NYC

On July 3, we headed into New York City - my first ever visit to the city. After an hour on the train, we walked out into uptown Manhattan at Penn Station around 9:30 AM, and I was pretty taken aback. The whole experience was similar to other cities I've been to, but every element was just on the next level. People, buildings, so much stuff everywhere.

We started off going up the Empire State Building to get an aerial view of the whole city, and followed by walking through Times Square and Broadway to Central Park. The morning started off cloudy, but I was still soaking in the views like crazy. In keeping with the theme of the city - more of everything - I was pretty amazed. There's more to take in in Times Square than any picture or movie shows, and Central Park has more stuff - including a children's mini-amusement park! - than I had pictured.

Looking north to Central Park

Looking south to Wall Street and the Freedom Tower

Riding to downtown Manhattan, we got off to look at the Statue of Liberty and walk down Wall Street. I enjoyed that part of the city; the huge, bold, columnar construction of the NYSE and surrounding banks echoes their importance in the financial world. A rain shower cancelled our planned walk to visit Chinatown and Little Italy.

We visited the 9/11 Memorial, which was both strange and well-done. The strange part is the "tourist" component - the entire place was packed; every line, security booth, and even the inside had people packed in. It was odd to have such a mechanical, mass-produced, airport security-like system set up for a memorial of that scale. However, the memorial - two pools into the ground where the towers' footprints were - was neat, and the new all-glass Freedom Tower going up is quite a sight to see as well. Eventually there will be a museum too, but right now the site (except the memorial pools) is under construction.

Looking up the Freedom Tower

One of the Twin Tower memorial pools

For dinner, we walked over the Brooklyn Bridge (a big highlight as far as views of the city), and I ate the best burger I've had in a very long time at the Burger Guru near Williamsburg. This part of town was trendy, green, largely renovated, and overall really nice. It certainly didn't turn me into a city person, but even I could admit that there are some neat aspects of being there!

Post-storm sunset over Brooklyn