The night before we went to bed with thunder and lighting and ferocious winds howling outside. The power went out sometime around midnight, but the cool air stayed in the house long enough to let us sleep through the night. Previously our building had never lost power for more than a few seconds, even during all the snowstorms in the last few years. And this time our building's back-up generator didn't work either so not even the elevator's were working. First order of business was to get ice from downstairs and put it in the refrigerator. Not an easy task when you live on the 11th floor!
Once the food was taken care of, we started planning the day. Previously the plan was to go down to DC and go on a walking tour and visit the Library of Congress. But since we couldn't shower and we wouldn't have a cool house to come home too, this wasn't an attractive option any longer. Instead we decided to drive to Hersheypark in Pennsylvania where everyone else would be hot and sweaty too and there would be some water to jump in. So we drove the two hours to get there. And the water felt great!
On returning to our home, we discovered the power had been back on since 10AM, just after we left! We were incredibly fortunate. Many people went several days without power. We had some people over to offer a respite from the heat.
