Mother Nature Dressed Up As A Hurricane

It's been an awful couple of days in New York, the storm sweeping through and leaving over 1 million people without power, and others without homes, cars, relatives, and friends. In all the years I've never seen so few trick-or-treaters on Halloween, but I suppose mother nature beat us all with her costume.

My photos don't begin to show the devastation, but it's a taste of it

I'm lucky enough to be able to stay at my boyfriend's place, which still has power. We made a trip back to my apartment, driving around trees and power lines, to find the place completely dark, surrounded by fallen trees and debris.

A once beautiful street full of shopping and restaurants by my apartment is now dark, desolate, and without pedestrians. The traffic in and out of the city is completely ridiculous- gas stations without gas, and mandatory carpools to cross major bridges. Hospitals were evacuated due to failed generators. Homes and restaurants burned to the ground. My thoughts are with everyone affected by the storm, stay safe, and hopefully everything will be cleaned up in due time.

Mid-Summer Travels & A Tropical Storm! - Dominican Republic

All this Hurricane Sandy business has taken quite the effect on the public. Subway and busses were shut down Saturday evening, as well as bridges, tunnels, schools, and universities (horay!). My boyfriend kindly invited me to his place to whether the storm, so I cleaned up my apartment, locked the windows, and packed a bag for the next day or two. I was surprised (though maybe I shouldn't be?) to see that the gas station was out of gas! It must be serious then.

Amidst all of the fuss, the panic reminded me of my trip to Dominican Republic last summer, while I was caught in a tropical storm by the beach...on a horse. I had gone down there with a friend on vacation and we thought it would be fun to go horseback riding by the beach.

And it was a ton of fun! Until the clouds started stirring, and the sky got darker and darker, and the wind picked up quite a bit.

We stopped for a little bit so the horses could take a rest and we took a few photos. The horses didn't seem to be phased by the quickly changing weather.

We really noticed the problem when we were a mile or so away from the stables, and the tide rose higher and higher. We hid in a little hut to get out of the rain for a while.

As the storm picked up, we decided that it was time to try to make it back to the stables and back to the resort. So we galloped through the rain on the beach, in the pouring rain and super strong winds. I lost a contact on the way back- absolutely terrifying. Thank goodness I know how to ride, or that would've been awful. There were a few people who have never ridden before- she had quite the first experience!

 Stay safe everybody! What are your storm stories?