New York City Day Two
/The sun is Shining!
We stayed in New Jersey and I was so excited to see the sun shining. It was not raining and my coat was almost dry! The sleeves were soaked where they hung out of my poncho, but it was nothing a few minutes in front of the heater couldn't fix. I loved traveling with this group, for one reason, I felt like I was surely one of the youngest ones on the trip. I couldn't possibly be as old as everyone else. Bahahahaha We were sort of traveling with a group from Alabama that also were with Diamond Tour Group. So we ate meals with them. There was one gentleman with their group that must have been 83, but he was 83 years young. He had the sweetest southern accent and he knew everyone on both buses. He greeted every table each meal and asked if we were enjoying ourselves. What a great guy. And he did enjoy his Alabama football too. He said he just enjoyed people and it certainly showed.
As we entered the city, I was excited to be able to see some of what we missed on Saturday because of the rain. I was so intrigued by the everyday things that were so different from the way I lived. One of the first examples I saw was a stacked parking lot.
Hope no one is in a hurry to leave
We drove by the homes and streets of many famous people several of whom I had no idea who they were. But when we passed the exact spot where John Lennon was shot I kind of got the heebie-jeebies. It looked so small and common yet so awesome all at once. I would have loved to have seen the inside of those brownstone apartments. Shortly after, we arrived at Central Park on the opposite end from Saturday. The first thing we saw was the memorial to John Lennon. It had a red rose laying on it. I wonder if someone puts one there everyday or if it was by chance..
Here are some other pictures I took. Central Park is prettier in the sunshine! I loved the street entertainers. I want to go back so that I can spend as much time as I want shooting pictures and enjoying the entertainment.
The next stop on our tour was the highlight of my trip. We were off to the World Trade Center. Our guide told us that New Yorkers do not call this area "ground zero" because ground zero speaks of tragedy. Instead, they say World Trade Center or Freedom Tower which speaks of rebuilding or hope. As we walked to the memorial we saw that there was quite a crowd, but it was eerily quiet there. I imagine that like me, each person was rerunning in their minds those horrible visions from television that define for us the day America changed forever. Our guide told us that on the day the towers collapsed it was also eerily quiet as people walked around stunned, trying to make their way home. Like us, they were trying to make sense of the senseless. As I looked at the names etched on the top of the fountain, I thought about each of those people memorialized there. Each name a life lost. I wondered what they had done that Tuesday morning before work. I felt their desperation as the tragedy unfolded. I pondered what they left undone. I hurt for those they left behind and for all of us left to remember.
We will never forget
Lunch on the second day was on our own in Little Italy or Chinatown. I didn't realize that those neighborhoods are like right beside each other, literally on the same street. We chose to eat at a pizza place in little Italy. I think we may have been the only people in there over the age of 40. Our guide explained that there are places that young New Yorkers kind of gravitate to (like on Friends!) and that area becomes trendy. The food was good although expensive. We had just 3 meatballs from the appetizer menu and bread along with two beers, a coke and a water and the bill was $75.00 for the four of us. Quite pricey. I guess what they don't spend on cars and gasoline, New Yorkers can afford to spend on food.
I loved seeing the Christmas trees bundled up outside on the sidewalk. I saw a man carrying a tree by the trunk and a little boy about 6 or 7 years old following behind him carrying the top of the tree. I wish I hadn't been on the bus so I could have taken a picture of it.
Our last stop of the day was to please most of the women on the bus. They wanted to shop and they wanted to shop at Macy's. Well, I was excited and thought I wanted to shop at Macy's too, until I got there. You see, I am the kind of shopper that has to touch everything before I pick out something to try on and there is a lot to touch in a store sitting on an entire city block and nine stories up. Overwhelmed by the sparkling jewelry on the first floor, I asked where the ladies clothing was. The response, "Floors two through six"! I couldn't have touched everything if I had stayed there until today (one month later). I enjoyed looking at the beautiful decorations and the windows outside. But just like everywhere else we visited, you couldn't really stop to look for fear of being trampled.
What a wonderful city. It is as different from my small town as it could be. I didn't get shot by the mob or mugged and I felt safe the entire time. I can now relate to my past kindergarten students who followed me with blind faith on a field trip as I constantly counted them and made sure they had their name tags on. The city was both more and less than I thought. The entire city spread farther than I ever imagined. Each part seemed somehow smaller than I imagined it. The Wall Street Bull, the courthouse from Law and Order, and even the skating rink and Christmas tree at Rockefeller Center lost some of their grandeur when viewed in real life. Symbols of our society they are, yes. But as symbols the real beauty is not in them, but in the people. The people of New York and the people visiting New York are what make it unique and special and large.
