Welcome to New York City!!

The Freedom Tower 

Saturday, June 9

Welcome on our adventure to Italy!  First, however, is an extended layover in New York City.  In the airport when we were leaving, we saw some of the History Day kids getting ready to go to DC.  Annie saw some friends and a teacher, we all saw our neighbor Anna.  Annie felt a little jealous that she wasn’t going to History Day too.  

In New York, we caught a cab from the airport to our hotel.  Our cab driver was quiet, but when he turned on the radio tuned to a station in a different language, I understood why.  The GPS directed him the wrong way on the final street, but the rest of the ride seemed to go well.  We checked in and since the room was ready, took a short nap (we had to leave at 4:00 this morning!).  Our hotel is in Brooklyn, near Prospect Park for those that know the city.    

Then off to see the city!  We took the subway to Manhattan, then found ourselves walking down Wall Street and took a photo of the American Stock Exchange and Trinity Church (which was very important in American Treasure).  Then to the Freedom Tower and the 9/11 memorial.  The garden is complete, but the museum is not.  Thanks to Becky Garrett, we knew to get our tickets online before we left!  The memorial was solemn but beautiful.  We saw the north and south pools and the survivor tree (the only tree to survive (even though it was right by the building!  On one side of the tree, the branches do not reach out as far--that is the side that was facing the South Tower.  We also saw the Freedom Tower, not completely done yet.  

The Survivor Tree

Then we walked through Hudson River Park to Battery Park.  The Hudson River Park is a strip of grass, trees, and native plants with walking and bike trails.  At Battery Park, Shelby and Joshua were chosen to participate in a street performance (we love street performers!).  The man was an acrobat and took a running dive over our two children and five other people!  Thank goodness he made it!  : )  Then we took the Staten Island Ferry (which is free) to and back from Staten Island.  The ferry passes right by the Statue of Liberty.   

(Shelby is in the orange shirt, Joshua is in the red shirt)

As we were walking around Manhattan after that, we saw a Brazilian-African drum group--all women.  They were having so much fun, moving and dancing, and throwing their drums up in the air--it made it a  lot of fun for us to watch as well.  Then we went by the Wall Street bull (as in bull market).  We then stopped in a park with a fountain before walking back to Brooklyn over the Brooklyn Bridge.  It was fun remembering a book that I read (Brook Land) about the bridge being built as we were walking over it). 

After eating dinner at a cafe we found, we headed back to our hotel for an early evening.