The Big Apple NYC

We got up to a chilly but beautiful day.  Lynda took Charlie out and loved the view from the waterfront to NY harbor.  From that we bundled up and packed our camera etc and walked to the PATH train station a few blocks away.  The train took us into where the World Trade Center used to be and I was filled with thoughts of my years of commuting to this very spot.  Of thoughts of how it looked after 9/11 and how much work had been done to bring it back into working condition.  As we came above ground I looked around and tried to get my bearing as to where we were.  We had booked tickets to visit the WTC memorial site on line as one must have reservations to get in.  The line went fast and after a very thorough search we arrive at a most beautiful park.  The actual bases of towers 1 and 2 were now huge marble basins with water running down the side.  Along the perimeter was a marble gray wall with the names of all that perished carved through. Light were installed beneath and it all was so moving and grand.  I stopped and chatted with a Port Authority Police Man and asked questions where my friends and co-workers in the Port Authority might have their names.   He showed me and we talked for awhile about it all and the PA.  Lynda and I found some of the names of the Police I knew and then went to the automated machines typed in my friends names and found their locations.  I had many thoughts on it all.  Tower one was closed off due to ice falling from the new beautiful tower so I wasn't able to see the new place they put the PA people that died in the 1993 bombing.  Steve Knapp a long time friend of mine died in that and several other co-workers I knew well.  But for the grace of God I wasn't one of them as I was scheduled to park in Steve's parking spot that day and head to the Seaport for lunch with a vendor.  The vendor called it off that morning with car trouble and we cancelled going over.  I had spoke to Steve that morning telling him I would come in the lunch room and say hello around 12 to 12:30 pm.  He died at 12:18 pm in the lunch room with the others that day according to the stopped watch they took off his body.  Not my time yet.

From here we headed to see the Wall Street demonstrations, Empire State Building and the South Street Seaport.  To be continued later for that check back:

Some pictures from the last part of the day.