Snow Day in Washington DC

#Blizzard2016 #Snowmaggedon2016 #Jonas, this storm had many names. I just call it a Snow Day in Washington DC. My husband recently had to travel to DC for work and since I am location independent, I decided to tag along. What we didn’t know, was that “The Storm of the Century” was about to hit the East Coast. We arrived on Tuesday, the storm was supposed to start on Friday and we had our return flights booked for Monday evening.

As the days drew nearer and the snow predictions climbed steadily, we went through waves of excitement and anxiety. On the one hand, it sounded kind of romantic to be snowed in – an experience neither my husband nor I had had before. But on the other hand, I NEEDED to be back on time, because I had my Citizenship Interview scheduled for Tuesday morning. Not something you want to reschedule. Would we make it back on time?

Snow Day in Washington DC – Preparation

The days before the storm, my husband was busy with meetings and dinner with his colleagues, so I had time to explore the city. I went to the Holocaust Museum (very emotional and I highly recommend it!), took a day trip to Alexandria and discovered my new favorite book shop in the world (it has a craft beer bar in the back, how cool is that!). 

As the weekend came closer, people started getting more and more excited about the coming storm. How high would the snow be? Would we be snowed in and for how long? Would we loose power? It was THE topic of every conversation and to be honest, it was kind of exciting to be part of it. The hotel staff was asked to stay put in the hotel with us, but they couldn’t guarantee that the hotel restaurant would stay open. So on Friday afternoon, the husband and I decided to go get some provisions to get us through the weekend, if the world would really turn into a Snowmaggedon. Easier said than done though. The Harris Teeter around the corner had lines out the door, so it took us the better half of the afternoon to get some canned tuna, fruit and crackers, and chocolate, and wine, and beer. I think we had enough stuff to get us through another week. But you can’t ever have enough wine or chocolate, now can you?

Snow Day in Washington DC – The Eye of the Storm

The snow was supposed to start Friday afternoon and most of the tourist attractions and places started to shut down after lunch, so their employees could make it home safely, before it got to bad.

After our crazy shopping experience, we headed out to Dupont Circle, because I had to show my husband my newly discovered favorite book shop. Like I said before, a book shop and a craft beer bar, how genius is that? We could just move in there and live happily ever after. Books and Beer, what else do you need? They had an amazing selection of Travel guide books and memoirs, enough to make my book lover’s heart jump and fill my reading list until the year 2020. We enjoyed a couple of local brews, I browsed the amazing selection and around 5, we headed back to the metro to get to the hotel.

And that’s when things got a bit strange. The metro was EMPTY. There were maybe 3 other people in our car. At 5.26 PM. The day before, I was riding the metro at the same time and I was lifted off the ground and shoved into a car by the masses pushing behind me. Eerie and very Twilight Zone-ish!

We spend the Friday night and Saturday morning in the hotel, watching the snow fall, listening to the weather channel and sending warm thoughts to the poor souls who had to shovel the sidewalks. On Saturday morning, we found out that there was a restaurant open close to the hotel, and we decided to go check it out. We ventured through the storm and found a sweet little place, open for business, a great beer tab and delicious food. After a decadent brunch, we headed back to the hotel and enjoyed a lazy afternoon at the hotel. 

Sunday-Funday

On Sunday we woke up to a beautiful sunny day. The white snow was sparkling in the sunlight and looked gorgeous against the deep blue sky. So we put on our long johns and about 5 layers of clothing and headed out on an epic adventure. We walked all the way from Union Station to Congress, Washington Monument to the White House and back to our Hotel. People were sledding down the hill in front of the Congress and there seemed to be thousands of people taking advantage of the gorgeous weather and a great opportunity to see the beauty of Washington DC covered under 30 inches of soft white snow. Let me just share some pictures with you, because they speak more than a thousand words.