new york city

monday was new day, and with it arrived new hats from the door man, who immediately became james' new best friend. monday also revealed a continental breakfast with individually packaged nutella (which is ramona's new best friend).

train ride to lower manhattan


and a quick stop at trinity church to see alexander and eliza hamilton's graves




the walk from trinity church to battery park took us right along the 9/11 memorial, which was only open to families of the deceased because it was 9/11 on the day of our visit. just a block down is the bull and the newest sculpture installation facing the bull, "defiant girl." reminds me of someone....



battery park at the tip of manhattan, with a good view of freedom tower (background) and crazy kids (foreground).


then it was on to a ferry to visit lady liberty.
ferry ride, top deck!


looking back at the city



there she is

and here is my own little lady, halfway up the steps to the top of the pedestal, just under the big lady's toes.

a peek at her hand

panorama of the harbor with jersey city, manahattan and brooklyn from left to right.


peeking up into her skeleton: those tight twisting stairs to the crown would NOT have worked for some members of our family. also, her frame was built by mr eiffel, so that's pretty cool.


family statue selfie


after arriving back at battery park, we took a spin on the new sea glass carousel. it was magical.

magical, and disorienting...

then the long, long walk to lunch....we hiked all through lower manhattan, down wall street for a visit to george washington...

and to peek inside federal hall national monument. (so many national parks stamps, guys.)


we walked up and up, under the brooklyn bridge, and finally arrived at our desination: chinatown for dim sum.

ramona helped with ordering...

and we all helped with eating.

after lunch, we took another subway ride back to the hotel to change our clothes and drop off some souvenirs, but we were back outside almost immediately. there is so much going on in washington square park. we couldn't miss it. i mean, look at all these felt pigeons: even the real pigeon on the left of the photo looks impressed.

we sat to enjoy the b-boy show by the fountain...

...and suddenly james was in the show, getting leaped over by one of the those talented dancers. (see the flying b-boy? see the tiny staple boy to the right, just under the flying guy's knee?)

then back to the train, scooters in tow this time, to peek at times square. it's a horrible place, just crowded and commercial. but not horrible in the way it looks like it was horrible back in the 1970s and 1980s.

times square scooter tricks.

then a cross-central-park late afternoon traverse by scooter

and upper east side dinner with friends.

one last train ride back downtown, and the short walk from the station to the hotel gave us a magnificent view of these two beams of memory. it's an overwhelming feeling.

and then---the crash.