Survived

New York, NY

Well, that was rather anticlimactic. I mean, there were some winds, and the rain hitting the window was pretty loud last night, but there's hardly any branches down in the neighborhood I'm in. It looks basically like a normal storm came through and just blew some leaves off the trees. The power didn't even go out - all the clocks were still on the right time when we woke up in the morning. But man were we prepared.

We have probably 30 gallons of water in various containers sitting in one corner of the kitchen. We have a kitchen table full of non-perishables. We had a bathtub full of clean water for washing if the power went out. And we had plenty of charged up laptops with movies on them, and board games, and candles.

Oh, and beer and wine, of course.

We went out yesterday before the storm started getting bad to have one last hurrah before things closed down. We went to a bar called DBA - which originally started in New Orleans, and I've been to that bar all three times that I've been to New Orleans. It was essentially the same bar: a TON of Belgian beers and German beers, quite a few American bottles, and a combination of foreign beers and local microbrews on tap. (I ended up getting a Brooklyn beer that was brewed two blocks away.) They happened to be serving food last night too, which is not normal, but was awesome. I ended up getting red beans and rice, so it felt just like being back in New Orleans in a lot of ways.

After that, we walked down by the water to see Manhattan - but we got stopped on the way. When we got close, a security guard for one of the buildings wouldn't let us through, as that area was one of the mandatory evacuation areas. We could see people behind him a few blocks over, but he still wouldn't let us through. We joked around a little bit with him about how he could just turn his head, and this was some people's only time in NYC, and then we ended up taking a picture with him.

After going around the block to a place without a security guard, we walked out on the pier and enjoyed the weather - it wasn't very windy yet, and the rain was light, so it was actually a nice evening.

After that we headed to another bar, which was literally empty other than employees when we got there. We all lined up at the bar and ordered, and one of the guys in our group said he'd buy the first round (after he got a $12 glass of whiskey). So I decided to get some Bourbon, and got a glass of Wild Turkey. I think I'm finally starting to develop a taste for whiskeys.

After half the group went back towards the apartment, the other half of us went to one more bar with an awesome selection of beers, but on the way there it started pouring. I had dressed for the rain - mesh shorts and a t-shirt and my flip-flops, so I just got drenched on the way there.

When we got back, we then spent the evening watching movies, watching youtube videos, and just having a good time while we waited out the hurricane.. And now we're heading into town to see NYC - should be a blast.

This is definitely going up there on my list of favorite couchsurfing experiences.