New York City-Part 1

A small group of WINs stayed at the Westwood Elks Lodge in N.J., for the purpose of going into NYC and sightseeing. We were only a few blocks from the train station.

We would stop in the historic downtown Westwood and grab coffee and a bagel for our ride on the train into Manhattan.

 

The first 2 days we did a Greyline Tour Hop On/Hop Off double decker bus tour. As you can see, our first morning was a little wet.

I love it when old buildings are reused instead of torn down. Here, this older building has been converted to a CVS Pharmacy.

When I had dinner in NYC 10 years ago, I ate at Carnegie's Deli. Well, it was just as good as I remember it. This was their corned beef sandwich. Everyone else took half home, but I ate the whole thing.  It is a full pound of meat.

I could post hundreds of pictures of the neat buildings and architecture I saw, but I won't. But I am posting one little picture which shows just a smidgen of the intricate, delicate decorative work on many of the older NYC buildings.

This is the courthouse. Most courthouses have Lady Liberty on top and she is blindfolded, signifying 'blind justice'. Well, this Lady Liberty doesn't have a blindfold. I wonder what that means?

Inside St. Paul's Chapel, a part of Trinity Church, was this poster from Oklahoma. St. Paul's sits across from where the twin towers sat and the church became a staging place for many of the rescuers. I thought it very touching to see the Oklahoma poster, since they understand after experiencing the OKC bombing.

We got to see first hand some of the protesters and their march on Wall Street. They are protesting about corporations, yet many of the protesters have probably never had a job, most looked like they might still be in college.

The Trinity Root. The debris from the twin towers knocked over a sycamore tree, which had stood for over a century in the churchyard of St. Paul's Chapel. Sculpter Steve Tobin envisioned this bronze statue to signify our connectiveness and our strength. The sculpture sits in the front of Trinity Chapel.

Inside Trinity Chapel, where scenes from National Treasure were filmed.

The Wall Street Bull. Normally you can get up close and touch the statue, but because of the protestors and the threats against wall street, the police had it barricaded.

A concrete playgound in the concrete jungle of NYC. This was a playgound outside a daycare. The ground is covered with recycled tire material.

So many of the residents of NYC have no vehicle, but use public transportation and walk, so instead of the large supermarkets like out west, they have small markets like this, every couple of blocks. Remember, you only buy as much as you can carry home in your arms.

I spotted this small, white wooden house, built on top of the remains of an older brick building. Note all the buildings surrounding the white house are also brick. It was the only wooden building in the entire area.

Notice the arch between the buildings. I thought it might be a walking bridge, but later found out it was only for structural support.

The Naked Cowboy really does wander in Times Square. What is really a pair of swimming trunks, is made to look like men's underwear. He wants to make sure you know who he is, so he painted his name on his trunks.

On 7th Avenue, looking towards Times Square, at night. Traffic was exceptionally bad because the U.N. General Assembly had started and many of the streets were barricaded and traffic was being rerouted. It turned out to be to our advantage, since the tour bus had to take us on roads not normally on the tour route. We got to see areas of NYC we probably would never have seen otherwise.

Looking across the Brooklyn Bridge with Manhattan in the background.

There were strange pieces of sculpture all over the city, most with no explanation. I have no idea what these were supposed to be, but they were in Battery Park.

The Brooklyn Battery Tunnel, Tunnel Authority Building. Does this look familiar? It's in a scene from Men In Black.

I have more pictures of my trip to NYC, but this is enough for one blog. More later.