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Wednesday, May 18, 2011

Humbling Experience that is Ground Zero

One of the places we were most looking forward to seeing while in New York was Ground Zero. After my conference was over, we walked over to Grand Central Station so we could hop on the subway and avoid a really lengthy walk.

It was here that I was both amazed by the beauty of Grand Central Station (which I planned to photograph upon our return but, honestly, I was too worn out to take the camera back out) and by the fact that the man working the booth - from whom we got directions - honestly thought my man was Larry the Cable Guy.

No, I'm not kidding. It was incredibly amusing and, truth be told, I kind of wanted to just let it go to see what kind of perks he might get but - in the end - he was honest and corrected the guy. Still - hilarious...

Anyway, after our ride on the subway (which sounds much more fun and romantic than one might imagine), we arrived at our stop and began walking toward the general vicinity. That's when we saw that there's a church about a block away from where the destruction occurred.


A really old one...


...I mean, y'all, look at how old those tombstones are - amazing!


Then we caught our first glimpse and our moods became very somber almost immediately.


First we came upon the memorial wall where so many had special displays so they would not be forgotten.


Completely...


...utterly...


...heartbreaking...


We had been all over the city by this time and each part is equally as loud. There are horns honking, people talking loudly and life moves at an incredibly fast pace; however, that's not what we found here. 

What we saw here was patriotic...


...awe-inspiring...


...humbling...


...and mesmerizing. New towers are being built, the museum will be open soon and you can see where water will be flowing as ginormous fountains at the original footprints. It's is an amazing place, friends. As Tonto said, "You see it on television but it doesn't seem real until you're here."

Exactly.

After our visit to the site, we headed over to see this...just to say we did...



And, after taking one last look at the progress currently being made, we were back on the subway...


After returning to "our part of town," we strolled along Madison Avenue (a phrase I never thought would be used here) and came upon a phenomenal burger place. It's called Burger Heaven and let me promise you that is definitely not a misnomer.

It was actually featured as one of the tasks on "Celebrity Apprentice" in the season that included Bret Michaels, Joan Rivers and Cyndi Lauper. It was soooooooo good and we left stuffed. Sinfully so.

Then we did what all the cool kids do these days and retired to the hotel before completely darkness even set in. We were looking forward to a little exploration (and to buying some souvenirs, of course) the next day before hopping a plane back to Texas. 

We were missing our babies something fierce!

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