National September 11 Memorial and Museum

New York City is home to more than 200 buildings soaring 500 feet or taller, and the highly recognizable skyline of Manhattan's skyscrapers is a familiar scene in movies, postcards, and photographs. It seems your eye is forever being drawn up, up, up to appreciate the creative architecture, the beautiful palette of colors, and the myriad reflections off smooth glassy surfaces of buildings. In stark contrast to this towering city is the National September 11 Memorial. Two pools with the largest man made waterfalls in the United States are located within the footprints of the former Twin Towers, and no matter where you stand the falls appear to be flowing into a bottomless void. They are intended to symbolize the loss of life and the physical void left by the terrorist attacks in 2001, and the impact is quite effective. The sound of the falling water drowns out the sounds of the city making the site a contemplative sanctuary. Victims' names are inscribed on the outer walls of the waterfall, deeply etched, deep enough for visitors to insert sprigs of flowers and written notes of remembrance. A callery pear tree that managed to live through the devastation has since been nurtured back to health and replanted at the memorial site, and is now called the Survivor Tree. It was dark when we finished our tour of the indoor museum, and unexpectedly we were witnesses to the Tribute in Light, an illuminated memorial of two beams of blue light projecting 4 miles into the night sky. There really are no words to describe the range of emotions and reactions I felt during our visit to the Memorial and Museum. Hopefully the pictures can provide a small glimpse of the experience. 

Yankee Stadium, The Bronx, New York City

Getting to a baseball game while in New York City was definitely on our list of "must dos", with two options to choose from, The Mets or The Yankees. This time around we chose the Yankees (we'll catch the Mets next time around!) because it fit into our schedule, and because the friends we were touring with happen to be huge Yankees fans. Visiting Yankee Stadium marked our 19th baseball park, but this time was just a little bit special. We happened to attend this game on the 13th anniversary of 9-11, making any event in New York City just a little more significant. Normally we remain somewhat neutral when attending ballgames that don't involve the San Francisco Giants, but on this night one couldn't help but root for home team. Initially it didn't look like the Yankees were going to pull this one off. At the top of the 8th inning the score was 4 - 2, with Tampa Bay Rays poised for the win. But Chris Young launched a three-run homer in the bottom of the 9th that rallied the Yankees to a 5-4 victory. The crowd was elated and everyone left happy, listening to the strains of Frank Sinatra's "New York, New York", traditionally played after home game victories. This was an especially thrilling game for our friends, but we also couldn't help but caught up in the excitement. Everyone was a Yankee fan that night!

 

New York City

This year we finally got to visit New York City, a destination high on our list of must-see places in this country. The logistics were always a bit puzzling to us, though. It's not like we could drag our 5th wheel into the city, so what to do? Take a flight in from somewhere else? Park our rig nearby and travel back and forth by train each day? Find a hotel and stay a while? Since we were already in New York to visit the State Capitol in Albany, we opted for finding an RV Park close to an MTA station, packing our bags, and training in on the Hudson River Line to Grand Central Station. We stayed in a hotel in the Upper West Side of Manhattan, just a block up from Central Park West, and next door to The Dakota, former home of John Lennon. As luck would have it, friends from California were also visiting New York City during this same time, also their first visit, and the four of us had so much fun! We had good weather the entire week, making it easy to utilize both the subway system and walking - lots of walking! According to my pedometer, we averaged between 8-9 miles on foot each day. There is so much to see! Of course five days isn't nearly enough, but we managed to squeeze in a walking tour of Central Park, a Broadway play (Jersey Boys), a Yankees Baseball Game at Yankee Stadium, a walk across the Brooklyn Bridge, a visit to the 911 Memorial and Museum, a ferry ride out to Ellis and Liberty Islands for a tour of the Statue of Liberty, a perusal of Times Square, a walk around the Wall Street area, eating from an authentic New York Deli (Zabar's), and visiting The Museum of Natural History. Here is a montage of some of the more memorable pictures from our trip.