped cheese, yuck! Chris loves it and would definitely have got some if the line wasn't so long.
We saw some really cute animals...
And the world's 2nd largest boar...
Then some giant pumpkins...
After lots of walking around, we took our seats in the grandstand for the Sara Bareilles and Sugarland concert which was our main reason for coming all the way to Indianapolis. We had seen Sara Bareilles before at the 9.30 club in DC and her performance tonight was just as brilliant.
What happened after that still makes me start shaking when I think about it. Moments before Sugarland were due to come on stage, the sky turned black and a freak gust of wind caused the stage to come crashing down into the crowd. Watching the stage fall onto hundreds of people was the most terrifying event that I have ever witnessed. Sadly 6 people died and over 40 were injured. We consider ourselves so lucky that we were safe but watching something so horrifying and not being able to do anything to stop it was the most awful thing that I have ever experienced.
We left work early on Friday and started our drive up to Indiana. The traffic was slow but we managed to drive to Springfield, Ohio before stopping for the night. We arrived in Indianapolis mid morning on Saturday and parked up at our hotel before heading out for a wonder around the city.
First stop was the delicious South Bend Chocolate Company for a snack. We hadn't done much research about Indianapolis so we sat down with a map and tried to plan our route around the city. Our reason for coming to Indianapolis had been to visit the Indiana State Fair and I hadn't paid much attention to researching what the actual city was like but we were pleasantly surprised, it was really nice.
As we headed towards the city's monuments, we stumbled across a marching band parade which turned out to be the Drum Corps World Championships! I love marching bands so we stood and watched them all for ages.
Chris had read that there was a USS Indianapolis Museum which he wanted to see, it turned out to be inside the war memorial which was weird but both the memorial and museum were really impressive. We didn't have a lot of time so we had to walk around it quickly which was a shame because there were a lot of interesting displays.
After walking through the monuments we headed towards the canal. It was really hot, I think we'd both expected it to be cooler than DC but it was just as warm. The canal was lovely but we ended up walking a lot further than we'd planned to and were both pretty tired so headed back to our hotel to check in.
We stayed in a Crowne Plaza hotel which was set in an old train station. Our room was actually a converted train carriage.
In the late afternoon we headed out to the Indiana State Fair. We had tickets to see the Sara Bareilles and Sugarland concert that evening but wanted to have a look around the fair first. There was loads to see and eat! Chris had a corn dog and I had a hot dog which was very boring because you could get just about anything fried.
Anyone fancy deep fried butter? And how do you deep fry kool-aid?
This was by far the most popular store. It was basically pumped cheese, yuck! Chris loves it and would definitely have got some if the line wasn't so long.
We saw some really cute animals...
And the world's 2nd largest boar...
Then some giant pumpkins...
After lots of walking around, we took our seats in the grandstand for the Sara Bareilles and Sugarland concert which was our main reason for coming all the way to Indianapolis. We had seen Sara Bareilles before at the 9.30 club in DC and her performance tonight was just as brilliant.
What happened after that still makes me start shaking when I think about it. Moments before Sugarland were due to come on stage, the sky turned black and a freak gust of wind caused the stage to come crashing down into the crowd. Watching the stage fall onto hundreds of people was the most terrifying event that I have ever witnessed. Sadly 6 people died and over 40 were injured. We consider ourselves so lucky that we were safe but watching something so horrifying and not being able to do anything to stop it was the most awful thing that I have ever experienced.
Monday, 8 August 2011
Mr and Mrs Harris
Last weekend our friends Graham and Laura got married. The wedding was held only about 10 minutes away from our house in Woodend Nature Sanctuary, it was a beautiful location.
It looked like a wedding from the movies, there were white chairs set up on the grass surrounded by trees and deer running around the grounds. At 5.30pm the ceremony was due to start so we took our seats. We'd literally been sat down a minute before we started to feel a few drops of rain. It was really humid and I knew we were in trouble! We're used to the weather in DC now so I started saying, I really think we need to move because it's going to tip it down but no one wanted to be the first to abandon the wedding and run away. A few seconds later, the rain started chucking it down. Everyone jumped out of their seats but no one knew what to do! The building was at least 100 metres away so we all ran towards the trees for shelter. One of our friends had an umbrella so 3 of us crowded under that which at least managed to keep the front of us dry, our backs were soaked through! We knew we couldn't make it back to the building under the one umbrella so we waited it out until it eased up slightly. Eventually we all ran back to the house but everyone was drenched.
Once we got inside they decided to hold the ceremony in the hallway of the house. We all stood in a semi circle around Graham while Laura made her entrance by walking down the stairs. It worked out really well. After the ceremony, we had drinks and canapes on the veranda followed by a sit down meal of bbq food. Graham and Laura are real foodies and the food didn't disappoint, it was great especially the pulled pork.
The meal was followed by several hours of dancing and lots of vodka cocktails and despite the hot, humid evening we all had a great night.
It looked like a wedding from the movies, there were white chairs set up on the grass surrounded by trees and deer running around the grounds. At 5.30pm the ceremony was due to start so we took our seats. We'd literally been sat down a minute before we started to feel a few drops of rain. It was really humid and I knew we were in trouble! We're used to the weather in DC now so I started saying, I really think we need to move because it's going to tip it down but no one wanted to be the first to abandon the wedding and run away. A few seconds later, the rain started chucking it down. Everyone jumped out of their seats but no one knew what to do! The building was at least 100 metres away so we all ran towards the trees for shelter. One of our friends had an umbrella so 3 of us crowded under that which at least managed to keep the front of us dry, our backs were soaked through! We knew we couldn't make it back to the building under the one umbrella so we waited it out until it eased up slightly. Eventually we all ran back to the house but everyone was drenched.
Once we got inside they decided to hold the ceremony in the hallway of the house. We all stood in a semi circle around Graham while Laura made her entrance by walking down the stairs. It worked out really well. After the ceremony, we had drinks and canapes on the veranda followed by a sit down meal of bbq food. Graham and Laura are real foodies and the food didn't disappoint, it was great especially the pulled pork.
The meal was followed by several hours of dancing and lots of vodka cocktails and despite the hot, humid evening we all had a great night.
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