Salt Lake City Utah family, newborn, baby, child and wedding photographer | carrie owens photography

Another NYC post? That’s what we started thinking day after day of being stuck in the city. We were lucky. We were in Times Square and didn’t lose power (although our power flickered a time or two) and didn’t have any damage. We saw an empty Times Square and lots of wind and rain. The stores along Times Square boarded up their window, sandbagged their doors and hoped for the best. The Naked Cowboy couldn’t take a day off though and continued playing that guitar after getting his life vest on.

We spent lots of time in the room, lots of time on the concierge level, lots of time exploring the hotel. We ventured out to take advantage of an empty Times Square. Jarrod had the great idea of sending the kids on a scavenger hunt, so I planned one and watched the kids get to know the hotel even better.

On Wednesday (Halloween) the city was starting to get back to some bit of normalcy. We headed out to Macy’s and to walk around the city. We met up with Jarrod in Rockefeller Center that evening and enjoyed some hot chocolate.

And on Thursday we were able to get a flight home.

On our last day in New York we had a great brunch at the Hard Rock cafe and then sent Jarrod off to the airport (we thought it best he go home early to avoid the storm as our scheduled flight the next day was to beat the storm) and headed off to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The kids and grandma and I were enjoying the museum and I was getting texts from Jarrod telling me how crazy the airport was…people everywhere trying to get out of town. We were so glad we had decided to get him out early. And then I got the call. Our flight scheduled for Monday morning had been cancelled. I quickly called Jarrod to let him know we wouldn’t be flying the next day and he made the decision to stick around with us. He went up to the counter at his gate and they essentially told him he needed to get out of town. When he told them that his family was going to be stuck in the city due to the storm they understood. He took a taxi back to the hotel and we met him there after our time at the museum. We began seeing the effects of the city being shut down. Buses and subways were to close that evening at seven and taxis were getting tricky to find. But we made it back to the hotel.

While in New York we stayed in Times Square and tried to make sure that the kids could experience as much of the city as possible. We took a trip to the Empire State Building and went on the ride that took us all through the city. We then made the trip up to the observation deck and took our time walking all around the edge to see the New York skyline from all angles.

We went to Chinatown and saw the many food vendors and the different types of fruits and the seafood…oh my how badly that seafood smelled. We found a great Chinese restaurant and had a fabulous meal in the heart of Chinatown and followed it up with a ride on the subway.

On Saturday we met up with my childhood friend who lives in New York and explored Central Park with the help of some awesome rickshaw drivers. It was so fun to see the park full of families on this last weekend before Halloween.