nathan jara

Vacation. Yes, vacation. This past week I was on vacation. And a glorious one it was. A handful of my best friends and I travelled to the Outer Banks in North Carolina for a week of sand, sun and fun. It was my first time in the Outer Banks and I had a blast. Renting a house near the beach I spent the majority of my time making the tough decisions in life, such as, should I read some more of my book? maybe have a snack? boogie-boarding? no, I think it might be time for a nap. These were the most frequent dilemmas I faced while taking in the bright sun and ocean breeze. North Carolina is a beautiful area. Mostly just beach, beach, and more beach, which was fine with me. I was able to relax, de-stress, and not think about work once. I also indulged in some fantastic meals prepared by my 5-star chef friends :)

We enjoyed five picture perfect days at the beach … until … he came. Yes, the hurricane named Earl. He swept in andpushed us off the beach two days before we were ready. It was an interesting experience really. I’ve never been affected this much by weather, growing up in Pennsylvania. We found ourselves glued to The Weather Channel several times during the week and were finally forced to evacuate Thursday morning before the storm hit that night. What a bummer. I admit that I did fall into a beach depression for some time, but we ventured forward determined not to let Earl get the best of us.

Leaving the Outer Banks, we spent some time in the Washington D.C. area and visited Georgetown for an evening. The following day we turned our vegetable-like vacation into an educational one and drove to Mount Vernon, the old home of the original “G Dubya.” We took a tour of George Washington’s old mansion and walked some of his enormous estate. I tried to place myself back in that time period and was amazed to think how much life has changed since Washington was the man of the hour. From Mount Vernon, we continued our hop up the east coast and made a final stop at the Inner Harbor area of Baltimore, Maryland. A good dinner and beach reminiscing at the local Hard Rock Cafe prepared us for our final trip back home to the ‘burgh. While I’m still not giving up my grudge against Earl, I had an awesome time this past week. It was a trip I’ll never forget; a gratuitous amount of fun, really ;)

My friend came across this video that some local kids did in tribute to what I’m sure we’ll be calling the blizzard of 2010. It’s pretty cool and very well done.

Like much of the east coast, we have a bit of snow today here in Pittsburgh. The storm began coming through around mid-afternoon yesterday and just stopped putting down the white stuff about an hour or so ago. I haven’t seen this much snow in over ten years. The measuring stick tells us we have around 20 inches. I could describe more, but I think the pictures below speak for themselves.

And I don’t think I’ll be going out anytime real soon, my car looks pretty snuggled in..