Hurricane Irene

After the 5.9 earthquake on Aug. 23 in VA that we felt here in NJ, hurricane Irene arrived yesterday. As I kept telling everybody on the days leading up to yesterday, I wasn’t worried at all. Coming from the Philippines where we always experience typhoons, this was nothing new to me. But East Coasters aren’t familiar with hurricanes … or earthquakes. Panic buying of food stuffs and water and batteries and generators happened. People were boarding up their windows and evacuating low lying and coastal areas. I’m not saying it’s not good to be prepared. Of course the evacuation of coastal areas were a precaution so that if Irene did become destructive, casualties will be lessened. Public transportation were halted from buses and subways, to planes. NY basically became a ghost town. A friend of mine and I were bummed that we didn’t live in NY coz this would have been a great opportunity to take pictures and videos of an empty NY =P

Anyway, so we didn’t prepare anything for Irene. I really felt that she wasn’t a threat where we live. So Saturday came and the rain began in the afternoon. Not even heavy rain, just normal rain. No winds either. That continued till this morning. Our garage had some water just coz the drain right outside was kinda clogged. Jojo had to snake the drain and vacuum all the water out of the garage.

hurricaneirene hurricaneirene2 The rains stopped sometime before noon and then the winds picked up. It’s still very windy right now, but no more rain. See? What did I tell ya? My hunch was correct (^_^) There was no cause for worry.

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Natsu Matsuri

The Japanese Summer Festival was held at Mitsuwa Marketplace yesterday. It’s my first Natsu Matsuri so I was excited, especially because there were Taiko performers (^_^) Food and game stalls were set up plus a stage area. We didn’t get to see the dance performance though coz that was at night and we were there before noon. But it was still fun!

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L&EI

Liberty and Ellis Islands (^_^) We got the 8am ferry and first stop is Ellis Island.

Then on to Liberty Island.

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Niagara Falls Day 2

After breakfast at the hotel, Finn wanted to go to the Aquarium first, then the Discovery Center.

Next stop is the Three Sisters Islands, my favorite place in the park.

We had lunch at the Visitor’s Center before heading home.

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Niagara Falls Day 1

It’s been 6 years from our first visit to Niagara that Finn doesn’t remember it at all =P We only stayed overnight but that’s enough to do the important stuff.

We left before 6am on Friday, had breakfast on the way, and arrived past noon. Our room wasn’t ready yet so we decided to go to the park and have lunch at the Top of the Falls Restaurant by the Horseshoe Falls. After lunch we took pictures at Terrapin Point before heading back to the hotel to check-in.

Our first stop is the Maid of the Mist.

Then on to the Cave of the Winds.

We were so drenched after that we had to go back to the hotel to dry off or change. For dinner we ate at Hard Rock Cafe and got 2 bag tags as free gifts. Then straight to the Observation Deck to wait for the Light Show at 9pm.

At 10pm there was supposed to be a fireworks display, but apparently they cancelled it … without notification. We waited until 10.15 and when nothing was happening, we went back to the hotel.

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