NY Trip Three - Federal Hall & 9/11 Memorial

Ok, here it is our final installment of our visits to NY! We so thoroughly enjoyed visiting the biggest city in America! A real treat, just to make it clear though, that is not why we chose to do our internship on this coast! Pompton Plains came highly recommened and Albert had a great summer and learned lots! NY was just the 'cherry on the top'!

The visit to the 9/11 memorial was very touching. Even though I'm not an American, it really was a worldwide disaster and to be there where the towers collapsed was quite emotional (and I'm NOT an emotional kind of person). I'm glad we visited! At the visitor centre we bought a photobook detailing the during and after of the burning towers, quite an impressive book. 

Of course while we were in NY, we also did some 'schoolwork' and visited some places of historic significance. The girls once again did a 'badge' at Federal Hall (for FREE of course), what a great way to learn history by being able to visit it! 

Broadway, NY I thought this was cool :)

Wall Street

For those who don't know,
George Washington was inaugurated here! 

He addressed the crowds from here!

Looking across the street from Federal Hall,
The Stock Exchange

The plaque of the first President of the USA

Inside the Federall Hall
(notice in the door, George Washington's statue)

Church across from Wall Street
(notice the homeless people?)

9/11 Memorial, thankfully we had ordered our tickets online
and we didn't have to wait long.
Security however was a strict as an airport

Freedom Tower

Construction/rebuilding under way

The memorials were VERY impressive. The photo's don't do it justice. Here are actually two reflecting pools each on the footprint of each of the towers. Around the reflecting pools are the names of all who died even the unborn, very sad :(. 

It's hard to capture on camera
the true magnificent of the pools 

It's quite a drop down

Notice the names?

Albert and Zara

This is the only tree that survived.
It's a long story, google it if you will

Proof we were both there :)

On our walks we came across this amazing sandcastle

Resting our feet :)

NY Trip Three - Brooklyn Bridge/Staten Island Ferry and THE Lady!

Here is the second to last installment of our NY trips. It's been a while now and while I'm typing this there is snow outside, it is hard to go back to when were in NY when it was soo hot! 

After reading Franci's email with regard to NY sights, we took off on our third trip to visit NY and had planned to visit the 9/11 memorial, take the free Staten Island Ferry and see the Lady, and finally walk the Brooklyn Bridge. Phew I think we managed to see most of the sights that Franci suggested! 

Like last time, we took the Path train in. We drove 45 minutes to the train station (Newark, took the commuter train (the PATH) for a 12 minute train under the Hudson river to NY. Once we got to NY, our feet were our mode of transport! We had been blessed by one of the families in Pompton Plains with some spending money, which we decided to use to have dinner  and an icecream in the city. We figured we might as well spend the maximum time in NY as this would be our last visit while we were in NJ. 

The girls were excellent again and being quite fit by this time, did very well with the long walk especially going over the Brooklyn Bridge. 

The Staten Island ferry was interested also. It's a free ferry and so every man and it's dog crams onto this ferry. We waited our turn and hopped onto the boot, I thought that we were doing quite well in getting a spot at balcony and wonder where everyone else was! Oh dear, was I wrong! The reason why my side of the ship was empty was because 'The Lady' was on the other side. Needless to say I didn't make that mistake twice and on the return trip, I nicely 'ran' to the right side of the ship to be in the prime position to take some photo's of 'The Lady'. I'm glad also that we didn't pay to see 'The Lady' as when we went past there was a HUGE crowd waiting to get in (circling a good part of the island), not to mention the heat that day! 

If you look careful you can see the
 people lining up at the bottom of the statue

Looking back at NY, notice the freedom tower at the left

Ferry (we like free :) )

On Staten Island, refueling :)

Notice how the ferry has a lean towards the side of 'The Lady'

Albert and 'The Lady'
(although his lady was taking the photo!)

Walking towards the Brooklyn Bridge (in the background)

Meg, I was thinking of you!
A dog park along the water front, no grass though, poor dogs

CHCH I was thinking of you, with the container shops!

What a treat M'M ice cream cones.
(We bought them in a grocery store, so much cheaper!)

A very busy Brooklyn Bridge
(Albert with the backpack on)

Our return trip, we walked over and walked back. 

Pizza and Sushi for dinner with some Mountain Dew for Mom.
(I needed that!)

The train - PATH
On the way home.

Back in NJ after a long day!

To be continued.....

Random June

It's been a while since I did a random photo post, so here it is!

Slip 'n' Slide

Albert playing with the girls

Rev Paul and Julie Murphy at Messiah Fellowship in NY

Driving to church in NY
(It did feel funny paying for the toll road to get to church)

My (homemade) Birthday Icecream Cake
Maple walnut french vanilla, YUM!

Kate and Grace with a friend

Monkey Zara in the same tree

HOT!

Kate with Clifford in the Library

NY Trip Two - Enterprise & Submarine

Enterprise

As part of the Intrepid they also had the Enterprise on the flight deck. Like all money making schemes you had to pay extra for this. We did! For those of you who know Albert, he LOVES space and all related things, so it was not a matter of if we will go but a matter of when! We were slightly disappointed that we didn't get to go into the shuttle itself but to see the shuttle and it's story made it all worth while. I for one didn't realize that the Enterprise never went into space and was only a prototype. It was a first of it's kind. 

Through the tunnel to enter to the exhibit there
are sayings from real launching!

On the viewing platform

Me

Albert

Front

History

More History, those are the different shuttles

Growler Submarine

After visiting the U-505 in Chicago I was surprised to see how big this submarine was inside. This was the only exhibit that there was a queue for as of course you can only have a few people inside the submarine at one time. The waiting was fine however and gave the little girls a chance to rest their feet!

Door!

Officer's quarters

Periscope, they had two onboard

Even the crew quarters seemed pretty good

Imagine having to remember all those dials?

Torpedo - what is it with bunking next to a torpedo?

View of deck