August 15, 2003
The Blackout of 03
Alex experienced his first major news event this week -- THE BLACKOUT OF '03. We were actually in New York City when the lights went out. We didn't realize the magnitude at first. I was trying to find parking at 4-ish when the lights went out, but we didn't think much of it. Then we went for a walk in Central Park, hoping to make it to the zoo (it was closed), 
and started noticing a large number of people walking. Then we started overhearing conversations about the black out. We finished our walk and went to the car and it took us almost 2 hours to get out of Manhattan. It was JAMMED! No lights, people directing traffic to try to stop gridlock. Insane. Thank God, Nana was able to get Alex to sleep, and he stayed asleep until we got home. And thank God, we got out of Manhattan (lucked out and was able to get onto the Midtown Tunnel) while it was still daylight. Watching the news this morning, it seems many people never made it out of the city at all last night! We're so glad we drove instead of taking the train, or we would have been totally stranded.
That said, we had a lovely candlelight dinner, and a good story out of it!