The final day of vacation
Saturday, September 14
Well, one final entry to this travel blog as we spent our last day in
NYC before flying home to Colorado. We
were able to leave the ship just after 7:30 am as we did “Express Walk Off”. That means we could leave the ship as soon as
it was cleared with immigration/customs as long as we carried our own luggage
off the ship instead of waiting around for the luggage to be off-loaded and
then trying to find it in the port building.
We took a taxi to our hotel, the Millenium Hilton in lower
Manhatten. We were there about 8 am and
hoped to store our luggage there if we could not check in so early. We were lucky—there was a room available so
we could check in. That was great
because Terry really wanted to run across the Brooklyn Bridge and that meant he
could change into his running clothes and then shower after his run.
The bellhop took us up to the 46th floor and opened the
drapes to this view:
We looked directly at the new World Trade Center building, and down
below was the 9/11 Memorial with the 2 pools on the footprints of the former
two towers.
We had a full day planned so first order of business was to get Terry
over to the Brooklyn Bridge for his run across it. He certainly was not alone. The bridge was full of runners! As Terry ran, I walked across it, stopping to
snap photos along the way.
After the run, we next wanted to visit the 9/11 Memorial. Tickets are free but time-stamped to control
the large number of people that visit the site every day. It is a wonderful memorial to those 2,983 men,
women, and children who perished in the terrorist attacks of 9/11/2001 and
2/26/1993. It commemorates thousands who
survived.
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| Names of the victims are inscribed in bronze around the perimeters of the two pools. |
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| Survivor Tree |
In 2014 the 9/11 Memorial Museum will open in this building. The museum will be the focal point for
preserving the history of 9/11. It will
chronicle the events of the day, the background that preceded them, and the
national and international response that followed.
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| The museum building |
This tree is known as the “survivor tree”. The tree was planted on the original World
Trade Center plaza in the 1970s . After
9/11 workers found the damaged tree, reduced to an eight-foot tall stump, in
the wreckage at Ground Zero. It is
doing very well.
Next on our agenda was to go to the Metro (subway) and travel up to
Houston Street where we will have lunch at Katz’s Deli. We visited there in 2003 and declared the
pastrami sandwich the best ever! We
wanted another one! And we still declare
it the best!
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| Yes, it's a very popular place! |
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| Yum |
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| Sign above a table that says this is where Harry met Sally, from the movie of the same name. |
Just as we were finishing our lunch, up walks a guy who says, “Hello,
Montana!” We look up and there stands
Jeff Toscano from our former town of Colstrip.
Small world, that’s for sure. We
enjoyed a short visit with him and then it was back to the Metro to make our
way to the Guggenheim Museum.
Back in 2003, we only saw the Guggenheim from the outside. It is a building designed by Frank Lloyd
Wright and we like anything Frank Lloyd Wright. This time we wanted to go inside as we had
seen a story on CBS Sunday Morning about the Guggenheim. It showed the inside as a spiral walk from
the first floor to the sixth floor with art displayed on the walls. It was suggested that you go to the top floor
and then work your way down the spiral, admiring the art displayed as you go.
Once again we met up with “NO PHOTOS” rule so I have a few from the
internet to show the inside.
We walked in and the first thing we see is a large mat on the floor
with dozens of people flat on their backs looking up at the top of the
building. You could see the spiral all
the way to the top and the lighting changed colors about every 30 seconds. It was cool…but I think some people must have
fallen asleep as they stayed there for a long time.
We headed up to the top floor and were disappointed to see that there
was no art on the walls and the inside of the spiral was enclosed with a white
fabric so we couldn’t see down to the first floor. There were a couple of galleries that we
could browse through but had to pass the main attraction, James Turrell
exhibition, as the line to enter the gallery was very, very long. We wanted to walk through Central Park on our
way down to Times Square so couldn’t spare the time.
It was a beautiful day to be in Central Park. And the people of NYC were out there to enjoy
it.
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| One more castle..... |
It was now time to find our dinner restaurant. From the park, we walked down Fifth Avenue
past all the fancy, expensive stores.
We had dinner at John’s Pizzeria in Times Square. It is located in an old church building. Our table was directly under the magnificent
stained-glass ceiling.
We then made our way through Times Square to find the Gershwin Theatre,
where we attended the performance of “Wicked”, the untold story of the witches
of Oz.
Leaving the theatre we quickly found the Metro station and headed back
to our hotel, wrapping up a wonderful day in NYC.
Sunday we flew back to Denver.
We had been following the news about the horrible flooding that Colorado
had suffered during the past week. Northern
Colorado had received 18 inches of rain and the rivers were raging over their
banks, taking out roads, bridges, and homes.
We were lucky and had no damage around our neighborhood but others
living close to the rivers were not so fortunate. Fort Collins as well as the towns around us was
severely impacted by the torrential rains.
Thousands of homes and businesses have been damaged or destroyed. As of this writing, 8 people have died; 12,000 people have
been evacuated from their homes.
The highway I-25 was closed from Denver to the Wyoming state line on Friday
and Saturday and it was unknown if we would be able to get home from the airport. It opened up late Saturday so Jen and Donato
were able to come to the airport to pick us up on Sunday. They said there was water on the interstate
and it may be closing again so they had packed a bag in case we were all
stranded overnight in Denver. We were
able to get home and then enjoyed a dinner provided by Lisa and Ryan that
night. They, too, packed a bag in case
they would not be able to make it back to their home on the other side of Fort
Collins. When the river rises too much,
the bridges can be compromised and so they are closed. On their way home later that evening, they
encountered one bridge closed but found another open. It will take over a year to repair some of
the damage caused by the flash flooding.
So now it’s time to unpack, go through the stack of mail, and return to
our normal routine….guess that means I’ll be busy planning another cruise….stay
tuned!
