Last weekend Ivan and I made a trip to lower Manhattan to visit the 9/11 Memorial and Museum.
First we stood in a crowd of tourists with our heads hanging back as we looked up (I mean, UP) at the World Trade Center (WTC). Before moving on to the memorial, I noticed one of the windows in the center of the building, about halfway up, had “USA” wiped into the dusty glass.
The memorial pools were just around the corner of the WTC building. They were surrounded by slender trees and flocks of tourists and mourners. The perimeter of the pools were lined with infinitely flowing waterfalls and the frames of the pools were dark stone blocks etched with the names of those who lost their lives in the first attack on the trade center, those who lost their lives at the Pentagon, and more.
Some of the names had flowers tucked into them. One had an American flag and a rose tucked into the stone. Along the northeast edge of the North Pool, one woman’s name had the appendage: and her unborn child.
From the North Pool, we made our way to the museum, where we were met with an attendant who was informing every wave of visitors that the museum was full and tickets were available for five o’clock that evening. As it was only noon, we decided we’d visit the museum another day, after buying tickets online, perhaps.
We visited the South Pool and, since we now had some extra time to spend in Manhattan, walked to Chinatown.
Apparently, Saturday afternoon was the day to visit Chinatown since there was some sort of festival going on. The roads were blocked off to allow the crowds of visitors to meander through.
A handful of performers were on a stage dancing and singing; vendors were lined along the streets selling everything from fresh fish to lessons in writing your name in Chinese; children were playing in bouncy castles and carnival rides.
We stopped by a small restaurant for lunch and did a little window shopping. Since I couldn’t decide between the NYC printed scarf or moustache printed sheer infinity scarf, I didn’t buy either. And, as Ivan already has a backpack, we didn’t get him a new Hello Kitty pack.
We ended our trip near the courthouse—an impressive building with forty-some stories and a really friendly guard out front.
