The Breuers: Family Visit

Last winter my parents rented a house in Naples, Florida, for the month of February. They enjoyed escaping the winter so much that this year they decided to go for two months. They're spending February in Sanibel Island, Florida, and March in the Villages (some old people community near Orlando).

They drove down, so they stopped in Atlanta to spend a few days with us. They arrived on Monday and left on Friday, with my mom planning to babysit Lola Tuesday and Thursday while we worked. I planned to take Wednesday off to spend some time with them.

Then Snowmageddon happened! Thank goodness my parents drove down on Monday and not Tuesday or they would have been in for the traffic jam of their lives. Joseph and I went to work as normal Tuesday morning, leaving Lola with my parents. I don't really pay attention to the news or weather, so I didn't know about the snowstorm in the forecast. I heard a little about it but assumed people were overreacting. I went to an early lunch with my coworker Stephen, and when we got back to the office around 12:15, everyone was leaving. It had just started snowing, and apparently we were told we could go home. I waited around for a bit and left around 12:45, thinking again that everyone was overreacting. As soon as I tried to get on the highway, I realized my trip home would be an adventure. The highway was packed with tons of cars going super slowly. The snow really wasn't that bad at that point, but people weren't sure how to drive in it. I made my way slowly down 75 South to downtown. Once I hit the connector (the highway through downtown), it was pretty much a standstill. I got off at Georgia Tech and decided to work my way home via surface streets. That took about an hour, and I made it home in 2.5 hours total, which I thought was insane. But then my parents and I started watching the news, and I started reading facebook, and I realized that people were in their cars for many more hours. One of my friends didn't get home until Wednesday afternoon - she had to spend the night in her car and eventually abandon it on the highway Wednesday morning to find refuge in a grocery store. The traffic jam was so insane - I still can't comprehend that it actually happened. Joseph contemplated spending the night at work, but he eventually decided to leave at 6. Luckily he made it home in 2 hours. I think it was easier for people heading south - the northwest suburbs seemed to be hit the worst.

The silver lining to the storm is that I got to spend more time with my parents. I was home early on Tuesday, and Wednesday I had taken the day off work. Joseph worked from home due to the snow, and we were able to venture out for a short walk in the park. Thursday we both worked from home, and my mom watched Lola.

So we didn't get to do much, but we had some quality time hanging out around the house and cooking meals. My parents left for Florida Friday morning and are happy to have escaped the snow in both Pittsburgh and Atlanta. We're flying down to Sanibel next weekend to spend a week with them, and I am so looking forward to the beach!