New York 2001

26 December 2001 - Less than 24 hours after deciding on Christmas Day that we wanted to go to New York to see Ground Zero, where the World Trade Center stood, we were on the road. We dropped Sadie off early at the kennel, hit the grocery store, then headed on the road. we drove all the way to Youngstown, Ohio. I drove all the way through Ohio. The rest of the time, I either slept or crocheted. We've done this so many times as a family that it was quite easy to pick up and go. It was snowing when we got to Youngstown. We stayed at a Hampton Inn and ate at a nearby tavern. Had an early night.

27 Dec - We got another early start this morning. Ate our complementary breakfast then headed out. Pennsylvania was very snowy and mountainy. I didn't get much sleep last night, so I slept a lot in the car. We stopped for a bit in New Jersey, but got a little sidetracked because traffic was backed up and the traffic lights were out. Traffic got heavy in New Jersey. We made it to Hazlet, then found a hotel somewhere down the line. We sat around in the hotel room. Dad and I played Sheepshead. We got dinner at Outback and ate it in the room. Steve came over and chatted for a while. He took tomorrow off, so he's going to come to the City with us tomorrow and be our tour guide.

28 Dec - I got up bright and early this morning at 6:45. Uncle Steve met us at 8, then took us to a local restaurant for breakfast. I had oatmeal with fresh strawberries. Then we drove to Steve's house and walked the block to the train stop. After waiting in the nippy cold for a while, we got on the train. It took about 45 minutes for us to get to Pennsylvania Station in New York. We got maps and our bearings. We took the subway to Chambers St, then walked to the area around the World Trade Center site. We weren't able to get very close, but we were able to see the destruction around the area and walk past memorials people set up nearby. It was very sobering to see how much support people from around the country were sending. I was surprised at the number of people drawn to the area. There were crowds of people all over. We walked on in the cold and the wind to go to the New York Stock Exchange. Didn't go inside, but we walked around it and saw their holiday display. We walked on to Pier 17. There, Mom, Dad and Steve went to a pub while Cassie and I shopped. I got a neat pair of pants and a tank. We got a bite of Chinese for lunch. We all walked on to a subway station through some neat streets with interesting people. We took the subway to Grand Central Station and walked from there to Rockefeller Center. It was a lot smaller than it looked on TV and in movies. There were flags lining the ice rink, and the big colorfully lit tree. It was pretty. We walked on towards Radio City Music Hall, and then we walked down towards Time Square. I was amazed by all the people, lights, signs, traffic, theaters and studios and everything. Wow. We walked on to Harold Square past Macy's, then on to the Pennsylvania Station again. We just caught a train back to Hazlet. I was at least awake on this trip back. Steve drove us back to the hotel and we settled in. Mom and Dad went out to get dinner, while Cassie and I stayed in. I got a cheese and broccoli pizza  - way too much cheese and too large for little old me. Steve came back for a while. Lori would have come, but she's recovering from the flu.

Cassie, Mom, Cara, Dad at Rockefeller Center

29 Dec - I got up again nice and early. At least I slept the whole night last night. Steve was going to come with us to the city today also, but he called and said he had come down with the same bug Lori had. Eek, I hope I don't catch it! We got some cereal from downstairs, then got ready to catch the 811 train from by Steve's house. The train was pretty crowded - more so than usual, probably because they were opening an observation platform to the public at Ground Zero today. We finally made it to Penn Station in the city. We bought daily metrocards for the subway. From there, we walked to the Empire State Building. It took about 1+ hours waiting in line before we finally got up to the 80th floor. From that point, we decided to walk up to the final 6 flights to the observation deck. It was a rather cold day already, and the winds up there weren't too pleasant. Since it was a cloudy day, the visibility wasn't great, but we could see where the WTC should have been, and the tiny-looking Statue of Liberty to the south. Lots of other buildings everywhere else. Once we exhausted looking around, we made our way back down to the lobby. We began our trek up to Saks on 5th Avenue. We stopped at a souvenir shop - I got a shot glass that said I ♥ NY. The sidewalks got a lot more crowded as we made our way up to Saks. We took a half hour to look around, then fought our way back out. The merchandise there was nice (beautiful ball gowns), but terribly expensive (a picture frame for $400 - ouch!). We found the nearest subway station intent on going to Central Park. We got on the wrong train, which sent us way up to 125th St when we wanted 81st. Got off and caught the right one. We started walking through the park. It's amazingly serene for being in the middle of Manhattan. There were walkers, joggers and bikers all over. We meandered our way around on the paths before we hit 72nd St. We stopped to get a look at the flowers someone had placed in memory of George Harrison on the Imagine mosaic in Strawberry Fields, a section of the park. We bought some hot huts from a vendor (one of the better smells of the city). Then we took the subway back towards the madness of Times Square. Cassie and I marveled as we found ourselves in the fabric district. We were going to eat lunch at the ESPNZone restaurant, but there was some sore to mix-up and it would have been expensive. We were going to go to Applebee's until we saw a Mexican restaurant that looked good. Had a pretty nice meal there, complete with margaritas. Yummy. We decided to take the subway back to 54th St. We dashed into Macy's where Mom took her sweet time picking out Christmas ornaments. It was incredibly crowded there. We went back to Penn Sta to catch the 506 train back, but it wasn't there. We had to wait a half hour for the next one, which was also crowded. The ride back took about 1.5 hours - long. We said hi to Steve and Lori, before heading back to the hotel. Relaxed for a bit, packed up and had an early night.

Dad & Mom at the Empire State Building

Cassie, Cara, Mom in Central Park

30 Dec - Woke up at 3:38 ET this morning to get ready. We decided we were going to drive the 16:17 hours straight home. Ugh. I tried sleeping for the first few hours, but couldn't get comfortable. I tried sleeping, crocheting and reading as we drove and drove.

{transcribed 2/18/2020}