NYC Day 6

Our last day contained about as many stresses as anyone should put in a day and a full slate of events. J still wanted to see Wall Street and the Financial district and I knew I needed to/had to see WTC/Ground Zero. We packed our belonging, I found room for my haul of shoes and the such like...J for her educational material.

Once packed we made our way to the financial district and Ground Zero. We wandered though City Hall grounds and then down to Ground Zero, which is still eary, a void still in many respects, and as you walk through the streets you can't help but wonder what it would have been like that day, running in fear through the streets with the dust, fear and confusion filling the air. We visited the memorial and almost instantly I found myself blinking, and reliving the events. The wall of pictures surrounded by boxes of tissues, which are quite necessary, it is bittersweet to look at the pictures family members have selected to represent their beloveds, their wives, husbands, brothers, sisters,children, friends and other family. Pictures of pastimes loved, proud graduations, weddings and births filled the wall. Pictures that made you laugh and other that made the chasim of lost violently apparent, a newly born child in the arms of a mother no longer present... the paper cranes really made me cry though, the continuation of violence, resilience and the fall out when we act out of violence and not compassion and understanding.

After it was all said and done I have to say that while it was said in jest in the video to be post, that I would strongly recommend that anyone who sees the memorial be aware that it is emotionally draining, the grief and the memories are very present when you leave.

From Ground Zero we wandered over to Wall Street and the New York Stock Exchange and as we were meandering through the narrow streets I saw an open air restaurant which turned out to be an open air series of cafes, we opted for the Mexican restaurant because well cheese, salt and tequila are about all you want post WTC Museum. So at 2pm in the afternoon I was sipping on a guava margarita on the rocks and trying to ignore the fact we were leaving. After we were finished our lovely meal we power walked over to the Staten Island ferry. Despite our time crunch we decided to take the ferry to Staten Island and back so that we could get a true sense of the skyline, Brooklyn Street Bridge and of course Lady Liberty, whom I have to say is petite. In some respects I think we would have preferred not to take the ferry and have saved ourselves the rushing to the hotel to catch our shuttle, but in the end given that we did make it to our shuttle it was entirely worth it.

Thankfully this time our Cathy flight home was relatively uneventful, other than well landing at 2am at YVR and then making the trip home. I of course arrived home to a messy house, after the clean up and shower I stumbled into bed about 3:30am and then I was awake at 7:30 and out of the house by 9am, and now here I am trying to work, concentrate and figure out what I need to get done today...