April 19, More of New York

Today will be the last day in New York. Aaagh! So much pressure, still so much to see! We packed our bags left the hotel. My mom was going to visit her great aunt so we left her and the luggage in front of the hotel to wait for her cousin to come. Before you think that we are cold and unfeeling, she only had to wait there for 10 minutes. Her cousin was nice enough to offer to keep our luggage in his car and deliver it to the train station when we were ready.

On the advice of Brad's sister Caroline, we really wanted to go to Canal street. Yea, cheap jewelry and counterfeit handbags! But just a half a block away from our hotel a street was blocked off and lined with booths full of--cheap jewelry and counterfeit handbags. We spent some time there and perused the booths. Word of advice, carry lots of cash, these merchants do not take credit cards. Emma, Rachel and I had a great time; Brad, Ed and Caleb not so much. I didn't get as much as I wanted to (see previous sentence), but Rachel and Emma got some cute earrings and purses.

After the market, we made our way to a subway station. It was very crowded and Caleb held my hand very tightly the whole time. I think he was a bit overwhelmed. I think I was too. We got off near the Brooklyn Bridge.




We walked part way across and enjoyed the view. Because we had walked through that market earlier, we decided to forgo Canal Street and China Town. We walked down 5th ave. to look at the shops. We went into a store that Caroline recommended called H&M. Love it! The clothes are really cute and they are affordable. Rachel, Emma and I were walking around taking it all in. Brad, Ed and Caleb were bored out of their skulls. They found a comfortable place to sit next to the escalators and watched the show. I wish I would have taken a picture of them sitting there. Brad and Ed were actually mildly amused watching us because we were all over the store and once in awhile, someone would ask them, "Have you seen Mom/Rachel/Emma?" We bought some cute clothes and we were happy (well, at least the girls were.)


After the retail therapy, we walked to Grand Central Station and ate hot dogs and gyros from a stand. C'mon, you have to buy a hot dog from a stand if you're going to be in New York City. Am I right? We went into Grand Central Station and sat down. Did you know that in order to play music in Grand Central Station, you have to audition? So the musicians that play there with their collection jars are actually really good.


Next we made our way to Ground Zero. It's surprising to me how emotional I felt looking at something that is basically just a huge construction site. Here we are in front of the Church that many of the funerals for the firefighters were held. Ground Zero is in the background.

We didn't have time on this trip to actually go out to the Statue of Liberty but we saw it from a distance when we walked along the Hudson River at Battery Park.





Mom called and said that she was on her way. I told her where she was and they met us. By then we were pretty tired and her cousin told us all to pile in. We were a little crowded but it felt good to sit in a car. We drove by Wall Street, the Staten Island Ferry and the Empire State building. He dropped us off at Penn Station where we said goodbye. We had sushi for dinner (Asian food again?) and then we hopped on the train to head back to D.C. We got there at about 11:30 exhausted and feeling spaced out.