Snowpocalypse!

Snowpocalypse! That’s what they’re calling the winter storm that has buried DC in 30 + inches of snow. Its proven to be much more than DC is prepared to handle, which has resulted in my endless boredom and desperate attempts to find activities while all the museums are shut down. Sunday, after the first big snow, Megan, Jill, Jordan, an intern from Jordan’s work and I all walked from Dupont Circle through the snow and slush towards the monuments. Emerging from the basement was like walking into the ice age- our street had yet to be plowed, so people were just walking out in the middle of the streets as if cars didn’t exist. The sun was out, so despite all the snow, it was actually quite pleasant.

In our neighborhood there are several embassies. Just a block away is the White washed embassy of Morocco, and across the street from there is the beautiful embassy of Indonesia. We made a slight detour on the way downtown to visit a cute little Creperie called “crepes a-go-go”. It is truly an authentic French Crepe stand. I even got to speak a little French with the cashier who is originally from Cameroon!

One Nutella-filled crepe later we were on our way to visit Ab Lincoln. We weren’t actually able to climb the stairs of the monument (they were blocked off due to the icy conditions), but our focus quickly turned to the other visitors who had begun to step onto the frozen reflection pool! Once the first few people had ventured onto the ice, like lemmings, many more followed, including us! The edges of the pool were the weakest, and as I stepped onto the ice my boot went right through into the icy water. Luckily I made a quick recovery and had my Moscow boots on (the boots given to me by Jordan’s host family who lived in Moscow for about 5 years), so my foot was warm again in no time. We all had fun skating from Lincoln to the WWII memorial, hearts racing every time we heard a slight cracking of ice. It was an adventure, and a once in a lifetime opportunity to take these pictures from the middle of the pool!

We lost some of our momentum after our expedition across the ice. Toes were getting cold and energy was fading, so we started making our way home.