Caught in a Snowstorm in October!

Drummer Boy has always wanted to go to a football game at West Point. It's just one of those things on his bucket list. To his great delight, he was assigned a project that is located about 15 miles from West Point in NY. Perfect! He decided that he would arrange to make a site visit during the fall and then stick around for the weekend to experience a home game at West Point. He chose the last weekend in October. The plan was for him to go up to NY mid-week, and for me to join him in New York City on Friday. We would spend Friday afternoon and evening in NYC and then take the train to West Point on Saturday morning. We planned on spending Saturday touring West Point and then attending the game. Sunday we had plans to experience the acclaimed brunch at the Thayer Hotel and then drive up to Hyde Park and the FDR Historic Site before heading back to the airport.

Well, that was the plan anyway. Until the crazy October snowstorm ruined our weekend!

Actually, Friday afternoon and evening in the City was great. We walked around Times Square, Rockefeller Center, and 5th Ave. We visited St. Patrick's Cathedral, which was beautiful (it reminded me of being in Italy). We had a fabulous dinner at China Grill and then went to see Wicked on Broadway. It was wonderful! Everything that I expected. After the show, we went back to our hotel and enjoyed a chocolate martini in the bar. A perfect way to end a wonderful day.

Rockefeller Center

St. Patrick's Cathedral

Drummer Boy in front of the Wicked sign in Times Square

 Saturday morning we got up and went to Grand Central Station. We walked around for a bit before boarding our train to Beacon. It started snowing at about 10AM while we were on the train, and it didn't stop until midnight. The area we were in got 12 inches of snow on Saturday. We thought we would be okay. We went ahead to the campus and tried to walk around, but we couldn't even see anything because the snow was all in our face and our eyes. Plus, I did not have waterproof shoes or jacket, so my toes and hands were FROZEN!!  We left the campus just as the game was starting because we just couldn't take it anymore. Little did we know it would take us 5 hours to drive the 15 miles from West Point to our hotel! Absolutely miserable!

Amy in the snow at West Point

West Point on Saturday

Thankfully, Sunday was a beautiful day. We went back to West Point and walked around. We couldn't get into the brunch at the Thayer Hotel, so we were disappointed about that, but we still had a nice time driving around and walking around the campus. Here are some pictures we took on Sunday.

Notice the snow piled up along the sidelines.
They had snowplows shovelling snow off the field before the game.

A fire hydrant buried in the snow!

We headed to the airport early and it was a good thing because the lines were so long that many people missed their flights waiting in line to check bags! It was crazy. But the redeeming thing of the weekend was that Drummer Boy got bumped up to first class and he let me take his seat. I had never flown first class before and it was fun! I felt very elite. He tried to tell me that I owed him one, and I said, "No I don't! This is my reward for being a single mom for half a week every week for the last 2 months!" And a nice reward it was.