NYC-Our legs are going to be so pretty About This Page:

[Kelly66]

Originally Posted by chezp

Oh I can't wait to see the 9-11 Memorial. That's one thing I really want to get back to NYC to see, so that we can pay our tributes there.

Since I had actually gone to the WTC in 1989, I really appreciate the memorial because it pays tribute to the way it used to look while still having a forward view toward the future. I used to have some old literature about it but I threw it away before 9-11. I thought it said there were originally 7 buildings, but I could only find four. Do you know?
If you have a visit planned it may or may not help to read my trip report. We did get turned around several times in that part of Manhattan, especially trying to get to the memorial. It was a hike. A large part of the area is still fenced off and the directions on the signs on the street weren't quite clear to me. Linda and I kind of needed Brittany's keen eyes to direct us. Hey, we aren't that old! You do need to get reservations for passes at 911memorial.org which we did just a few hours before we got there. It is very well done though. More Later.

[chezp]

Originally Posted by Kelly66

Since I had actually gone to the WTC in 1989, I really appreciate the memorial because it pays tribute to the way it used to look while still having a forward view toward the future. I used to have some old literature about it but I threw it away before 9-11. I thought it said there were originally 7 buildings, but I could only find four. Do you know?

I could've sworn I'd heard them mention seven buildings. Luckily I still have literature from my 1987 visit to the World Trade Center with my parents (we went again on our honeymoon in 1999) and, when they gave them to me earlier this year, I had tears in my eyes. I've got them safely hidden away, as they are a great tribute.

If you have a visit planned it may or may not help to read my trip report. We did get turned around several times in that part of Manhattan, especially trying to get to the memorial. It was a hike. A large part of the area is still fenced off and the directions on the signs on the street weren't quite clear to me. Linda and I kind of needed Brittany's keen eyes to direct us. Hey, we aren't that old! You do need to get reservations for passes at 911memorial.org which we did just a few hours before we got there. It is very well done though. More Later.

I think, whenever we go back (maybe 2016?) we'll probably take the subway/taxis a fair bit, as I can't walk as much as much as I used to with my chronic fatigue.

[Cam22]

My what a wait for dinner! Sounds like your seats were great and so was the show!

[Kelly66]

Wow! I was just about to leave the page for my Nike+ Fuel Data for that day, July 30th. I hit my fuel data goal (5,000 fuel points) at 10:45 PM. If I slide the cursor along the curve it tells me some data, I guess that is fuel points 663 from 11:00 PM -12:00 AM and it shows that as my most active hour!!!! So right now my fuel band shows 447 calories burned and 1832 fuel points, too bad that's not near enough to burn off that carrot cake.

[Kelly66]

Originally Posted by chezp

I could've sworn I'd heard them mention seven buildings. Luckily I still have literature from my 1987 visit to the World Trade Center with my parents (we went again on our honeymoon in 1999) and, when they gave them to me earlier this year, I had tears in my eyes. I've got them safely hidden away, as they are a great tribute.



I think, whenever we go back (maybe 2016?) we'll probably take the subway/taxis a fair bit, as I can't walk as much as much as I used to with my chronic fatigue.

Thanks I though so too about seven buildings. Here are some pixies to help with the chronic fatigue

[Kelly66]

Originally Posted by Cam22

My what a wait for dinner! Sounds like your seats were great and so was the show!

The show was very wonderful. I thought the seats were incredible especially for $91 a piece. Oh did I tell you? There was a point where they wrote something on the blackboard and Linda and I couldn't see it until everyone (on the stage) moved. I still think Linda-who had the last seat in the row could not see it even then. But most of the cast was on our side of the stage so that may explain why that third seat on the other side was $115. But that was such a tiny, tiny section of the show. I was very pleased with these 'partial view' seats. I have had seats with a pole in front of them before, but these were much better than that.

[Colexis Mom]

Glad you enjoyed the show! Sorry it was freezing!

[Kelly66]

Wednesday, July 31 Day 6 -GMA, CBS Broadcast Studio, Arriba Arriba, St. Patrick’s, Rockefeller Center, 9-11 Memorial, Chinatown, Little Italy, makeover & dickering for souvenirs!
I woke up at 5:20 AM as usual, but I thought I would be polite and stay in bed until 6:00 AM. We had discussed that breakfast was served at 6:30 AM and we would leave for Good Morning America right after we ate. I was out of the bathroom by 6:20 and no one else was up yet. When they did get up I said that breakfast was being served and I would go down and have coffee and wait for Brittany. Linda had said she didn’t eat breakfast. Then she said she eats hotel breakfasts, then when she realized it wasn’t included for free she decided she really didn’t eat breakfast. I sat down and asked for a menu instead of the buffet and got my coffee and when I was ready to order Brittany was there and ordered the same thing. I kind of felt like breakfast took awhile. After we were served the food it took a while to get the check and get it processed through. I gave a 14.5% tip. then we got back to the room and Linda was ready and we took off to stand outside Good Morning America. On the way Linda was telling me who are the hosts and trying to get me excited about being there. It didn’t really work. When we got to the place where they were standing behind a barricade we kept walking by uniformed people standing there looking like they were holding the people in or other people out or something. When we got to the end they said there wasn’t room but to go back to a certain point and they let us in, however some people came up after us and they wouldn’t let them behind the barricade. He said that it looked like there was room but there wasn’t really because someone went to go to the restroom and would be back soon. Suddenly I felt a migraine coming on and tried to get into my backpack to get some Advil. The day before when we were dressing for the play, or dinner before the play, Linda was talking about how we wouldn’t be able to see ourselves on tv and that nobody would tape it. Brittany said that Nana has a VCR, but Linda said it only plays and doesn’t record. So I tried to get the Advil out of my backpack and my head was pounding and there wasn’t enough room to get into my backpack, and I thought I really can’t stand here for an hour and a half, so I asked if they minded if I went back to the hotel. They said they didn’t mind and then somebody else could go in when I went out. Then, I got the bright idea to video it on my iPhone. It worked out well, I went back to the hotel and watched good Morning America on the television (in the air-conditioning) , and because I knew where they were, and what the sign looked like, I would say something (to my iPhone) when I saw them. They came back to the hotel and mentioned going to CBS studios. I just assumed that it was the same type of thing where you stand outside something. I should have asked more questions. It was at 58th street and we were at 42nd street. We checked out and I thought we would just walk.
So maybe it was 9:30 AM when we checked out and we were planning to meet my actor friend at 8th Ave and 14th Street off the subway station at noon. I THOUGHT that would be plenty of time and that we could just get on the subway uptown going downtown. So we walked to 58th street, no biggie, and I figured we would see it, but no. We got to Columbus Circle and sat down and Brittany looked up the address. We started walking from 8th Ave. toward the Hudson and I think we were looking for 524. We walked, and we walked and we walked and I said, by the time we get to that number we will be in the middle of the river. We passed 9th Avenue, and 10th Avenue and 11th Avenue....and I said, I can see the water. Linda never did see the water. So we get there and there is nothing to do :-( But at least we could sit inside in the air conditioning. By this time I am hot and grouchy and wondering how in the world we are going to get back up to 8th Ave to get on the subway to get downtown by noon. So I went to call my actor friend/real New Yorker, Clay Drinko. You can check out his body of work at ClayDrinko.com (but ask your parents first). Woops I thought I had his phone number in my contacts, but apparently all I had was an email. But just in time he texted me at 11:00 AM and said he didn’t know what to do because the repairman was running late and he had to be back by 2 PM. So I told him where we were and he said, 'yeah that’s a hike.' So I sent him some virtual pixies to help the repairman come and we decided to skip it. But he did give us the name of a great restaurant near where we were.
He suggested Arriba Arriba at 9th Ave and 51st Street so we started walking back the very, very long numbered street to Tenth avenue to 9th Avenue and then downtown. He suggested the Intrepid, but they had said that was the kind of thing Linda’s husband would have made them do, but they were interested in the 9-11 memorial. Clay said that was beautiful and gave me the website to get reservations for passes - 911memorial.org. We kept walking and kept walking and we got to a restaurant that began with an A near 51st Street and they said they wouldn’t open until noon. It was about 11:30 AM. So, just to be decisive, I walked up (the numbered street) to one more Avenue turned right and ducked into the Hampton Inn. We sat down in the lobby and I got a soda. I don’t usually drink soda, but all my water (in the water bottle I always carried) was gone and my blood sugar was low-the price I paid for those two different kinds of liquor the night before. Brittany showed me how to use the text message from Clay to link to the 9-11 memorial website and then she registered us for our passes, and THEN brilliantly, she took a screen shot of the page to keep the confirmation numbers. How Smart! We schedule the ‘reservations' for 3:30 PM that same day and figured we would get lunch and then go. We walked back 51st Street to the next Avenue and crossed the street and then I realized that the real place we were supposed to go was on the other side of the street, so we walked back again. Linda later asked if we could have taken the subway, I guess so. Don’t forget we still tour Little Italy and Chinatown on foot later, so our mileage for THAT day was 10.2 miles. So Linda did get in 10 miles, but not a hike in the woods, a hike through the city. Coming up a wonderful lunch at a place a REAL New Yorker would go Arriba Arriba-much kinder on my wallet.

[chezp]

Sorry you weren't well first thing. How great that you were able to get passes for the memorial for the same day.

[mfirst]

Sorry about the migraine and not getting to meet up with your actor friend. My parents toured the 9/11 memorial when they were in town waiting for Gabe's birth. Mom said it was really well done and still saddens her. I wasn't able to get there on my trip, but plan to go the next time I make it to NY.

[Kelly66]

Wednesday, July 31 Day 6 -Arriba Arriba, St. Patrick’s, Rockefeller Center...
So we go into this place to eat, at 51st & 9th Avenue, Arriba Arriba and the atmosphere is simply fantastic. I am almost afraid to describe it because I can’t do it justice. It has burt orange walls and a mural with some interesting lighting. Brittany read that the first set of salsa an chips are free. I am reading the prices of each meal. I don’t think there was anything, if so, not much over $9.95. I thought, 'thank you Clay!' That was my friend the real New Yorker who told us to go there. Our waiter was so cheerful and chatty it was excellent. I ordered a water and an iced tea. Everyone got water, and I think even Brittany got another drink as well. We were staying well hydrated. Our water glasses were refilled with regularity and often, nobody ever missed a beat. Had I mentioned that Linda, after visiting Anderson Cooper’s refurbished firehouse in Greenwich Village, she had stuck in her mind that Greenwich Village was the rich part of town? As we were walking uptown around 57th & 58th street, she said, ‘But Greenwich Village is the rich part right?’ And I said, no, this is the rich part. Then I said I guess everything is relative, in 2005 DH paid about $3,500/month for his studio apartment on Park Row in Lower Manhattan and I guessed places up by the park were about 3.5 million. Ok so maybe not that high, but there is that new Trump high rise right there off of Columbus circle by the park. I wonder what those go for? DH said the refurbished firehouse was for rent at $23,500 a month-I double checked, I didn’t slip a digit. So we talked a little about where one would like to live in Manhattan. Our waiter got our order and we enjoyed the salsa and chips. The timing was perfect, just as those were gone we got out food. Now I did eat all of my meal which I rarely do. I am only 4’9” so usually at a restaurant the dish is about 3 or four portions for me. I was full and no one else said they were still hungry when we finished. I did order another iced tea (lingering headache) and he was very clear that refills aren’t free. It would be $3.00 which I was more than willing to pay at that moment, but it came in a MUCH bigger glass. We were enjoying the atmosphere so much we kind of sat around, I sipped my tea, and looked at the map. The waiter chatted with us about where we were going and subway travel. I asked about credit cards and the did just start taking them, but I paid the 20% tip in cash Did I mention my enchiladas were incredibly yummy? This area of the map is listed as Hell’s Kitchen and that is what Clay called it too. The nice thing about picking up a tourist map at Grand Central Station or the information center at Time Square is that they have all of the touristy things marked. I kinda knew we were on the right numbered street to get to Rockefeller Center, but my tourist map showed me right where it was. We were fueled up and ready to go.
We walked along 51st street to Broadway and then 7th Ave. then 6th Ave, rememberer these all get in a convoluted order downtown of this ( they cross over each other) and around Times Square to 5th Avenue. We saw Rockefeller Center, but I made us pass it up to go to St. Patrick’s first and circle back around. St. Patricks was under something like reconstruction. We went in and sat in silence for awhile. We were able to walk around as well. I asked Brittany what she thought since she had just returned from Europe, but she said this was still impressive. I think perhaps we spent 1/2 hour inside. I didn’t want to rush anyone. We had come in kind of the side door, but came out the front door.
This way we saw the sculpture of Atlas holding the world which I think of as the ‘entrance’ to Rockefeller Center. We walked across the street talking about seeing the gift shop for St. Patricks that said it was in Rockefeller Center. There is this cool little thing, kind of on the sidewalk, off the street that looks like a sun room, but it is the elevator to the shops down below. We went down and I was hoping to find a restroom. We walked for awhile and I thought the restroom should be right there, but one time I remember that they had closed that one, so we went upstairs and asked for the restroom and he directed us to right where we had been, but just a little bit further. Then I asked for directions to the six train. He asked where I wanted to go and I said we were going to the Freedom tower. He directed us to the E train and told us to get off at the World Trade Center stop. He even said they had plans for renaming the stop, but needed to use that name for now. The E train was up only two blocks and kind of in the middle of the block where we were according to him. This didn’t make any sense to me, we were on Fifth Avenue, but I trusted him, Linda mist be wearing off on me. We searched for a place to buy an icy beverage but really found none. We walked around up top and talked about where they put the Christmas tree and where the ice skating rink is in the winter. We talked about going to the Lego store and tried to find the gift shop for St. Patricks, but I was wondering how long it would take us to get downtown, so we really didn’t do much else than look around and go to the restroom.
We should have asked the guy at Rockefeller center from whom we got directions to the train how long he thought it would take to get there because we did get there a little early. We actually did find the E train right where he said. On the way down to the subway was a sign that said something like only customers allowed or only commuters allowed in the ‘station’ We wondered who else would bother to go down there. I think another train came to that platform while we were waiting. We get on the train and it was the basic, normal everyone just sitting there staring NOT AT each other in silence until there was a Wasp on train. Most people didn’t know what it was and my guests thought that was pretty funny. It was right over my head. Some people were calm, but the woman next to me was absolutely hysterical covering her head with a newspaper screaming- where is it? Someone answered, ‘‘It’s right above your head.” The guy standing in front of me was holding an umbrella. He kept looking at the wasp and looking at the umbrella. I bet he was thinking-’If I kill this thing will I be a hero or will people be mad? And if I miss it will the wasp be mad?’ It just kind of buzzed around up there until we got off the train.
The 9-11 memorial needed it 's own little box so that is coming up next.

[chezp]

The meal sounds superb and like a bargain for NYC! Looking forward to hearing about the memorial.

[Cam22]

Another jam packed day! Can't wait to see what you and your friends think of the memorial!

[Kelly66]

Coming out of the train I thought I saw a tile on the wall of the subway station with a picture of the twin towers. We came out of the subway to the street, and saw many different signs for the 9-11 memorial. Brittany figured out that we had to go to some kind of ‘welcome center’ or registration place or something first to pick up our passes. I got in a line that wasn’t really a line behind one of those cloth tape type things. The attendant told me it wasn’t a line that those people were just standing there. We went to the front of the line for people with reservations or passes or something and showed them the screen shot of the confirmation on my phone and it was quick and effortless. We went outside and thought we were following the signs. It looked like the sign said we should cross the street which we did, but it was a dead end. We weren’t the only people misreading this sign. So, coming back across the street the signs were more clear. On the way To the center to pick up the passes there was some kind of sign that showed an arrow about walking down and making a U-turn, but I never did get that. We walked, and walked and walked following signs, but, it still wasn’t as long as walking from one Avenue to another is uptown. There is still just a humongous area blocked off that is under construction there. We went through lots of security, but didn’t wait very long as there were several stations.
When we got into the park (it is all outside) it was just massive. We talked about how we could now see that the top floors on the new Freedom Tower were obviously unfinished. We could see the Freedom tower from our room at the Hilton Times Square. At night it didn’t look so tall, we thought maybe that was because those top floors hadn’t been wired for electricity yet.
Within the park there is a huge square waterfall type thing, this brochure calls it the ‘memorial pool’ that seems to go into a big hole in the ground. There was commemorative writing along the edges. I was telling Linda and Brittany that I thought one tower was here and pointing to where I thought the other one was. I was doing this based on seeing the remaining buildings and what I had remembered from when the Twin Towers were still standing. I could only see four other buildings that I thought were originally part of it, and I thought there were seven originally.
We saw many employees and many single police officers. The police officers we saw in Times Square were always in pairs. I think there were even separately uniformed security as well. We walked around behind one of the big ‘memorial pools’ and I found a seat in the shade and told them I would sit down and make sure I knew how to get to the subway. I told them to come back and get me when they were done. I checked out the map and took awhile to get my bearings of where we actually were. I was still miffed so I asked someone how to get to the R train. She told me to pick it up on Chambers Street and then said there will be another uniformed person who can point to it for me when we were leaving the memorial.
I wondered, ‘How big can this thing be? What are they doing for so long?’ I went over the map to get it in my head for our walking tour of Chinatown and Little Italy. I set forth in my mind border streets of Bowery and Houston Street, and figured out to get on the subway at Spring Street or Prince Street at the end of our walking tour. I was ready and walked around, much to my surprise there is another whole ‘memorial pool’. It occurred to me that each ‘memorial pool’ must be set in the footprint of the original tower. It does actually say that in this brochure I picked up, and has an aerial graphic of it, of the whole new set up and saying 'memorial pool' where the original towers stood.
Having the memorial pools in the footprints of the original towers, I would guess it is actually to the size of the footprints of the towers is a powerful thing for someone who remembers where they were. I have seen the pools on TV before and that is powerful but knowing they are in the footprints of the Twin Towers just brings tears to my eyes. The brochure does say that there were originally 7 buildings. It shows one building, 7WTC across the street. It doesn’t say which other buildings, if any, other than the Twin Towers themselves were actually totally destroyed. But it does say 4WTC WILL be built, so perhaps that one was totally destroyed and the two towers and the remaining buildings look to me like they are where they originally were.
When Linda and Brittany came back they were all excited about the tree and asked me if I had seen the tree. I didn’t know about the tree. They told me it had originally been found at ground zero then had been transplanted elsewhere and begun to grow but then had been turned over by a storm, and was now replanted back at this site. They took me over to see the tree. This thing was carefully stationed to the ground it wasn’t going anywhere now. The brochure says, “...Standing just west of the south pool, it (the survivor tree) embodies the story of survival and resilience that is so important to the history of 9/11. Today, the tree is supported by temporary guide wires as it takes root.”It was a very touching experience.
I didn't see any posted signs there about the tree, and I am assuming they heard its' story from a person.
We probably spent an hour inside there, with an hour and a half from start to finish picking up the passes and walking around into the park and around out of the park to the subway. There is plenty of hushed milling around inside there, people were meandering, none of the 4.0 mph New Yorker style walking you may see in other parts of the city. There was no set path you must take and no one to rush your visit, but I would encourage you to go around behind the south pool and look at the remaining building for effect. It is about resiliency.
It did take awhile to get to the exit. We walked to the last uniformed person and asked directions. I thought I heard him direct the people in front of me, who were asking about the best place to get a quick view of the Statue of Liberty, to the Staten Island Ferry or Bryant Park. Uh-you mean Battery Park? He directed us to Rector Street to get the R train. I told Linda and Brittany these were different directions than I had gotten before. We followed his directions and I was in doubt, but we did find a couple subway entrances on Rector Street. The one going uptown was across the street from the first one we encountered.
In an effort to give the 9-11 memorial it’s own box -coming up our tour of Chinatown & Little Italy and a makeover in Times Square to finish off our last day in NYC.

[Cam22]

What a moving experience! I'm actually watching a movie set during 9/11 and it is making it all real again.