Tuesday Afternoon and Evening: WTC, Trinity, City Hall, Addams Family

After eating lunch (chicken in a pita bought from a vendor) in a park near the St. Paul's we walked down to the WTC site. It was not what I had expected. I thought (for some reason) that we would be able to walk down into Ground Zero, kinda like how they have had the memorial service on the anniversary. But really, the entire site is blocked off and there is heavy construction equipment crawling all over it. We could peak through the fencing and get a glimpse of the massive size of the hole they're working in, but it wasn't what I thought it would be. I was struck, yes, by the scope of the site but because it looks pretty much like any other large construction site, it wasn't super heart-wrenching. Life has certainly carried on. People hustle right by here constantly without a second look. Now, about 1/2 block up from the actual site is what looks like a store that is the WTC preview memorial site. This place is moving. It has timelines and photos and video testimonies and all that sort of thing. There is also a model of what the memorial will look like. For some reason, we didn't get a picture of it but it looks like it will be 2 reflecting pools that are the shape of the twin towers (so 2 huge square reflecting pools) surrounded by tons of oak trees. That's what all the cranes and things are doing over at the actual site. Personally, I'm glad that it is going to be a place where folks can come and see and remember. I'm also glad that it will be a green space that is there and not some other building that would somehow try to replace the giant hole left in the NYC skyline.

This is the fence of St. Paul's churchyard and you can see the orange cranes of the WTC site.


This is Battery Park now. You may remember all the people holding signs/pictures of loved ones on the news every night immediately following the attacks. That was here in Battery Park.

After the WTC site, we walked a few more blocks to Wall Street to Trinity Cathedral. It is another Colonial Era church that would hold the distinction of being the oldest building in Manhattan (which is now St. Paul's) except for a fire that burnt most of the city in 1776.

It was rebuilt and rededicated and is really beautiful. Besides trying to see as many cathedrals as possible while we were in NYC, we really wanted to see Trinity because Alexander Hamilton is buried in this churchyard. He is Eric's 6 times great-grandfather. So, you know, that's kinda cool. We were hoping to get a free tour here but that wound up not happening so we showed ourselves around.






See the family resemblance?

As we walked back towards the subway, we stopped at City Hall. You can't get very close to it; it has gates with guards and things. But there is a very pretty little park in front of it.

We had had sort of a late lunch and had planned to go back to the hotel to change for the show (we saw Addams Family that night) and then head to John's Pizza for supper. But we couldn't think of stuffing pizza in before the show. We wanted to be at the theater at 6:30 so that meant we'd have to eat at around 5 to allow for walking and waiting and things like that. We opted wait til after the show to eat. (Although, I thought I'd be too tired to eat after it got out at 9:30 or so) So we easily found our way back to the subway station, got on the right train, and made it back to the hotel in time for me to have a little rest (y'all know I like to nap, right?) before time to get ready.

Seeing a Broadway show is something I've always wanted to do as well. I have a very good friend who is in LA doing TV and movie things right now. I have always regretted that I wasn't able to come to NYC when she was on Broadway. I would have loved that. As we found our seats in the Lunt-Fontanne theater (next to last row in the mezzanine!) I thought about how lucky I am to get to see this. The Addams Family is a new musical and it is HILARIOUS! It also has Nathan Lane as Gomez and Bebe Neuwirth (I finally spelled her name right!) as Morticia. Seeing them was a huge thrill. They are each kind of legends of the theater and I was so SO impressed with their performances. I just kept thinking,"I can't believe I'm seeing them!" The show has a lot of interaction with the audience, which was fun too. Here's a few pics of the theater and the stage.




Even though this was a comedy, this song choked me up. Father/daughter stuff always makes me happy and sad. Love you Dad!

We came out of the theater at close to 10:00 and I wasn't tired a bit! I was so excited from the show and also hungry so we decided to go eat some pizza after all.

John's Pizza was just a couple of blocks from the theater and had been recommended by everyone. It is in this really cool building that used to be a church so the interior doesn't look anything like a regular pizza place. Really, you should go if you're ever in NYC. The pizza is super good. I do have some pictures of the interior but blogger doesn't want me to post them right now so you'll have to do without. After pizza, we went to Juniors for some NY cheesecake. Eric got cheesecake with cherries on top, which is what I kind of wanted but decided to try to chocolate mousse cheesecake. Well, lets just say it was too big for me to eat. It had more mousse than cheesecake. After the waiter brought be a box I said, jokingly,"That was just too big for me to eat." And he said,"Yeah. It's definitely too much for one person!" Woulda been nice if he had told me that BEFORE he brought it to me. Oh well, that's what room refrigerators are for!

Tomorrow I'll tell you about Central Park and the MET.

Have a good one!

Tuesday Morning: Subway, Liberty, Ellis, St. Paul

Tuesday we were up and ready to conquer the subway at around 8. We had purchased tickets for a cruise to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island online and the ferry was leaving from Battery Park at 10. The website recommended being there 45 minutes early to get through security and all that. We arrived right at 9:15 and proceeded through airport style security before boarding the ferry (it made us think of the Booze Cruise episode on the Office---except that there was no dance floor). The weather was absolutely gorgeous! This was going to be the warmest day (high of 76 or something like that) so I had on short sleeves. With the little breeze on the water and the bright sun, I was very happy! Seeing the Statue of Liberty has always been a life long dream of mine. I think this is why Tuesday was my favorite day; it began and ended with something I've always wanted to do. Very fulfilling! I looked at Eric as we were on the boat and told him that this was a dream of mine. He has always been a dream come true to me, why shouldn't he be the reason one of my 'Bucket List' items get checked off? Of course, I've never actually made a list but have a rather LONG mental one in my mind: Pyramids of Egypt, watching the space shuttle take off, Venice, Rome...anyway, we'll see how long we live! I'm off topic!

Seeing Lady Liberty up close is really cool. Knowing that millions of immigrants sailed right by her in search of a new life is very sobering. What liberties I take for granted! I've already forgotten how much we paid for those tickets. The folks who came crammed in boats spent all they had to catch a glimpse of her and know that there was hope in this country. Here she is

Dream fulfilled:

about this picture: yes, my hair is turning white in places. Already. At 34 :(

We decided to skip traipsing around Liberty Island. We kinda thought seeing her from a small distance would be better than looking up at her from ground level. So we stayed aboard the ferry and got to hear a tour guide telling his group some neat tidbits of Statue of Liberty facts. That guy had actually been up in the torch back in the 70s because he knew the man in charge of changing the light bulbs in there. Very neat.

An audio tour of the Immigration Museum on Ellis Island was included with our tickets. I'm really glad we did that. I'm sure we could have made it through faster but listening to the history of a place like that is well worth the time. I hadn't known that so many folks came through here in such a short amount of time. In just over 3 decades, 22 million people came to the US through this entrance point. They got off the boats with all of their worldly possessions, didn't speak English, had no money in their pockets...crazy! Real quick I'll pass on what the procedure was like. As soon as they made it into the Registration Bldg. they were told (by men in uniform who evoked fear in them because they weren't used to trusting men in uniform) to leave all their stuff in the baggage room and head up the stairs. As they climbed the stairs, doctors were watching them to try to start picking out the ones who seemed infirmed in any way. If, at any time during their process, a person appeared to be less than fit, they were marked with a piece of chalk on their back and pulled out of line to continue a more in depth medical exam. Imagine! Having your child, or your elderly mother pulled away and taken some place else after surviving a long journey this far! It was nice to hear that only 2% of those who came through Ellis Island during the peak immigration time were deported back to their home country. If you passed the medical exams and the interviews with the investigators (where are you going, how much money do you have, what are your skills, do you have family here) you were allowed to continue on your journey. If you couldn't pass those things and the investigators thought you would be a drain on society or if they thought you had some disease, you were sent back. Wow. Here's some pictures of the place.



The first paragraph of the above picture is one of the greatest things about America, to me. It's what makes our country very unique.

Next on our agenda, after landing at Battery Park, was to find St. Paul's. St Paul's is a small Episcopal cathedral that is the oldest continually used building in Manhattan. George Washington worshiped here!


see the covered porch he and Martha have just stepped off of?

how cool is that?


It is also famous for it's proximity to the Twin Towers. It's churchyard is literally right across the street from the World Trade Center.

(the orange metal stuff you see through the trees are cranes working on the site)

This church is called the 'little church that stood' because when the towers fell and debris went everywhere, this little church stood firm. It was covered with ash but it had no real structural damage. Rescue workers and firemen used the church's sanctuary as a home base where things were managed, where workers rested on the pews, where comfort was given. Daily, at 12:30, they have a short prayer service for peace and reconciliation that we wanted to participate in. It was peaceful. The inside of the church, while beautiful, has become kind of a shrine to the 9/11 event. It is full of things that you don't find in other cathedrals.



This brings us about to lunch on Tuesday! Sheesh. I'm going to stop here and make the rest of the day a totally different post. I don't have near as many pictures (I don't think) so hopefully it'll be a tad shorter. Thanks for hanging in there with me! I am enjoying reliving the week.

New York City Baby!

Hellllloooo! I am going to attempt to share about our recent trip to NYC over the course of this week. My very sweet friend (who is a waaay better writer than I am (maybe that has something to do with English degrees)) has traveled a lot with her family over the past few years and I really like how she updates her blog about trips: one day at a time. So, I am going to attempt to copy Heatharlyne's idea so that I can share the bulk of the trip without bogging you down with a week long post or shorten it to something that is unsatisfying. So, here goes!

The travel from Jackson to DFW to NYC was pretty much uneventful, which is pretty much what you're going for these days in terms of air travel I think. I will say, though, that flying with American is not NEARLY as much fun as flying with Southwest. They're all together much more uptight and that sucks what little fun there is in flying anymore right out of the whole experience. One flight attendant even told all of us that we couldn't put our water bottles or--get this--any 'non-American Airlines literature' in the pockets of the seats! What the what?! Anyway, we arrived on time, got our suitcase and caught a yellow taxi all without trouble.

I should note here that my sweet husband and I had spent quite a bit of time on our itinerary. By that I mean, I made note of what I wanted to see and do, Eric researched it, located it on a map, plotted all the things on a map, then grouped these things into days of the week that we would see them, and then color-coded the little markers on our google map (that he customized for our trip) so we could see what we were doing on which day just by looking at the map. So when we got to the airport at 3:30, we knew we had about 2.5 hours to get to our hotel in Manhattan and then to walk to 44th street to make our dinner reservation @ 6:00 at Carmines. It all went perfectly.

The taxi ride was about what I expected. The driver dodged in and out of traffic, honking and calling people names with a thick middle eastern accent. But he got us there safely and the ride wasn't as long (or as expensive) as we thought it would be. What I realized as soon as we were in Manhattan was that it seemed like the vehicles were totally driving on a pedestrian thoroughfare instead of the other way around. There were people everywhere! And people on bikes and scooters didn't feel the need to obey traffic laws (like stopping at red lights, or staying in their lanes) It seems like there'd be fatal car accidents all the time. I would hate to drive any kind of vehicle in that city.

We stayed at the Windham a few blocks south of Times Square. We got checked in and unpacked with a good bit of time to go exploring before supper. Here's what our view from the room looked like.

Not sure what all these buildings were (except the New Yorker, of course!) but I was glad not to be looking at a brick wall from an adjacent building. The room was small but very neat and clean and exactly what we needed.

We took off with our map and headed for Times Square. On the walk I realized that: 1)there are all together too many people in too small a space 2) all these people walk really fast. Where are they going that they have to walk at such a fast pace (with head down and ear buds in)? 3) this many people (and cars and trucks and hot dog stands) in this small a space smell really bad. The combination of exhaust and cigarette smoke and food stands and B.O and trash was very shocking initially. It's sad that I got used to it in such a short time. I doubt the folks that live there even know what real fresh air smells like.

With our trustee map, we made it easily to Times Square and took these pictures (these are just some, I won't stick all of them in).


So I have to say that New York City in general, and Times Square in particular, is so very iconic. As international as this city is (and it is; we heard tons of different languages being spoken all the time) it couldn't be more 'American'. From the Statue of Liberty to Park Avenue to Wall Street to the giant Coke screen in Times Square, these are the things that the rest of the world knows because of America. Kinda cool. Another thing that was really cool about Times Square: even at 11:00 at night, it is as bright as day because of all those lights. It was unreal!

We made it to Carmine's a few minutes early! They went ahead and sat us and we enjoyed a great meal of cheese ravioli and yummy bread. Then we ordered tiramisu. Carmine's is a place that serves 'family style' sized portions and each dish is meant to feed about 4 people. That includes desserts. So here's what our dessert looked like:

And no, we didn't eat all of it. Barely half but it was yuuuuummmmmyyyy!

We had purchased tickets to Top of the Rock online so we headed over to Rockefeller Center next. Top of the Rock is what we did instead of going to the Empire State Building. Eric had read nothing but unpleasant reviews about the Empire State Building (things like, huge crowds and long lines) and since 30 Rock is only a few floors shorter than the Empire State Building, we thought we'd do that. It was great. We arrived early and got right into the elevator that zipped us up really fast and we had as much time as we wanted on the 3 levels of observation decks. Here's some of those pics.




We headed back down to the bottom of 30 Rock and found that there's a mall or something underneath it with all sorts of shops. It was after 9:30 or so by that time so lots of those things were closed but we looked around a while. There were still men in suits hustling by on their phones. I'm like, "I would hate to still be in a suit at 9:30!" And where are they going at this hour that they have to run while texting? What can you be late for, business-wise, at this hour? Clearly, I have no idea about what it takes to make corporate America run!

We meandered back through Rockefeller Plaza and Times Square and got safely back to the hotel without getting lost which was nice. Tomorrow, I'll tell you about Tuesday, which I think was my favorite day. Hope you enjoy all the pictures.

D