I thought that title might pull a few of you in…..to be honest, I visited NYC for work last week and Maroon 5 was the featured event at the conference I attended. I really did get to spend the evening with Adam it just happened to be along with about 5000 of the other conference attendees. Since I had never been to New York City before, I had my hubby tag along so we could take in a few of the sites together.
Our first stop was a visit to the 911 Memorial which was worth the entire trip in itself. We paid for a guided tour of the memorial and visited the museum on our own. It is a very humbling experience and meant to be a remembrance and place of quiet reflection. At one point I saw a guard stop a lady who was jogging through the park and told her she could only walk through the memorial.
The memorial itself consists of two square pools on the site where the twin towers stood. Names of the victims from that day and the 1993 World Trade Center bombing are inscribed in the border around the pools in what is described as “meaningful adjacencies.” Our tour guide told us that meant people with connections to each other had their names close together. As we walked around the pools our guide told us personal stories of victims and their families from that day. He also pointed out that on a victims birthday a white rose is placed in their name. It was an extremely overwhelming and emotional tour.
The museum is seventy feet underground and includes many, many artifacts from the day such as burned out firetrucks, pieces of papers found in the ruins, pictures of all the victims, 911 calls and many pieces of twisted metal from the buildings. The picture below is a piece of metal from the initial entry of the plane into the north tower.
Another favorite stop of mine in NYC was the Chelsea Market, taking up an entire block in the Manhattan Meat Packing District. It is an indoor food court and specialty shopping mall.
The shops were amazing and I could have spent an entire day there. There are artisanal cheese makers, multiple bakeries, a donutery and a chocolate shop selling a weakness of mine, peanut clusters for $38 per pound. I may or may not have bought just a couple.
In addition there was a spice vendor, a german sausage maker, craft beer vendors and way too many more to list. One in particular I could just not get my thoughts around, Takumi- Japenese Inspired Mexican, say what????
Our hotel, the Intercontinenal, was right in the middle of Times Square and all I can say to that is I have never seen so many people in my life. The sidewalks were packed at 7:00 a.m. and at midnight. It was sure fun to people-watch though and boy did we see some interesting things. There was a large police presence everywhere you looked with MANY carrying large rifles.
And of course I cannot forget to share a few pics of Adam…..
New York City is a must on your travel list, so many things to do. However, it made me really appreciate my little hometown of Lee’s Summit, Missouri!
Thanks so much for sharing
Judy Holmes