NYC Trip Day 3

Labor Day Monday was another clear and beautiful day in NYC. We chose this day to see the area at the south end of Manhatten. We started with Ground Zero. As you can imagine, this was a very emotional place to visit. The site itself, just looks like a construction site for a new building. The memorial photos, flowers, and quiet repose of all the visitors is the part that truly brings you to tears. All of the vistors had red, teary eyes and many people were hugging each other just a little tighter than I am sure they normally do at home. I know we did. The only thing left from the original buildings is a small set of granite stairs and some pipes in the outer wall that I guess were sprinkler lines or something. We walked most of the way around it and saw the drawings for Freedom Tower and a PATH new terminal that should be completed in a 2012. The new plans look awesome and appear to still have enough areas reserved for reflection of both the 1993 bombing attack and the 2001 air attack that eventually brought down the towers.

We walked along the Hudson and enjoyed the pedestrian path, parks along the river, and the Battery area. This is where the boat tours launch. We decided to skip the formal tour of The Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. The lines were extremely long and we opted for the free Staten Island Ferry. It goes right past both every 30 minutes and did I mention....it's free! We did this around mid afternoon and the views were great. This trip is funny though, you get over to Staten Island, get off the ferry, go through the terminal, and right back on again. I realize this is because its main use is for transportation and not site-seeing the harbor area.

*Edit / Update* I completely forgot that we went to Coney Island later in the afternoon. We took the subway over to south Brooklyn. It was the last day for some of the places on the boardwalk to be open before winter shutdown. The first thing we did was ride the Cyclone rollercoaster at Astroland. Astroland is set up like a fair so you pay per ride. Stacie and I paid our $6 each and sat down in the very back/last car on the Cyclone. I immediately commented to Stacie about how well cushioned the seats were. I love roller coasters, but I can't stand wooden ones because they are so rough. I did this one because Stacie really enjoys them and I was encouraged that this would be a more comfortable ride. Man were we wrong! Sweet Jebus, this thing was a death trap that threw us, bruised us, and generally just screwed us up for the next week. Stacie got wiplash after the first hill and I had a knot in my right thigh from a drop halfway through the ride. When the ride ended they asked us if we wanted to ride again for only $4. We promptly told them to go screw themselves and we were calling Ken Nugent. We didn't do any more of the rides because we figured we would rather spend our money at Six Flags back home and do some of the newer rides and have less injuries. We hobbled around the boardwalk for a while, bought an Italian Ice, looked at Nathan's, and did some people watching. As attractive and fit as the people were in Central Park and Manhatten, there wasn't much eyecandy wandering around this place. The Brooklyn Cyclones, the Class A team for the Mets, had a game that night with fireworks afterwards. Their stadium is right off of the boardwalk. I really enjoy minor league baseball games, but we didn't want to stay out that late since it is a fair distance away from where we were staying.

Days 4/5 recap coming soon. I know you can't wait.