New York City

Monday, September 15th, 2008 New York - New York, it's my kinda town. Today we opted to take a bus tour with our travelling companion Dorothy Mowry. The five of us took a "New York City" tour that took us through Central Park, Uptown, Downtown (up being north, and down being south to a New Yorker), past amazing apartments (not an apartment in yours and my understanding, but an apartment that is owned, as we understand a townhouse or a condominium to be) where John Lennon lived in the "Dakota" where the most inexpensive apartment (there are something like 89 apartments in the building) goes for $8,000,000. We walked around Rockefeller Center and Plaza, Times Square, the New York Stock Exchange, Macy's, the New York Public Library, Radio City Music Hall, Carnegie Hall, Saks Fifth Avenue, the Lincoln Center, the Museum of Jewish Heritage, and went into Saint Patrick's Cathedral, which has to be the most beautiful building that I have ever been fortunate enough to experience. There Audrey and Connie each lit a candle for Con's Mom and Dad. St. Pat's was an unbelievably beautiful building where I could have easily spent the entire day looking at the Stations of the Cross and the stained glass windows. Then there was the Guggenheim Museum, and the American Museum of Natural History, and the Museum of Modern Art, and on and on. We went through interesting neighborhoods of Chelsea, and Flatiron, and Middleton, and Greenwich Village, and Tribeca, and at the end of the tour and before heading for home (LaFawnduh in New Jersey) we stopped at Ground Zero, which is of course the site of the 9-11 Attack on our nation and our people. There cranes and dozers were busy at work. The highlight of the day for me was during our dinner at Grand Central Station. A beautiful building all on it's own and one that is bustling with activity as commuters and travelers go to and fro moving to and from the trains, the many, many trains. I had handed Connie some money from my wallet and placed my wallet back into my shorts pocket (cargo style). I walked away about a hundred feet carrying on a conversation with the girls and Dorothy. A gentleman walked up to me and tapped me on the shoulder with his right hand. He smiled and held out his left hand with which he was holding my wallet. . . . It had fallen to the floor next to the clock at Grand Central Station. This man saw this happen as he was walking past and he immediately went and retrieved it and then located me. He didn't even pause for conversation. For as I took it from him he was off. I yelled out to him, "God bless you. Thank you so very much!" He didn't even look back. I don't know his name and I don't know anything about him. Other than goodness abounds in him and he will be my personal representative of people of New York City. Years from now as I recall this trip I will hopefully forget all of the traffic, the seemingly chaos of the hustle and the bustle and I hope and pray that I remember this man. New Yorkers are great people. I've come across none better. Sunday, September 14th, 2008 we rode the Circle Line Ferry boat "Freedom" from the Jersey Shoreline to Ellis Island, site of millions of Immigrants coming to America (none in our family however). We then boarded another vessel for the short voyage to Liberty Island and the Statue of Liberty. A warm (88 degrees) and humid day led to a hazy skyline but the view was still pretty special as we saw the distant Manhattan skyline, Staten Island, the Brooklyn Bridge, the George Washington Bridge and others as well as innumerable boats on the waterway. At times it seemed as if there was going to be a collision as a boat aptly titled, "Taxi" seemed to be overly aggressive and acting a bit outside of the Coast Guard Rules for the Waterways. As we watched the chaos on the water Con remarked, "We must be in New York." Audrey said, "Oh Dear." Hannah laughed.