NYC Day 4
The goal of this day was to explore Lower Manhattan.
Merrill Lynch Bull on Wall Street
The day started off with breakfast from the Buttercup Bakery! We had gone the night before, and must have been hungry, because we had a hard time narrowing our decision. We walked out of there with all sorts of cakes, muffins, and tarts! We ate some of it the night before as dessert, after having chinese food delivered to our hotel room. Anyway, back to day 4...
There are two passes needed to get into the Statue of Liberty. The first is your ferry pass. Kyle reserved these for us the night before. The second is the pass that will allow you inside the monument. Only a limited number of these are given out. Kyle found that they were 'sold out' for weeks ahead. But, since this is a national monument, some are held back for walk-up traffic each day. You have to get to the ticket window early in order to have a chance for one of these passes. We were lucky, and scored 5 passes soon after they opened.
Our ferry passes were for early afternoon, giving us most of the morning to explore lower Manhattan. Kyle took us up through Wall Street, which has a much different feel to it than most of the city... old, established, serious. I imagined that inside those buildings there were deals going on that were so big that they would make my head spin.
Of course not everything is serious...
From there we worked our way up to ground zero.
The picture above shows just how enormously deep the hole is. Even after all these years, the feeling there is still very somber. There was a gentleman playing "Amazing Grace" on his flute. I was amazed he could play it with gloved hands. He was a bit pungent, though.
Here's another picture of the hole, taken by Adam. I actually like his picture better than mine...
Adam's picture of Ground Zero
Those structures cutting across the right side of the picture are actually subway tunnels.
Another picture from the site...
We then went up to the Trinity Church, that served as a makeshift refuge for the emergency workers. There was a choir singing when we arrived, and they have a touching display of artifacts from 9/11.
It was time for lunch and to start working our way back to Battery Park. Ben had been hoping to find a specific Mc Donald's in NYC that was 2 stories tall. We didn't have a clue where it might be, but happened apon it when we left the church. We ate upstairs, of course!
It was time to catch our ferry. When we arrived, the line was INCREDIBLY LONG (hundreds and hundreds of people). As it turns out, buying passes on-line the night before is a very good thing... they let us go to the front of the line!
The sight of Lady Liberty was very moving, and I coudn't help thinking of my dear friends who have or are currently working so hard to become U.S. citizens.
We parted company with Kyle, and headed back to Midtown. I flagged a cab to take us to the restaurant where we were going to meet Karyn. My excellent tour book ($10 from AAA) told me how to de-cypher the lighted sign on top of the cabs, so that I could tell which ones were looking for fares. Luckily our first cab driver was patient with us, since we were new to the whole thing.
The restaurant turned out to be reserved for a private party. So we walked around until we found one that sounded interesting. It turns out that it was great! Karyn's roommate met us there, and that's when (not the previous night-oops) we saw their building. :)
Our 2nd cab ride, back to our hotel, was a piece of cake. We were getting to feel like real New Yorkers!
Merrill Lynch Bull on Wall Street
The day started off with breakfast from the Buttercup Bakery! We had gone the night before, and must have been hungry, because we had a hard time narrowing our decision. We walked out of there with all sorts of cakes, muffins, and tarts! We ate some of it the night before as dessert, after having chinese food delivered to our hotel room. Anyway, back to day 4...
There are two passes needed to get into the Statue of Liberty. The first is your ferry pass. Kyle reserved these for us the night before. The second is the pass that will allow you inside the monument. Only a limited number of these are given out. Kyle found that they were 'sold out' for weeks ahead. But, since this is a national monument, some are held back for walk-up traffic each day. You have to get to the ticket window early in order to have a chance for one of these passes. We were lucky, and scored 5 passes soon after they opened.
Our ferry passes were for early afternoon, giving us most of the morning to explore lower Manhattan. Kyle took us up through Wall Street, which has a much different feel to it than most of the city... old, established, serious. I imagined that inside those buildings there were deals going on that were so big that they would make my head spin.
Of course not everything is serious...
From there we worked our way up to ground zero.
The picture above shows just how enormously deep the hole is. Even after all these years, the feeling there is still very somber. There was a gentleman playing "Amazing Grace" on his flute. I was amazed he could play it with gloved hands. He was a bit pungent, though.
Here's another picture of the hole, taken by Adam. I actually like his picture better than mine...
Adam's picture of Ground Zero
Those structures cutting across the right side of the picture are actually subway tunnels.
Another picture from the site...
We then went up to the Trinity Church, that served as a makeshift refuge for the emergency workers. There was a choir singing when we arrived, and they have a touching display of artifacts from 9/11.
It was time for lunch and to start working our way back to Battery Park. Ben had been hoping to find a specific Mc Donald's in NYC that was 2 stories tall. We didn't have a clue where it might be, but happened apon it when we left the church. We ate upstairs, of course!
It was time to catch our ferry. When we arrived, the line was INCREDIBLY LONG (hundreds and hundreds of people). As it turns out, buying passes on-line the night before is a very good thing... they let us go to the front of the line!
The sight of Lady Liberty was very moving, and I coudn't help thinking of my dear friends who have or are currently working so hard to become U.S. citizens.
We parted company with Kyle, and headed back to Midtown. I flagged a cab to take us to the restaurant where we were going to meet Karyn. My excellent tour book ($10 from AAA) told me how to de-cypher the lighted sign on top of the cabs, so that I could tell which ones were looking for fares. Luckily our first cab driver was patient with us, since we were new to the whole thing.
The restaurant turned out to be reserved for a private party. So we walked around until we found one that sounded interesting. It turns out that it was great! Karyn's roommate met us there, and that's when (not the previous night-oops) we saw their building. :)
Our 2nd cab ride, back to our hotel, was a piece of cake. We were getting to feel like real New Yorkers!