Battening Down The Hatches
There's a reason I don't let Gracie watch the news: she takes everything she hears and carries it to the absolute extreme. But when a major hurricane is in the Gulf of Mexico, I really can't avoid letting her watch at least a little bit (because you know, I have to watch the news 24/7 when a storm is in the Gulf, even if it's the same exact information over and over and over and over and over again). On Friday night, she was watching the local news with me and the meteorologist mentioned Tropical Storm Hanna being the Atlantic ocean. Gracie heard the word Atlantic and started running around the living room, hollering, "Oh no! Oh no! Did that man say Atlanta? Is a storm going to go and get Atlanta?" Gracie has a love affair with the city of Atlanta, basically because the hotel we stayed in there had an indoor-heated pool. Atlanta is Mecca for her. I calmed her down and explained to her that the weather man didn't say Atlanta, that he was talking about the Atlantic ocean. I don't think I allayed all of her fears, though. This morning, she came running up to me and said, "Mama! I think it's time for us to batten down the hatches!" (Do you think we've been watching too many pirate movies? 
). I had to smile at her choice of words, because, that is exactly what we're doing. We're preparing for some pretty gusty winds and hard rain tomorrow. We consider ourselves very, very lucky that that's all we have to do. My parents' house is in the very center of Hurricane Gustav's projected path, and as I type this, they are stuck on the interstate, in the middle of an evacuation. Their normal six hour trip looks like it's going to take them close to 12 hours. And that's not the worst of it - the worst of it is leaving the house and not knowing if there's going to be anything to return to...I know this feeling well. When Gracie and I evacuated before Hurricane Ivan, I remember walking around each room of the house, as if to burn all the little details into my memory in case my memory of the things in my home were all that I had left. We were incredibly fortunate for Ivan - we lost the fence and some shingles on the house; we had to replace all our windows and doors because they were jarred from the pressure of the storm, but considering the fact that our neighbors at the end of the street lost everything, we were more than lucky. My prayers this evening are for everyone in the path of this storm....
I went to this store this morning for a few last-minute things...flashlights for each of the girls in case we lose power (we lost it for two days with Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and they're telling us to expect the same conditions again for this storm, so I figure better safe than sorry); a couple of extra batteries; and some Halloween candy (okay, the candy really isn't for storm preparation, but they had just put it out and what better way to pass a rainy day than stuffing your face with Candy Corn). Steve put up everything in the yard that could be a projectile and I'm washing clothes and dishes so tomorrow the girls and I can just chill out. Once we finished up, Abigail fell asleep for a much-needed nap and Steve hung out on the computer checking out football rankings. Gracie & I went to the beach to take some pictures of the coming storm.
We didn't have to pay to get into the National Park like we usually do...here's what the entrance shack looked like:
At this point I started to wonder if maybe we should have boarded up our windows. The sand bags are to help with the storm surge, which they are expecting to be 5-6 feet here (and the little shack is a whole lot closer to the water than we are )
Here's some of the Sea Oats at the end of the public access road:
And a shot back across the water:
Gracie and I drove back to the main pavilion and walked out onto the beach. We saw this guy, blatantly avoiding the Red Flag warning people to stay out of the water. His bathing suit said Lifeguard (I think) so that must have made it okay...
He didn't stay up for very long, but I must admit, it was pretty impressive watching him surf in those rough waves...
And, of course, I had to get a few shots of my girl (notice the sweater...yep that's the same sweater from zoo camp, and yes, it's over 90 degrees here today and do you see her black eye? She had a run in with the handlebar of the stroller earlier this week and her right eye is looking pretty black and blue)
And, everywhere we go, she finds sticks of some kind or other...
A man walked by and asked if we wanted to see a crab. Of course, we said yes (and then Gracie shrieked in mock terror)
and a final shot of the Gulf of Mexico...it's looking pretty angry, isn't it?
Take care, everyone, and please, if you're in the path of this storm at all, stay safe!
). I had to smile at her choice of words, because, that is exactly what we're doing. We're preparing for some pretty gusty winds and hard rain tomorrow. We consider ourselves very, very lucky that that's all we have to do. My parents' house is in the very center of Hurricane Gustav's projected path, and as I type this, they are stuck on the interstate, in the middle of an evacuation. Their normal six hour trip looks like it's going to take them close to 12 hours. And that's not the worst of it - the worst of it is leaving the house and not knowing if there's going to be anything to return to...I know this feeling well. When Gracie and I evacuated before Hurricane Ivan, I remember walking around each room of the house, as if to burn all the little details into my memory in case my memory of the things in my home were all that I had left. We were incredibly fortunate for Ivan - we lost the fence and some shingles on the house; we had to replace all our windows and doors because they were jarred from the pressure of the storm, but considering the fact that our neighbors at the end of the street lost everything, we were more than lucky. My prayers this evening are for everyone in the path of this storm....I went to this store this morning for a few last-minute things...flashlights for each of the girls in case we lose power (we lost it for two days with Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and they're telling us to expect the same conditions again for this storm, so I figure better safe than sorry); a couple of extra batteries; and some Halloween candy (okay, the candy really isn't for storm preparation, but they had just put it out and what better way to pass a rainy day than stuffing your face with Candy Corn). Steve put up everything in the yard that could be a projectile and I'm washing clothes and dishes so tomorrow the girls and I can just chill out. Once we finished up, Abigail fell asleep for a much-needed nap and Steve hung out on the computer checking out football rankings. Gracie & I went to the beach to take some pictures of the coming storm.
We didn't have to pay to get into the National Park like we usually do...here's what the entrance shack looked like:
At this point I started to wonder if maybe we should have boarded up our windows
. The sand bags are to help with the storm surge, which they are expecting to be 5-6 feet here (and the little shack is a whole lot closer to the water than we are )Here's some of the Sea Oats at the end of the public access road:
And a shot back across the water:
Gracie and I drove back to the main pavilion and walked out onto the beach. We saw this guy, blatantly avoiding the Red Flag warning people to stay out of the water. His bathing suit said Lifeguard (I think) so that must have made it okay...
He didn't stay up for very long, but I must admit, it was pretty impressive watching him surf in those rough waves...
And, of course, I had to get a few shots of my girl (notice the sweater...yep that's the same sweater from zoo camp, and yes, it's over 90 degrees here today and do you see her black eye? She had a run in with the handlebar of the stroller earlier this week and her right eye is looking pretty black and blue)
And, everywhere we go, she finds sticks of some kind or other...
A man walked by and asked if we wanted to see a crab. Of course, we said yes (and then Gracie shrieked in mock terror)
and a final shot of the Gulf of Mexico...it's looking pretty angry, isn't it?
Take care, everyone, and please, if you're in the path of this storm at all, stay safe!
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