So - the vacation DID happen!

It was a miracle. Somehow, Stone Harbor was spared from Hurricane Irene. There was no damage. No power outages. No flooding. They were letting people back on the borough as of Sunday afternoon. Vacation was ON! It was a go. Sunday afternoon and evening was a flurry of activity with packing and grocery shopping.

The only drawback was that the NYS Thruway was closed. Yes. CLOSED. As in - no cars allowed. And it was closed from Albany to Nyack (about 100 mile stretch). I went to bed Sunday night praying that it would open. I woke up at 3:30 AM and checked the internet and found out that it had reopened. Good news. Except - there was still one part that was closed. It was just a 30 mile stretch - but it happened to be at the exit that we needed to get off at to get on the Garden State Parkway.

We figured it would reopen - so we left our house at 7 AM. Needless to say - that little 30 mile stretch did not open until 10 PM that night. I won't bore you with the details - but what was supposed to be a 5 hour trip - turned into a 9 hour trip! Yup. Don't get me wrong. We weren't driving that entire time. We stopped in New Paltz for a while and let the kids play on a random playground and then we ate an early lunch. Then we studied the map to find an alternate route. And then we sat in some traffic. And then we had to go 1 hour out of our way. But eventually, we finally made it. We rolled into Stone Harbor at 4:30 PM and I was never so happy to be there!

Despite the rocky start, we had a great week. The weather was perfect. Sunny. Hot. Perfect beach weather. Everyday! So happy...

And even though we missed two days - I still did not feel slighted. I had a great week...
Here are some photos.