Last Saturday morning  Vancouver had one of the worst wind storms in our history and the city and surrounding areas came to a halt. You would think a city that is located next to the San Andres Fault would be prepared for a small setback like a power outage but I can tell you, that is not the case.

Over 500,000 people lost power at one time. Trees were scatter on the ground like children’s toys in a playroom and traffic lights brought vehicles to a slow crawl seeing drivers who can normally navigate a four way stop with ease forget all common sense and rules. Twitter and news feeds were filled with people complaining about the lack of power, showing little regard or appreciation for the hard working men and women fighting the elements to get us all back to the comforts we take for granted.

We assumed this power outage would be like ones of the past and that we would have power back in a few hours. We spent the day playing games as a family, arranged dinner out with friends and then returned home to a night of candlelight Trivial Pursuit.

It was when we woke up Sunday morning to no power that we realized  this was not your ordinary power outage.  At that moment I was glad we were campers. We quickly moved all our food to the RV and set up camp. Tea and french toast were on the breakfast menu and we were up and running in no time. Our neighbors were not as lucky and we quickly heard stories of 1 hour line ups for coffee and muffins. Restaurants that were open saw line ups all day long and if you could find an open grocery store or gas station you were faced with crowds of unhappy hungry shoppers.

To accommodate the number of people without power cellular companies slowed  their feeds to allow for more users making my blogging  near impossible  and streaming movies a pipe dream for my family.  We enjoyed another afternoon of games and family time. Teenagers arrived to play pool, monopoly and commiserate in their loss of internet communication. Preparation for another evening without power started and we settle in for a dark night.

After 2+ days without power we all cheered when the lights returned. As fun as it all started out, it did get old after a while and we were pleased to see it end. It was a great lesson for us all and we will make sure our RV batteries are charge at all times,  the propane tanks are filled and  the earthquake water is rotated.

But for now the power is back on so I am catching up on my  blogging, my kids are back to their video games and social media and my husband is back at work.  It is nice to have normal back but the memory of a dark weekend reconnecting like campers in our own home will always make me smile.