Holly's trip back east....Pennsylvania, New York and Canada!

[Xplantdad]

Part two-The trip to New York Wednesday (Times Square)-May 23rd


Benny was nice enough to drive us back to Philadelphia so we could catch the Amtrak to New York City. (At this point, I need to thank Benny, Dan Schutzbank, Buddy W., Christopher Stone and his sister and quite a few others for all of their recommendations regarding New York City....what to do and what not to do! Your advice was invaluable!)


The trip to New York via train took about 1 1/2 hours from Philly...with a few stops along the way. The train dropped us off at Penn Station and really close to our hotel.



After we got checked in, we went to Times Square...and the pics below are from the last day with Benny before New York (at a neat horse farm) and the Amtrak Station in Philly the Times Square adventure and the surrounding areas, including the Empire State Building!

[Xplantdad]

Tomorrow...more from New York!

[Xplantdad]

Part three-More from New York Thursday (One World Trade-9/11 Museum and Ground Zero and the Harbor Cruise)-May 24th


On Thursday, we got on the double decker Big Bus Tour and there were three things that Holly wanted to see.

First was One World Trade.

The second was Ground Zero and the 9/11 Museum and finally the harbor cruise and the Statue of Liberty.



The following pictures are from these places. The architectural history is unbelievable! These first pics are from us riding on the bus....and include a building with 1867 on the top of it-the flatiron building and a firehouse.



Once we were done for the day we met up with Buddy W. and Dan Schutzbank for dinner at Tony's DiNapoli's in New York City. We were celebrating Holly's birthday early-and Buddy and Dan treated us to dinner. It was a wonderful evening with two great guys-and something we won't forget!

[Xplantdad]

And this group of pictures are from One World Trade. We were blessed with wonderful weather the whole time we were in New York! The views from up top were amazing.....

[Xplantdad]

In this group of pics was from the Harbor Cruise that went close to the Statue of Liberty. From the water, you get a real good view of how much is in a space so small!


As we pulled into the harbor, we were being 'tailed' by a Carnival Cruise ship!

[Xplantdad]

And these are the rest of the pics from the harbor cruise!

[Xplantdad]

Tomorrow... continued....Ground Zero and the 9/11 Museum!

[Xplantdad]

Part three, continued-9/11 Museum and Ground Zero -May 24th

We also went to ground zero and the 9/11 museum (actually right after we went to One World Trade-I posted the harbor cruise pictures out of order!)


It was VERY hard-lots of tears flowed-and there was a multitude of emotions as well...anger, sorrow, hopelessness, hopefulness and finally feeling the awe inspiring New York vibe....the "We got this handled-we are stronger than the jerks who perpetrated this horror". We had some great conversations with some of the docents, some of the employees and some of the people going through the museum as well.


Enjoy the pics!


In no particular order in this group:

• The before and after of the World Trade Centers
• Some of the posters looking for missing loved ones
• A very neat wall hanging/American flag representing the ones who were lost
• A really neat phrase on a wall
• Part of the antenna from the top of the WTC1 and a part of one of the elevators from WTC1

[Xplantdad]

In this group:

• The ladder Company 3 engine
• A section of the steel facade from one of the towers
• A section of a column that was bent over from the stresses of the building collapsing
• The lone surviving pane of glass from one of the towers, after collapse!
• A concrete pillar with the call outs of some of the departments involved
• Lynn and Holly standing in front of the lone surviving tree after the collapse of the towers
• Some outside shots of One World Trade
• Two final shots of Lynn and Holly at Ground Zero. Each single stream of water in the waterfall in the background represents a life lost at 9/11