New York, New York

Last month I got to go with Rachel and her middle school choir group to New York City. I admit I was a bit anxious about going to the "Big City" (It was the small town girl in me coming out.). But what an experience we had while we were there.


We stood in awed and humbled silence as we looked out over Ground Zero. This picture was taken from what is called the Winter Gardens. The roof of this building is all glass and when the towers went down the glass fell onto the marble floor below. A polyurithane coating was put on the floor after 9/11 to show the damage the falling glass did to the floor.


We saw 2 Broadway plays. This one was by far my favorite.


We walked through Central Park. This picture is in a part of Central Park called Strawberry Plains. It is maintained by John Lennon's widow. This is Rachel at the memorial just inside the park. Also on our walk through Central Park we saw a guy get a ticket for not having his dog on a leash. Just thought it was funny.
We also got to see the city at night from the top of Rockefeller Center, tour Radio City Music Hall and meet a real Rockette dancer. We took a boat tour on the Hudson where we got to see Lady Liberty from the water as well as the place where the plane was landed on the Hudson after losing both engines.

Some interesting things I learned while there:

• The 7 spires on Lady Liberty's crown represent the 7 seas as well as the 7 continents.
• There is a church that sits right across the street from Ground Zero and when the planes crashed into the towers not a single window in that church was broken. There also was no structural damage to that church. And it was right across the street from the towers!!
• New Yorkers call it Grand Central Terminal because it's said that all tracks "terminate" their run there.
• Wall Street was once called Canal Street.
• Never pay full asking price when shopping in Chinatown.
• The Lincoln Tunnel sits 80 feet below the Hudson River. (We went through this tunnel everyday to get into the city)
• The Giants football stadium appears to be in New Jersey.
• The dock where the Titanic should have docked upon arrival to New York City is still there along the Hudson. No one uses it.

I got an official I "heart" New York t-shirt, bought a name brand knock off purse in Chinatown(ask me about that another time), ate in a pizzeria that was once a church, sat in a pew in St. Patrick's Cathedral, and froze my hind end off on the boat tour. But I loved it!!

Next time, (if there is a next time) I'd prefer to see New York a little later in the spring so it hopefully would be a little bit warmer. But that's all part of the experience, right?