Sara and I took a great trip to New Jersey and New York this week to visit Kari and Colleen. Their house is in a beautiful neighborhood which backs up to a golf course..really awesome to see the deer roaming around at night.
We had this list of stuff we wanted to go see in the city so we didn’t waste any time and took the train down to the city.
One thing that Sara really wanted to see was the Macy’s Christmas windows that they decorate every year. We fist walked by Lloyd and Taylor and thought their windows were great until we saw the Macy’s windows check these out….
Macy’s Christmas Windows
Not too far from these windows is time square and to avoid tourists from getting hit by cars, much of Times Square is now closed to traffic and there are places to sit and eat right in the middle of the street – so cool so we got some food and ate on one of the tables in the sunlight..
What I really wanted to see was the ground zero memorial and what is being built now on the site. We went down to the site on the subway and we were blown away at how much work has been done. We had seen pictures of the memorial online but not how much construction had been done on the new towers already.
To get the opportunity to go behind the scenes and see the memorial you need tickets and while walking around we kept seeing this URL to get a reservation; so we stopped at at Burger King with WiFi and got online and booked some tickets for 3:30. When we went by the 9/11 Memorial Preview Site we realized we had make the right decision because there was a huge line to get tickets; and we just walked up to the desk and picked up our tickets – slick!
Here is some video of the new towers and the memorial site….
Ground Zero
What trip would be complete without going by Wall Street, especially with all the turmoil with the protestors this year. The street was closed to traffic and there were two policemen on horseback patrolling the area. In the fenced off area there was a huge Christmas tree in the middle of the street.
After Wall Street it was time to see it’s nemesis Zucotti Park were all of the protestors were camped out for weeks. It was only a couple of blocks from ground zero and we almost missed it because no one was camping there anymore and it was all cleaned up; but there was still lots of Police Officers around, check it out…..
Zucotti Park
Rockefeller center is a magical place at Christmas with it all decorated and the ice skating going on and this day was no exception. We walked over to 30 rock to check out what was going on. You turn the corner and you are blown away by the size of the Christmas tree and the amount of people around.
Skating at Rockefeller Center
We weren’t done yet because St Patrick’s Cathedral was close enough for a look, and it was worth the look.
Inside they also had this huge Manger scene which would have looked huge in most churches however was just off to the side in this church.
Jenny
New York: My second favorite city in the world (after the one I live in)! Looks and sounds like you guys had a GREAT visit there and saw all the things you wanted to see. That’s the only part of changing jobs to one where I don’t travel that I miss: going to NYC.