New York City December 2011: 2011

Wednesday, December 21, 2011

It was about an hour n a half to JFK, and about 45 minutes for security and terminal travel. That's my plane.

See what I mean about the decor?

I can't believe the low price I got for the room at the Best Western. The front desk was surprised too. It was pretty small and I question some of the decor, but it was clean and quiet except for the fire station on the corner rolling some of the time. Coffee maker, hair drier, iron and ironing board, and Hurlys, a pub next door with cheap food and locals, not tourists that I could tell.

NYC subway system

I have it mastered. I think.

Tuesday, December 20, 2011

New York

The pins in the map depict where I took some of my pictures. I covered a lot of ground. Probably went too fast but I will definitely come back and do it again but spend more time in some of the places. And see more shows.
There's a lot more to see in and around this place. Coney Island. Bronx. Way more museums.
I go back to Vegas tomorrow. I'll have an hour or two to kill but no plans.

Southwest

Toward the Hudson. That's Times Square down there.

Looking South

Empire State building on the left.

Looking north

Central Park is down there.

Top of the Rock

Rockefeller Center building, on the roof. They call it Top of the Rock.
It was drizzly out but still looked cool. I may check it out during the day but it's probably crowded. This is at 10:30pm.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nWDfg3FMd4A&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Jersey Boys

I went to the box office two blocks from my hotel and picked up a ticket for tonight. It's easy to find a single one last minute. Great seat too, aisle seat 10 rows back, center stage.
If anyone is going to see a show it should be this one. Good for all ages too. Awesome music and you will be familiar with the characters.
Without a doubt the best entertainment I have seen anywhere, and I got to see it on Broadway.

From my window at night

48th street and 8th Ave.

My hotel

The brown one. One of my windows is the one second from the top on the right corner. I have two good views.
Best western, times square.

Parking

I stared at it, but couldn't figure out how they get those cars off the rack and into the street.

Back in Times Square

42nd Street. No misses on the subway. Once you figure out how the subways work it's very convenient to get around.

Frogs

While walking I noticed a guy pull a big live frog out of a bucket. I had to stop. Frogs go for $4.39 a pound I guess. Petsmart sells them for something like $25 each. Seemed cruel to use those tongs on your future pet...

Worms n fish

It smelled. Too bad I already ate.

Neat shot

Chinatown pics

Chinese restaurant

It was busy as the video shows.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tk7La2vxbgY&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Duck soup

I told the guy I wanted duck soup because the menu just had too much stuff on it. He said something like 'jong sim kueie blah blah' and I said OK. This is what I got. Where's Anthony Bourdain when you need him? It tasted good but I don't think I was supposed to try to eat the duck, it was mostly fat and bone so it must have been just for flavor. They seated a Chinese lady across from me and she was laughing to herself I think.
That's a glass if hot tea by the way.

Yum

Inside the front door of the restaurant.

Yelp

The phone app called Yelp has been great here to find stuff and read reviews. I went to this Chinese restaurant. It seemed authentic.

Chinatown

Went to Chinatown on the subway for brunch. It goes for several square blocks. You can get a Rolex watch for about $50. Still overpriced...

These taste good

Monday, December 19, 2011

9/11

When I decided to come to New York my main purpose was to visit Ground Zero. I didn't know there was a memorial here already, though not yet complete. Like a lot of people, that day hit me hard. My co-workers at UAL were murdered, along with those in New York, Pennsylvania and the Pentagon, and my country and some of my friends were going to go to war for a long time. I knew from history that the world was going to be re-shaped and things would never be quite the same. I guess the memorial proves that something very good can come from the worst of things as long as we don't forget.

Where I work we have large framed photos of an aerial view of this area of New York taken the day after the attacks. Below the picture are the words:
"Today is September 12th, 2001"

Those pictures and words tend to keep us focused.

I read those words almost every day.

Today is September 12th, 2001...

Names

Along the edge of this gigantic fountain the names of the dead are carved through the bronze and back-lit.

Remnants

In the museum building you can see pieces of the tower. It's not complete yet so no description.

North Tower fountain

I thought there was only one memorial fountain (it isn't really a 'fountain' it's hard to explain it is so huge, and starts at ground level and falls about three stories down at least). I was amazed to walk to another one the same size. Each fountain is in the same place as the north and south towers, but slightly smaller than the tower footprint to make room for the rest of the memorial.

Freedom Tower from near the base

The tower is square at the bottom and turns into an octagon as it extends upward. The midpoint will be a perfect octagon sized exactly to fit in the dimensions of a fallen tower. What is interesting with this point of view is that you only see one face of the octagon, so it appears to extend into infinity as it rises since the face will narrow to a point.
All of the rebuilt WTC buildings ate designed to play their lights and reflections off of each other. When they are complete it will be truly spectacular to see.

Completed memorial drawing

Freedom Tower

9/11 Memorial

When I made my reservation to view the memorial they only had 6:00pm available today. Wasn't sure if night-time would be the best time. It was. I can't imagine what the night of Sep 11th 2001 was like here. The devastation was so widespread in this area you can't really appreciate it unless you have been here. A guide explained a lot of it. You simply have to visit this place and have it described to you to comprehend it.
This video only shows a small part if the memorial. The facility will extend six stories below ground eventually. This top part is mostly developed. All of the trees were transplanted from Shanksville, PA. Except one. They located a surviving pear tree a few blocks from the devastation a month after the towers fell. They planted it on the grounds here and it still lives.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6x5TwK45ObU&feature=youtube_gdata_player

AJ

Back to WTC

There are no bathrooms at the 9/11 memorial yet. It is still under construction. This is a shot of '1 WTC' the new building that used to be called the freedom tower. I'm still going to call it that. It's about halfway complete. It's lit red white and blue.

Wi-Pie pizza

Yes, it was tasty. Worth the trip under the water to Brooklyn.

Brooklyn

...so I hopped on a subway to Brooklyn to get some pizza. It's my favorite kind I think, only because dominos sold its version. This is a main road in downtown Brooklyn decorated for Christmas. I decided to walk down it but after a few blocks I noticed I was the only white guy around. I wasn't nervous but I wasn't finding any Brooklyn pizza places so I turned around and found one with my phone.

Back on the mainland

I had a couple if hours to kill so I walked around near the World Trade Center area. Next to Wall Street too. This church was neat.
Then I got hungry. So far today I had a hot dog, coke, coffee and banana nut bread from Starbucks. It's 4:00 PM and I have two hours to be back at the 9/11 memorial...