All Yakima residents and expatriates can be proud of Oleta Adams, who also attended AC Davis high-school, and whose legendary talent was an inspiration to many of us in the jazz band and choir.
Today was another easy commute into NYC for some more exploring. Beautiful weather once again.
We took the "E" subway to the World Trade Center where construction on the new tower is in full swing.
The National 9/11 Memorial is scheduled to open on September 11, so we could only visit the preview center across the street.
We had to find a place for Rachael to satisfy her Starbucks jones (she claims it calms her homesickness). She finds it incredible that in the largest city in the USA, she saw only eight Starbucks locations on the first day. (Compare that to three locations on one floor of the building across from where Teresa worked in Seattle.)It was only 11:00am and the lines for the Statue of Liberty ferry were already at least 1/2 mile long, meaning wasting the entire day and not a chance of getting inside the statue itself. On the advice of Marianne and her son Chris, we opted instead for the Staten Island Ferry, with no wait and no charge, and a close passage to the statue.
Teresa's cousin Stan works right next to the ferry terminal on Staten Island, and joined us on his lunch break before we caught the return boat.With sweeping views of Manhattan, Brooklyn and bridges to Staten Island and New Jersey, he was able to give us a panoramic narrative of the 2001 attack that you could never get from any printed account or video. He told us how a friend witnessed the first plane impact while crossing the bridge driving a bus full of morning commuters, and turned the bus around. Every day for weeks afterward, the newspaper would publish the name and photo of another person with whom Stan went to school, played ball, or otherwise knew, lost in the attack.
No visit to NYC would be complete without tube-steaks!
The "1" subway back up to Times Square saved miles of walking, and positioned us for some souvenir shopping and close access to the bus terminal for our return to NJ.
Another nice family dinner at Marianne's, and the kids got some pool-time with their new-found cousins.Many thanks once again to Javier and Marianne for their hospitality, generosity and courtesy. I get the impression that the New Jersey state motto may not be "now go home!" after all.