NEW YORK CITY

16 June 2012: We headed north to State Liberty Park in Jersey City, New Jersey, and parked the car in the Park's marina restaurant parking lot, since it had security and it was where our ferry to Manhatten left from. We were skipping the Statue of Liberty this visit, since we have been there several times before. We landed at the World Financial Center in New York City and collected tickets to see the 9/11 Memorial. Since there was a wait, we walked to and over the Brooklyn Bridge, and then visited the 9/11 Memorial.

We passed the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island on the way to Manhatten.

Sheila on the ferry across the Hudson, with the NY City skyline in the background.

We thought we'd be the only ones mad enough to want to walk across Brooklyn Bridge, but there were hundreds enjoying a stroll or bike ride across.

The New York City skyline from the Brooklyn Bridge.

Thom on the Brooklyn Bridge.

Manhatten Bridge from the Brooklyn Bridge.

Thom and Sheila on the Brooklyn Bridge, New York.

The Statue of Liberty from the Brooklyn Bridge.

After crossing the Brooklyn Bridge and back, we made our way through the city and saw some beautiful buildings on the way: 

As we were on our way to the 9/11 Memorial, we saw the FDNY and our thoughts
flashed back to that dreadful day in 2001. 

The 9/11 Memorial was opened in September 2011, and entry is presently controlled by ticket because of the surrounding construction that is still going on. Once construction is finished, the memorial site will be an open park.

Once the complex of buildings is finished, it will include the tallest building in New York.

Thousands waited in line to be issued a ticket for a later time in the day,
then lined up again to go into the 9/11 Memorial

The memorials consist of a north and south "footprint" of the Twin Towers; water cascades down the sides and then goes down into a void. Names of those who died are cut in the brass edges. 

A better look at how the water cascades down.

Sheila makes a rubbing of the names of a mother and infant daughter
she had known in Connecticut.

Ruth Magdaline McCourt and her 3-year-old daughter Juliana Valentine McCourt were on board Flight 175 when it hit the World Trade Center where Ruth's brother was working.
He survived, saving the life of a woman he carried out of the building.

Thom at the Memorial's Survivor Tree. It is a pear tree that was found damaged in the rubble, and was transplanted and nursed back to health. It was then struck down in a storm, but survived.

We head back across the Hudson, thinking how massive the building are
even as they recede from view...

...but back on the New Jersey shore, a Norwegian Cruise Liner shows who's boss.

From Liberty State Park in New Jersey, we are ready to drive north to Connecticut, to spend a few days at our old house in Quaker Hill, now being sold by current owners the Gauruder family. Channing and the children are already relocated to Colorado, and Patrick is left to work two more weeks before retiring and heading West also. Or are we ready to go?

What's missing from this picture?

Someone has cut through the lock and stolen Thom's bicycle;
left Sheila's sissy girl bike and taken the more expensive Trek.

We filed a report with the security service, who say we have no recourse because there are public paths all around the facility, though they didn't have the nerve to charge us the $7 parking fee. We also filed a report with the State Parks Police.