The Rest Rest of the Story...Sunday's Adventures

Oh yah, hi. It's me. I totally dropped the ball on finishing the NY adventure stories. But alas, here I am to finish it up...or at least try.

Now that you're up to date with our Friday adventures in NY, I'll catch you up on the Saturday adventures.

One of the things I think people should consider doing in NY is going to the 9-11 Memorial and Museum. We had visited the memorial 2 years ago when we were in NY. The process to get into the memorial was nothing short of secure. There were reservations with your name on it, IDs that had to be checked, security lines etc to see the memorial. This time, none of that existed.

The museum wasn't open last time and was this time. I had made reservations a month or so before.  We got there within plenty of time to view the memorial before we went into the museum.  The memorial itself is moving and we had no idea what to expect from the museum. We all figured it would be a sad, moving, humbling type of day and we would be correct.

After viewing the memorial, we went to get in line for our museum tour. I handed the ticket agent our tickets and she said, "these reservations were for yesterday."

SAY WHAT?

I think I lost all the color in my face. The other travel companions would later say the look on my face was priceless. I was stunned and worried that I had blown our opportunity to see the museum. It was the ONE thing we all wanted to do without a doubt.

So we got directed to the ticket counter and I asked if we could swap them for today's tickets. I was prepared to pay again for the tickets for all of us if they wouldn't transfer our tickets. Thankfully, the agent was very friendly and helpful and she gave us tickets for that day and time.

Phew.

Off we went. The best rule to employ when visiting a museum with multiple people, let everyone go at their own pace and plan to meet at the end. I knew from experience Blueberry and I go through museums at very different paces.

Inside the museum is overwhelming, to say the least. It's such a beautiful tribute and memorial of the events of that day, what led up to them, and stories about the victims. 

Many of the items in the museum were items you'd never think you'd see. There was the spire that was on top of the south tower.  A fire truck that was crushed when the south tower came down.

Images of the "missing".

And so many other wonderful, and tragic things to see. The museum was really done well and I feel honored to have been able to see it. The pain the families have gone through, and the community as a whole, was so traumatic, that it was hard to understand fully from Seattle, until you were standing in the footprint of those towers.

After that experience, we headed off to lunch. I won't bore you with how long we sat outside the museum waiting for Blueberry to get through it, but suffice it to say my stomach thought my throat had been cut...I was THAT hungry.

After lunch, we hopped on the bus again. And as I mentioned yesterday, our "tour guides" - and I use that word lightly - sucked.

We did get off to have dinner in Little Italy. To this day, I'm still thinking about those half moon raviolis I had. Oh ... my... god.

Little Italy is slowly shrinking they say. It's about 2 blocks now. Chinatown is taking over. I hope it  never really fully goes away, cuz I'd miss Angelo's.

And even though we were stuffed beyond believe, I "made" them walk around the corner to Ferrara to get cannoli. Best...cannoli...ever...My nephew who got married had introduced me to Ferrara on my first visit to NY in 2006. Now it seems tradition to me to 1) eat in Little Italy and 2) walk to get cannoli.

Monday we headed home. We had just enough time in the morning to walk over to the Brooklyn Bridge.  It's such an iconic and beautiful bridge, I just love it.

So until next time NY....I say adios! I'll be back, there's no doubt about that.