Tag: road trips

I’m back to finish up the details from our blizzard-y weekend!

Sunday, December 20, 2009 (a.k.a. the day before winter officially starts):

• 8:05 am – Woke up, showered and got dressed quickly. Packed everything up so we could get going. Remember the before picture of the patio? Well here’s the after!

• 9:12 am – We were on the road again after Chris cleared the car off for the 253rd time. We drove sloooooooowly. The roads all the way home pretty much looked like this – no pavement showing, covered in snow and ice. Not many other crazy people were driving around, which was a good thing.

• 9:57 am – We pulled off the highway for an on-the-road breakfast of McDonald’s. Check out these icicles at the drive-thru!

• 11:32 am – Arrived at home to 21 inches of snow on the driveway. Thankfully we had a shovel in the car so we could get started. Chris shoveled a little path up to the garage to get the other shovel.
• 12:19 pm – I decided this would be a good time to accomplish one of my 101 in 1001 tasks – #32: Go sledding, make a snowman and a snow angel all in one day. Unfortunately my snow angel is just a big two-armed hole since there was so much snow.

I do think my (tiny) snowman turned out pretty cute though.

As for sledding? Well, after spending the whole weekend digging ourselves out of the snow, photographing a wedding in the snow, driving in the snow, etc., I was pretty much done with the snow. I originally put that task on my list because the past several years we’ve had snow and I’ve sort of avoided it despite how much I loved it as a kid. So I wanted to experience that feeling again. I do intend to go sledding another time, but for now I feel like two out of three isn’t bad and I’m crossing this off my list!

And that concludes our snowy little adventure. It also concludes another year of blog posts! Stay tuned for 2010 weddings, the rest of the 101 in 1001 list, and other fun randomness. Happy New Year everyone!

Saturday, December 19, 2009:

• 7:55 am – Woke up hoping that somehow, miraculously, the snow might have stopped overnight. Looked out the window to see this (very little visibility, no sign of the snow slowing down):



• 8:05 am – Showered, got dressed (in layers, a heavy coat, gloves and UGGs) and did the usual day-of wedding preparations.
• 10:40 am – Ate a quick breakfast at the Raven’s Nest across the street which was open – hooray! We just had to walk through giant above-the-knee snow drifts to get there. Fun! No pictures of that since I’m clumsy enough as it is without gear in my hands. I did fall into a drift up to my waist. Brrr.
• 11:00 am – Chris went out to clear the car so we could head over to the B&B where the girls were getting ready.
• 11:35 am to 7:00pm – We photographed the wedding. An official wedding post for Patty and Travis is next!

Even if you don’t live on the East Coast, you still might have heard that we were completely buried in snow this weekend. The blizzard started Friday evening and steadily continued well into the night on Saturday. Normally I love a big snowstorm as long as I can stay inside, snuggled up with Chris to watch some good movies. But this storm went a little differently since we were actually scheduled to photograph a wedding on Saturday in a town about 1.5 hours away. Camera in hand as usual, I documented bits of our our snowy weekend adventure!

Friday, December 18, 2009:

• 10:00 am – Started to hear reports of significant snowfall predictions for our area (at the time they were saying 6-10 inches). Decided at the last minute that it might be a good idea to leave the night before Saturday’s wedding.* Searched for the closest hotel to the wedding day action.
• 11:21 am – Booked a suite at an adorable hotel just feet away from the reception venue.
• 4:00 pm – Packed the Jeep with our usual photo gear plus ample amounts of emergency supplies: blankets, snow shovel, hand warmers, extra gloves, UGGs, etc. Heard new reports of 10-20 inches of snowfall.



• 4:30 pm – Hit the road before the snow started falling.
• 6:15 pm – The snow started falling.
• 8:00 pm – Arrived in Culpeper and stopped at the Wal-mart to obtain additional emergency supplies: snacks, water, sodas, Us Weekly magazine. Tried to find a fan because I forgot mine and can’t sleep without one, only it’s impossible to find a fan in the off-season. Settled on a small heater with a fan after an employee helped me plug a few in to see what they sounded like. (You think I’m kidding? The employee in the hardware department found an outlet for me and tried three different heaters from the display so I could listen to them. He laughed, but was really nice about it.)
• 9:05 pm – Finally left Wal-mart where we (and everyone else in Culpeper) were in line for about 40 minutes.
• 10:35 pm – Arrived at the super fabulous Suites at 249. Fell completely in love with our beautifully appointed room.





• 10:45 pm – Turned the news on only to hear that the snow had no plans of stopping and that we’d probably get around two feet of snow total. Took a “before” view of the patio furniture. Stay tuned for the “after” shot.


This is our view from the patio – that’s the reception venue across the street (the historic train depot)!


• 12:05 am – Turned the lights out to get some sleep before the wedding day.

*Note: I’ve decided that this spontaneous trip counts towards fulfilling item #85 on my 101 in 1001 list: Take a spontaneous weekend trip with no plans. Chris and I literally had no idea how the weekend was going to go or what was going to happen with the wedding. We didn’t know if we’d just stay Friday or if we’d be snowed in the whole weekend or into the week (we ended up staying two nights). We basically just said let’s be prepared for anything, and pretty much everything that we had originally planned for the wedding was out the window. But I love the results we did get – more on that later! Well, okay…just a couple of sneak peek photos of Patty and Travis (more soon!):

How cute is Patty in her boots?!

Day 2 to follow! In the meantime, how did the storm affect you? Were you stuck somewhere? Did you miss out on last-minute holiday shopping? Leave a comment and let me know about your own snowy adventures!