It was a great plan at the time…you know, the time before a category four hurricane decides to beat up the eastern seaboard. The roommates and I decided that after working three full days at Photo Plus Expo, we’d explore a city that they’d never been and I’d only briefly seen. We booked an additional four days in New York hoping to see all the touristy things, eat some great food and play.

Reports of a major hurricane came in around Friday during the show. We shrugged it off. I mean, how bad can a hurricane be? Having lived on the West coast all of our lives, we knew how to deal with earthquakes, LA drivers, and the annual STORM WATCH 2012, but hurricanes…I think of “There’s No Place Like Home.” Oh wait, that was a tornado.

So, Sunday, we decided that we’d better see as many “touristy” things in New York as possible — from the World Trade Center Memorial to the Stock Exchange, we watched as businesses closed and the city frantically tried to sandbag everything.

And on Monday, we went to watch the World Series at a bar and wait out the storm. And we waited. And waited. And waited. Aside from some rain, we experienced nothing close to the crazy 24 hour a day warnings we heard from the media. We met a guy from Oklahoma that had his flight canceled and ended up spending all of our evenings together at some bar (there was nothing else open) waiting for the storm to hit.

And on Tuesday, we got word that our flights were canceled. And the earliest flight we’d be able to get out would be Sunday — four days after our planned departure…