Day 35 New York City

Today was a trek to NYC.  We had a great day and were exhausted by the end.  None of us wanted to drive into the city so drove to the NJ Transit station about 1/2 hour from here.  Garnet had searched the train schedule so we went on the express train, only a few stops and 1/2 hour less time.Here we are all fresh and excited about the day.

Newark, NJ from the train.See the wires in the sky?  The trains are electric.  Once in Penn Station we switched to the subway and rode to the World Trade Center stop.

There is an outdoor memorial and an indoor museum remembering those who lost their lives in the 9/11/2001 terrorist attacks as well as the February 26, 1993 WTC bombing.

The memorial consists of 2 pools, each 1 acre on the footprint of towers 1 and 2.  Water comes in under a bronze ledge where names of the 2983 victims are engraved.  The water falls 

 30 feet into a pool, then disappears into the center abyss.

This building is now the tallest in the US.  It was formeraly named the Freedom Tower but is now 1WTC  A beautiful building next to the memorial.  Next we toured the 

9/11 museum.  It is all underground at the base of the twin towers.  It was well done and emotional.  It was sobering.  The crowd was very respectful and quiet.  We learned a lot, remembered a lot, were moved and exhausted.  Emotionally I could not take in the whole experience.  It would take several days to be able to see all that is written, displayed, videos, recordings.

After leaving the museum and memorial we walked just a couple blocks to the Hudson River.  The background is Newark, NJ.  We had time to sit on park benches and enjoy the sights of the statue of Liberty, Ellis Island, watch the barges, sail boats, and ferries.  this gave us a chance to process some of what we had just seen before moving on to other sites in the city.

If you look real close, the Statue of Liberty is in the center of the photo.

 Then on to Times Square.  We rode the subway uptown.  Wow was it hot.  The car wasn't air conditioned and I thought we would melt.  Once back up on the street we spotted a McDonalds where we got cold drinks and sat under the AC until our bodies cooled down.  Top photo shows the crystal ball that drops on New Years Eve

While there a thunder storm went thru.  The thunder is really LOUD when it reverberates off all those tall buildings.  We didn't get wet as the rain didn't last long.  We decided to walk back the 10 blocks to Penn station to catch the train back to the truck.  On the way we walked thru the Garment District, as denoted by the button/needle sculpture.