Visiting the 911 Memorial

Today was our first full day of touring NYC.  As I mentioned yesterday we have Charlie in a doggy hotel because we are out late and they are closed by the time we get back.  But in the morning I go and rescue him for a couple hours while we are getting ready to go again.  Then we drop him of at Club Barks for the day.  He loves it there and the people are fantastic.

Then we head down to the subway station and catch a PATH train to the World Trade Center. 

A country boy just waiting for the train

The train heads under the Hudson River to NYC.  Speaking of the Hudson River, do you remember Captain Sully and his heroic crash landing on the Hudson?  Not a single person lost their life that day thanks to his skills. This is where it happened.  

The area of the Hudson River where the plane ditched.

We arrived at the World Trade Center station and headed up to the 911 monument.  There was a silent sacredness in the whole area.  There were obviously people there who lost loved ones that day and some families were quietly standing at the name of their lost loved one.  It was an eerie feeling to look up and know that this is where those huge sky scrapers stood.  The monument is touching with water falling down the sides  and I immediately equated that to the towers falling.  In the center was another large hole which no one can see the bottom of, almost like an open grave where thousands of people still lie. Very touching and this is totally my interpretation.

An interesting fact is that a rose is placed on the name of anyone who would have celebrated a birthday on that particular day.  I didn't count but there were at least a dozen roses around both sites. Very nice.

There are many trees on the site and I was told that everyone of them were transplanted from sites affected by that fateful day, some from around the Pentagon, some from the crash site in Pennsylvania.  There is one tree that is called "The Survivor Tree".  This tree was found on site burned but still had a branch alive.  It was replanted and stands as a remembrance to all of the survivors of that terrible attack.

The Survivor Tree

As I was standing there an older gentleman who was a 911 Memorial Volunteer spoke to me and found out I was Canadian.  I told him that Canadians feel this pain as well.  He said, "Did you know that Canadians drove Americans who were stranded in Canada, back to the USA".  He said some drove them over a thousand miles.  He said that Canadians are the most kind and thoughtful people he knows and he thanked me for caring.  (Brought a tear to my eye).

After that we checked out Wall Street briefly on our way to our boat cruise.  I got a picture of the New York Stock Exchange and look who is advertising all over it.  Why its Colonel Sanders!!!!!!

Part of our bus tour package was a cruise on the Hudson to see the sights.  Here are some of them.

Locals call this the Jenga Tower.  Taylor Swift lives here.

As we went over to the west side of the river we got to see where the motor home is parked.  It is directly under the church steeple in the middle of the picture.  You can't see it for the marina buildings though.

Our marina

And then what we all came for, the Statue of Liberty came into view.  What a wonderful sight after hearing about it for years and only seeing pictures.  She is magnificent in person.

And they don't fool around with security here.  A couple of military choppers complete with missiles made a couple of rounds around her checking things out.  

After the boat tour we headed back to the Times Square area to take in a Broadway Show.  Tonight we picked Wicked and it was everything a Broadway production should be.

The sign refers to the show not Sue.

And the traditional selfie

or two

The set before the show

Tomorrow will be our last day in NYC.