Day 1 New York

We ran all over town today. We started the day by going to see the Today Show. The whole crew came out for a cooking segment on was outside on the plaza. I took pictures of Matt, Ann, and the rest. 

Shirley got to shake hands with Ann Currie, twice. Ann even called her “sweetie”. 

That is the top of Shirley's Head

We walked down to “Time Square” where we found a little out of the way café for breakfast. Our waitress is from Poland and has been in the US for about 4 ½ years. She had a great personality and was very good at her job. It was a really nice way to start off the day. By the way, you can get iced tea in New York just not sweet. 

What an awesome view from atop the Empire State Building.

 I was real nervous about the elevator ride but it was a non-event, except for the fact it took less than a minute to go 80 floors. I mean really fast but you didn’t get that feel of loosing your stomach. Our ears popped, but more going down than up. It was worth it. You could see for miles. While there we did the New York Sky Ride.(a virtual simulator ride) Not worth the money. In fact, we thought it was a dud. It was expensive and not very good, except to make you very sick. Nearly lost my breakfast there.

Hopped back on the bus and headed further out on Broadway. Got off at the World Trade Center sight. 104 floors are up and they are still climbing on the rebuild. Just outside about 100 yards away is the church that survived the collapse. St. Paul’s I think. Can’t remember. Anyway, there was much inside on the days following the recovery efforts.

Then we went down another block to the little temporary museum for 911. A real nice one is being built to house these exhibits and more.

I rounded a corner into a room with pictures of many if not all of the persons that lost their lives on that day. To say that I became emotional would be a gross understatement. Many emotions from that day, just a few short 10 years ago, came to the top as I once again was reminded of the human toll extracted by those madmen.  I am not sure how anyone could go to that site and not think of this area as hallowed ground.

After walking another mile we made to battery park and the next bus stop to get on the bus to ride back as close as we could to our hotel.

After a little rest we headed out again aiming for the “Top of the Rock”. Unfortunately they were sold out tonight but we have our tickets for tomorrow night and are looking forward to looking out over New York at night.

We had a great day and really can’t believe we are here. It has been a desire for many, many years, but we never thought we would do this.

It has been a wonderful gift and we are enjoying it more than we could say Thank You enough. If you get the chance do it.