A small group from James' MBA program planned a mini-reunion in New York City. I was a little nervous about NYC in late February, but we really lucked out on the weather. It was in the fifties during the day and mostly sunny. We had a busy few days, squeezing in as much as possible!
We took the train this time. We've never driven into the city, but we did drive to NJ and take the train from there once. When I went with Cindy, we drove to DC and took the megabus from there. The train from home is definitely the way to go. Even with a two hour delay at the start, it was easier and cheaper than flying or driving!
First views of the skyline as we were arriving Sunday afternoon...
View from our room at the Millennium Hilton, literally right next door to Freedom Tower and ground zero. Sunday evening was making our way to our hotel (oops - Penn Station to Brooklyn to the Hilton), some time at a hole in the wall jazz club, and a late night dinner.
We did a lot of walking from our hotel!
We passed the Big Gay Ice Cream Shop one night, and I insisted we go
back. I got a tasty soft serve ice cream 'injected' with salted caramel
- YUM!
On Monday, we planned a full morning for the 9/11 museum, and it was well worth the three hours we spent there. We probably could have spent more time, but it's so powerful that we found ourselves unable to stay much longer. Any areas in the museum that include personal effects or photos of the victims do not allow pictures; these were often the most moving parts of the experience.
The wall that was built to keep water out of the WTC building sites and remains intact today:
One of the most moving exhibits for me was the two points of impact that were recovered from the wreckage. They were able to salvage and identify the exact points in the structures where each plane hit. Seeing that in person and imagining the experiences of those in and around the towers turns my stomach into knots.
So many commented on what a gorgeous fall day 9/11 was. This exhibit asks contributors to try to recreate the blue of the sky on small tiles, which were then used to create this enormous wall collage.
The stairs that survivors took to escape ground zero. They had to go down these stairs and then "run like hell," as a policeman told them, across a plaza with falling debris.
This flag was flown at the WTC and became a symbol of American resilience. It has since traveled the country and has been 'repaired' with pieces of flags from other historic sites. There is even a repair from the flag that flew at Fords Theater the night that Lincoln was killed.
The images of the fire trucks and ambulances really drives home the ultimate sacrifice made by the first responders.
Elevator drive, with frayed cables.
Back outside at the fountains. As someone who isn't there everyday, it's still a little surreal how much life has returned to normal at ground zero, with thousands of commuters streaming through every day.
We met John one afternoon for lunch. He took us to Chinatown for soup dumplings, which were a new and delicious concept for me. I'd assumed that he'd mis-typed in his text and meant dumpling soup, but no - there is a such thing as soup dumplings. Chinese dumplings with meat and broth inside. Delicious.
We wandered around quite a bit that afternoon, through Chinatown and Little Italy, among other places. Chinatown markets always fascinate me....glutinous rice ball, anyone? And, we finally found proof of the existence of quite possibly the worst thing I've ever tasted: grass jelly drink!
Monday night, we had tickets to see Kinky Boots. The selling point for me was that Wayne Brady was in the starring role. It was a fun show - quite amazing to see grown men dancing in platform, high heeled boots and pulling it off fabulously!
We closed out the night at another club that had a 12-piece swing band playing. Because, you know, 11:30 is a perfectly reasonable time for dinner, right?
Tuesday morning was our tour of the stock exchange floor. Quite a different place from when I went as a kid! It's strangely quiet, and we were all amused at how little work seemed to be getting done. We watched in amazement as employees on the floor checked social media, played with their virtual reality goggles, watched soccer games, chatted, and read the news!
Tuesday night we had tickets to see the taping of the Stephen Colbert Show. Of course, you don't really get tickets - you get tickets in advance that allow you to wait in line the day of to try to actually get seats. We had to line up pretty early, but easily got our seat numbers and our Stephen Colbert hand stamps:
We still hadn't had lunch, so we ducked around the corner and into a bakery we found on the map. Not realizing until we were inside, we found ourselves in the famous Hello Deli. We finally figured it out when James recognized Rupert, the proprietor, from his appearances with David Letterman. So, Rupert Lee was our celebrity sighting for this NYC trip.
We wrapped up lunch and had time for a drink before heading back to the show, which was fascinating to watch. So much happens behind the scenes that you never see on TV!
We found a small Italian restaurant for our last dinner before calling it a night on Tuesday. Wednesday morning, We met up with Kristi for breakfast and we squeezed in a short (windy, very cold) stroll out to the water to wave to the Statue of Liberty before we headed back to Penn Station and home.
