Family Trip Day 2

Day two of our trip began with a walk to Battery park. 

In this park, sits a sculpture. This sculpture used to sit between the Twin Towers. It was damaged from the 9/11 attacks, but now sits as a beautiful memorial. It was really cool to see.

Mace and Liz, chasing the pigeons, again!

Statue of Liberty in the background.

We also saw this Eagle. It was surrounded by several walls with names on them

"to commemorate the service, achievements, and sacrifice of U.S. armed forces where they have served overseas since 1917, and within the U.S. when directed by public law". (credit)

We took a ferry to Staton Island

Posterized version of the skyline 

At the City Center.

More pigeon chasing

On the ferry, leaving Staton Island. 

Mace, hiding under the bench on the ferry. Being silly, but at least he was holding still!

Statue of Liberty

Poster Version

Brooklyn Bridge with the Manhattan Bridge in the background.

We hung out in the Financial District.

The Trinity Church on Wall Street

The Charging Bull

In, the evening, we went to the 9/11 memorial. It was such a neat experience!

This is what the memorial website has to say about it:

The National September 11 Memorial is a tribute of remembrance and honor to the nearly 3,000 people killed in the terror attacks of September 11, 2001 at the World Trade Center site, near Shanksville, Pa., and at the Pentagon, as well as the six people killed in the World Trade Center bombing in February 1993.

The Memorial’s twin reflecting pools are each nearly an acre in size and feature the largest manmade waterfalls in the North America. The pools sit within the footprints where the Twin Towers once stood. Architect Michael Arad and landscape architect Peter Walker created the Memorial design selected from a global design competition that included more than 5,200 entries from 63 nations.

The names of every person who died in the 2001 and 1993 attacks are inscribed into bronze panels edging the Memorial pools, a powerful reminder of the largest loss of life resulting from a foreign attack on American soil and the greatest single loss of rescue personnel in American history.

We got to go in the evening. As the sky started to dim, we could see lights in the pools. It was really pretty.

This is a Callery Pear Tree. It survived the attacks from 9/11. It was found about a month and a half after the attacks. It was moved to a park, while it was recovering. It was a beautiful tree. It also gave me a strong feeling of hope.

We had to go through security in order to go into the 9/11 memorial. As we finished going through security and putting ourselves back together, Tyler gave me an 'uh-oh' look. I followed his eyes down to Cruz's back. He had, had a blow out. It looked awful. We didn't have a change of clothes or a place to change him. We were also running out of time. Our tickets were for the last time slot available to see the memorial. We did the only thing we really could do. We ignored it. I pulled his sweatshirt down and put the backpack back on. Luckily our hotel was close by, so we changed him as soon as we could after finishing at the memorial. I don't know if this picture gives this blow-out justice. It was the WORST blow-out I have ever seen. Cruz and I had to shower when we were through getting him mostly clean. Yuck!

Thank goodness it was time for bed after we got all cleaned up!

Day two went well, besides the blow-out. We had a lot of fun. It was fun seeing everything!