NEW YORK "2"

Our second day in New York City was the 4th of July. I LOVE this holiday! And MAN does NYC love this holiday TOO!! We decided it was a perfect day to go see Ground Zero...

This is the current view of 1 World Trade Center (Freedom Tower). We took the subway there, and walking up the steps to street level was very humbling. I felt somber yet completely patriotic! We walked by a tour that was being given and got a little bit of information about the new tower being built.
The skyscraper is being built according to a revised design released in June 2005. The new design has essential elements of the original plan ~ soaring 1,776 feet into the sky, its illuminated mast shows the Statue of Liberty's torch ~ but features a smaller, cubic base than originally set. Plus it is set back further from West Street to protect the building against future attacks. It will be the tallest building in the United States.

This is a picture of what the National September 11 Memorial & Museum will look like. The Memorial will be located at the World Trade Center site, on the former location of the Twin Towers, destroyed during the September 11th attacks in 2001. The design includes a forest of trees with two square pools in the center, where the Twin Towers once stood. It was a bittersweet experience being there on the 4th of July. The day we are celebrating our Independence we were staring at ground zero where thousands of people died in our "free country".
I think everyone remembers where they were and what they were doing on that morning. Matt had just returned from his mission in New Jersey a month earlier and was at home with his parents. I was sleeping at my apartment I shared with a friend when her mom called and woke us up to turn on the TV. My friend and I just sat there and cried watching the second plane hit. We were attending College at that time and we had the same class that morning. I just remember our teacher refusing to talk about the attacks and continuing on with the original lesson. I think we walked out half way through the class.
Getting back to our trip, we ate then headed to Battery Park. We wanted to try to get a tour of the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. KEY word being TRY... the lines were SO long that we decided we would just be happy with seeing it from the park. It was a very muggy and humid day so as you can see the view was not the best...

We did however LOVE seeing all the sailboats in the water. We said we would return when it was not our Independence Day to take the tours...

The Battery is named for artillery batteries that were positioned there in the city's early years in order to protect the settlement behind them. This was also the site of the East Coast Memorial which commemorates U.S. servicemen who died in coastal waters of the western Atlantic Ocean during World War II, and several other memorials. The picture above is by that memorial. We thought it was fitting for THE BIRDS to take a picture by the Eagle Memorial. As we were leaving Battery Park we came upon a street performance of The Positive Brothers and wouldn't you know they had me as part of the show. We have lots of funny video's from the performance. They were very positive and very funny, but that is a WHOLE NATHA' post...

 Long story short... one of the guys jumped and did a flip over the 5 of us above. NO JOKE!
After the show we headed to THE PATH (port authority trans-hudson) to see New Jersey. It is amazing the ways people are able to travel in NYC. The subways make living anywhere SO easy, and PATH and other underwater tunnels make getting back and forth REAL easy. Anywho... we took the PATH train into Hoboken, NJ. We walked down the street and around the corner and guess what we saw...

 CARLO'S BAKE SHOP!!

 We walked up to the shop, took our pictures in front and saw a small line near the store. We figured it would be worth a small wait so we got in line. Little did we know the END of the line was across the street and a hour and a half long. I promised my mother that I would bring her something from the famous CAKE BOSS shop. I know you watch TLC!!

 After the wait we got into the store and our mouths began to WATER...

 This is Samantha. She helped us pick out goodies from the shop. They gave out numbers and they had about 10 people like her assisting customers when they came in. It was a NUT HOUSE, but a very good very DELICIOUS nut house!!

 Ohhhhh, can you believe it... yeah... FRESH~GOODNESS at it's best!!

 Of course we each got a Cannoli. I have never had one before; and I would LOVE to have another... I asked our helper to recommend something that was good, and in honor of 4th of July I got a Red Velvet with Cream Cheese Frosting Cupcake...

 OHHHH YEEEAHHHHH!! I wish I would have gotten more!! We asked what they thought would make it back to California and still taste good in a week and they said the Cookies. I forget what kind they were but they made it home and were devoured within minutes of the box being opened!!
As we walked we looked down the street towards NYC and we could see the Empire State Building. So here is the view from NJ of it!

 We walked, and walked, and walked, and walked... THEN walked a few flights of stairs and got into Union City, NJ. Upon reaching the top of the stairs we hit a local bread shop and Matt's eyes lit up. We walked in and the smell was AMAZING. Picture this FRESH BAKED BREAD in a warehouse... YUMMMMM! We got THREE loafs for $1.00 and Matt told me stories about him and his companions them getting them at the end of the day on his mission all the time. I laughed because he said they used to be FOUR for $1.00. THEN we walked up the street and went into a corner store and got an ICEE POP...

 Matt said these were a TREAT and were only a quarter when he was there. We got two for a dollar, so those went up a little in price too since he has been there...

 But they were OH SO GOOD.

It was just as humid as NY so the ICEE POP was a REAL TREAT for me!

We were walked and walked and walked and walked again and came across a cute little water/play park.

We saw this little boat and swung on the swings and started missing the kids.

 "They would have LOVED this!" so we took a picture for them. Then we walked some more and finally found what we were first looking for...

 One of the housed Matt lived in while on his mission. The address was 12 Bleeker Street, Jersey City, NJ. AND WE FOUND IT!! This house used to be owned by the church, but the two men on the roof let us know it was not owned by the church anymore. Then we walked ALL the way back and went to the New Jersey Cliffs. The view from here was AMAZING...

 We sat here for a while and just took it all in. Matt was telling me other things about the area and how being there brought back so many memories... It was VERY nice to visit a part of his mission. He served all over NJ and we just saw a little corner of it. We originally were going to watch the fireworks from NJ, but we were tired from all the walking and just wanted to get back in NYC. So we jumped on a bus that took us through the Holland Tunnel... interesting little fact... The tunnel is one of the earliest examples of a mechanically ventilated design. 84 fans, in four ventilation buildings, create a floor to ceiling air flow across the roadway at regular intervals, via systems of ducts beneath and above the roadway. The fans can completely change the air inside the tunnel every 90 seconds. A forced ventilation system is essential because of the poisonous carbon monoxide component of automobile exhaust. We hit up BOSTON MARKET in NYC for dinner then walked towards the Hudson to see the Fireworks show...

 They closed the highway along the Hudson River so people could sit on it to see the fireworks. We went earlier then we planned because the police were going to shut off the streets so there were not too many people in one area. It was CRAZY...

 So we sat and watched Angry Birds until it got dark enough for the show...

 The skyline was BEAUTIFUL! It was amazing being there. This is the BIGGEST fireworks show I have ever seen! There were six barges along the Hudson River simultaneously shooting off fireworks for 24 minutes. It made me want to start singing " And I'm PROUD to be an AMERICAN where at least I know I'm FREE!!!"

We made it back to the hotel where we showered the dirty sweaty grossness of the day away; then headed out to get a snack. One of my favorite things about NYC is that there were tons of little bakery's all over. Unfortunately for that night they were closed, but we hit up a grocery store and Matt got Ice Cream and I got a piece of Strawberry Cake... we walked over to central park and enjoyed it while we called to see how the kids were doing. That was another one of my favorite things; calling the kids to have them barley talk to us because they were having SO MUCH FUN at Grandma & Grandpa's!!
AND THAT was the end of that VERY BUSY, VERY LOOOOONG Day!!!