After we got done eating, we didn't really have a plan. We knew we didn't want to catch a train back to our campground until 8:30 because that is when the cheap rates started agian. What were we going to do for 3 1/2 hours? Plus we still didn't have a map!
We were right by Ground Zero and saw the new World Trade Center building that was recently built. This building was now the highest building in the New York skyline (check out earlier pictures and below), so we thought we would walk over there and try to see it closer. The city had the entire Ground Zero sectioned off. I think this was probably 4-6 blocks on each side of Ground Zero.
Here is the picture of the new building in the background and at the bottom is the 10 foot wire fence going around the entire section. We were not quite sure what the crane was doing, but there was definitely still some construction going on.
We walked a few blocks and then turned the corner to walk around it and were met by swarms of people! I wish I had a picture! It was just like on TV! We were between the gates of ground zero and another building and it was filled with people. Pretty soon we found out where all these people were going, they were going to the train station that was under Ground Zero! I guess the subway is still closed in that area.
As I was watching all these people go into the train, I looked to the right and about jumped out of my skin, it was a little tourist booth!!! They had maps!! So happy! I motioned for Matt to go over there and we asked the lady if she had a map and she did! She showed us one of Lower Manhattan and it helped so much!
We also asked her if there was anything that we could do that evening and she mentioned the 9/11 memorial. It sounded good to us, so we headed off to get our tickets. It's was about 6:10 at this point. I remember this because she said they stop giving tickets out at 6:30.
Tickets were free, but they were required to get in and you had to go to a certain store front to get them. Here is where we had to go.
After we picked up our tickets and gave a donation, we headed about 6 blocks to the entrance to the 9/11 memorial.
Because it is Ground Zero, we had to present our tickets over and over and go through security numerous times, but we eventually got in to to see the memorial. It took me awhile to figure out, but once I saw the whole picture, it was amazing!
Where each of the twin towers stood, there were waterfall pools with names of each of the victims around the outside. It was so powerful and very hard to describe! I am so glad we stopped! And I am so glad that we have talked about the attack on America with ours girls, so they had some idea what this was all about.
These pools were as big as the original towers and there was a waterfall over the outside and then there was another waterfall in the middle of the memorial. As you can see behind the girls, the names are sketched in granite and people would leave memorials to the people, for example, you can see the flag to the right of Megan stuck in somebody's name.
After seeing both pools, we headed out, but along the way we saw the tree that survived the world trade center attacks! No wonder it has a fence around it!
When we got done at the memorial, we still had some time left, so we thought we would walk over to the Brooklyn Bridge. This wasn't such a good idea! Courtney had to go to the bathroom, so we snuck into a Burger King and found the bathroom, (What? Did you see the "restroom for customers only" sign??) As we were in there, a huge storm blew up! I had left Matt, Megan and Christian outside, so when we came back downstairs from the bathroom, I couldn't find them!
Apparently, they were hanging out under an awning as it poured and the wind blew!! There was a tourist store down the street that had postcards outside and the postcars went blowing all over right in front of Burger King. Eventually Matt came inside and we decided to wait a little bit for the storm to blow over us.
By this time, it was starting to get dark, so Matt suggested that we skip the Brooklyn Bridge and head back to Grand Central station to catch out train home. I agreed! It was another 6-7 blocks to the bridge and it was pouring rain out!
We decided to find the nearest subway stop and head there in the rain for it had slowed down a little bit! As we walked down the street, Matt about got blown off the street because the wind was so hard! We found the nearest stop, but it was shut down! What now? Find the next stop! The next stop was another block and a half, so we found it and got in away from the storm.
We bought more tickets and made our way to Grand Central Station. From there, we had about 45 minutes until our train. We bought our train tickets and then wondered around the station for awhile.
Here is the main hall in Grnad Central Station. This place was gorgeous!!
About 8:10, we went over to see if our train was there and it was, so we went ahead and got on and waited for twenty minutes for our 45 minute trip home.
Do you see those signs hanging from the ceiling in the picture above? I had to laugh at one of them. :)
They were put there by Aetna health insurance, which is our health insurance company.
Here was one of their signs.
If you can't read it, it says, "What's your health? Family camping trip."
Even Aetna thinks camping is good for my health!
We got back to our train station about 9:15, got our truck, and headed back to our camper.
I think we all got a little bit to eat when we got home, remember we had lunch at 5 and nothing for supper, so it took awhile to get everybody calmed down and to sleep.
Matt and I decided that we were going to try to be on the Today Show on Friday morning and Megan and I had determined that we were going to try to catch the 7:40 am train! To catch a train that early meant that I would need to get the kids up around 6:30! It was going to be a short night.
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