It's fitting that I'm posting today about the blizzard we experienced on Cape Cod last month since New England is getting hit by a(nother) big storm as I write this. As a New England girl, I love snowstorms, or "Nor'easters," as they're called back East if the storm is big enough. Iowa doesn't get big snowstorms like the East does. In my fourth winter here I don't think we've had any storm that has given us more than maybe seven or eight inches of snow, whereas in New England, we had storms that could drop 12-18 inches of snow or more, at least once or twice each winter. Most snowstorms there were between 6-12 inches. Well, I was in for a treat and a trip down memory lane during our trip East. Not only that, we got to experience the storm on Cape Cod, which is where we were staying when the storm hit. Our Cape house was certainly not feeling much like a summer house then!
The storm happened on Friday, January 3rd, but it started the evening before.
I think it's funny that the first time we all stayed at our summer house we got hit with a blizzard. And it literally was a blizzard. The visibility was poor and the snow and the wind were fierce and unrelenting.
This was the pretty, tame view out of our bedroom window the day before the storm hit.
And this is how it looked the day of the storm.
Can you tell that I like window shots? This was from a bedroom upstairs.
Here was the view of the front yard from the living room window during the storm.
I'm not usually one for going outside unless absolutely necessary in the winter, but I wanted to see what the storm looked like by the ocean, so Peter and I ventured out to the beach. The boys didn't come with us because we didn't bring their winter boots and snow gear on our trip, so they stayed behind with my mom. (I thankfully had brought my good old Uggs, which proved to be useful and not just fashionable--if you consider Uggs to be fashionable. I think they're fashionably ugg-ly. Ha ha! Anyway...) It was freezing out and the snow was still coming down and I almost slipped and fell a few times, but I was glad we went.
Isn't this little cottage with green shutters cute? I liked how it looked in the snow with the inlet's water behind it. So charming!
The sun was trying to come out but couldn't quite make it through the storm clouds.
Classic New England woods on the walk to the beach. How I have missed these!
You can see the snow in the air...
There was an unusually high tide when we arrived, so most of the beach wasn't even there.
(See pictures from yesterday's post ("Boys at the Beach") to compare the difference.)
I took the picture above with my camera and the one below with my phone. My phone battery drained and died quickly once we got there so most of the pictures in this post were taken with my actual camera. I was glad that I brought it! It took better, sharper, and more accurate pictures anyway.
You can't see the snow in the air in this picture--it was kind of invisible over the ocean--but as the ruffled surface of the water shows, it was there, pelting right in.
Snow, sand, and sea. What a juxtaposition!
Good-bye beach. See you again when the snow's all gone and the warmth has returned.
The view down our street.
And there's our summer house turned winter house!
Poor Peter had to shovel the driveway the old-fashioned way. He sure missed having a snowblower!
The bottom half of the split-rail fence in the front yard was mostly buried under the snow.
My love of window pictures was rewarded with this lucky picture. I walked into our bedroom and there was this fat red cardinal sitting on the branch right outside. I couldn't believe it! I quickly but slowly (so as not to scare it away; does that make sense?) grabbed my camera from the dresser and was able to get this one amazing picture before it flew away. Thank you little cardinal! How truly enchanting.
It was so fun to be able to experience a classic New England winter storm again, and to experience it for the first time on Cape Cod. I may have enjoyed and appreciated this storm less, however, if I knew the role it would play in our travel problems the next day. Ignorance was bliss!
