New York Blog- Day 2

Even though we were exhausted after our late night the night before, we got up early on Friday morning, Day 2 of our trip to meet with a tour group to see Ground Zero.  In typical Sarah fashion, we were late and missed the tour.  Being the laid back people Jesse and I are, we decided to grab breakfast and then explore Ground Zero on our own.  We happened to head into an amazing restaurant called Ellens Stardust Diner.  OMG this place was fantastic!  All of the waiters and waitresses sing while they are taking orders, with each of the staff taking turns doing solos.  It was decorated in 40’s and 50’s decor…it was AWESOME!  We ended up enjoying our meal for almost 2 hours while we were entertained by the singers!

 

 

 

 

 

After our FANTASTIC meal, we took the subway to Church Street in Lower Manhattan.  From there we walked down to the spot where the Twin Towers used to stand.  This is all that is left today:

 

 

Visiting Ground Zero was the one thing that I knew I HAD to do when I went to New York.  911 affected me so much.  I will never forget the way that I felt when I watched those towers fall, or the way I feel every time I see footage of it.  I will never forget that it was the first time I realized how small I am in this world, and how the whole of humankind can be so impacted by a few evil men.

 

St. Paul’s Chapel is located across the street from Ground Zero.  There they hold the memorials of that horrid day:

 

 

 

 

 

 

“Does God Have Enough Hands?” A memorial quilt by Deborah Fell

This art quilt is a response to the horrific events that changed the United States forever. It is an abstracted image of the toppled World Trade Center Towers. The rubble below are the photographic transfers of newspaper articles, headlines and photographs. It is unorganized with chaos reigning everywhere. The quilt is unfinished- the batting is exposed and charred and threads are not trimmed- reflecting the vast number of lives that were so unfinished when the World Trade Center was destroyed.

 

 

   

 

 

 

After a tearful, emotional 3 hours, Jesse and I headed from Ground Zero to Battery Park, where we could view the Hudson River and the New Jersey skyline.

 

 

This is where we met Barton, who we later discovered is not only FDNY, but also just got back from serving in Iraq.  What a fantastic guy!  Of course, we had to have our picture taken with him because, well, c’mon, we ALL know about my obsession with Firefighters…..

 

 

 

Then I did a mini photosession of Barton and his two adorable puppies:

 

 

After that, we went back to our hotel to get ready for Swing Dancing in the city!  On our way there, we stopped at Grand Central Station:

 

 

This is one of my fave shots from the whole entire trip:

 

 

Grabbed this shot somewhere along the street, but I’m not sure what building it is. Anyone wanna help me out?

 

 

We went to a fantastic club called Swing 46 Jazz Club on Restaurant Row near Times Square. The George Gee Orchestra was playing that night…

 

 

   

 

…and I even convinced George Gee himself to dance with Jesse!  She was on CLOUD NINE!!!!

 

 

 

After dancing, we decided on a whim to go to the top of the Empire State Building.  We were 102 stories up at 1:30 am- it was BEAUTIFUL up there!!!!!!

 

 

Betchya can’t guess where Times Square is?  Hehehehe…

 

 

 

We couldn’t believe it when we saw that the moon was out over the city…it was picture perfect!!!!

 

 

At 2:30am we were enjoying our first New York hot dog at Gray’s Papaya…..YUM!!!!!

 

 

By the time we got home at 3:30 am, we were totally and completely wiped out.  We’d already done SO MUCH in the day and a half that we were in NY…but as you will see in my next blog, the fun didn’t end there!!  Stay tuned!