As soon as my plane landed in New York, me and 24 other fabulous bloggers made our way to the Eventi/Kimpton hotel. We threw our bags down and everyone grabbed groups to go sightseeing. I joined Emily from Family Life in Las Vegas and Lauren from Crazy about My Baybah and we decided to tour Times Square and Ground Zero.
Ground Zero was so humbling for me. I remember the day I sat in horror as I watched it all unfold. I cried along with everyone else that day.
The Memorial was free to tour. The lines were long, but it was worth the wait. As I stood there in the line, I just kept looking at the buildings around me, picturing how everyone must have felt that day as they watched helplessly as their city was attacked by terrorists.
Once in the memorial, the girls and I just kind of walked around and looked at both pools. Each spot where a tower was has now been turned into an infinity pool. They are truly amazing.
The sound as you are standing there watching and listening is one of peace as the water rushes around the edge and flows into the infinity hole. The other one had the waterfall turned off due to weather issues and we all felt it was and eery silence. No life, no noise, just a black pool.
Around each pool there are names of those who lost their life that day. There were SO many names. You just don’t realize the loss until you actually visit Ground Zero.
After visiting each pool and looking at the names, we hit the gift shop because there was memorial items in there as well. The first thing I noticed was this hat that was found at Ground Zero and the man who wore it.
My favorite piece of memorabilia though was the 9/11 Chopper that was created by Paul Jr. Designs. We are big American Chopper fans and never miss and episode on tv. In fact, I remember watching the build on tv, so it was awesome to actually see it in person.
After walking through the gift shop, we strolled outside and I caught a photo of the new tower — which will be 1,776 feet high, even bigger than the Empire State Building.
This trip really reminded me that God does rebuild and what Satan meant for bad, God will turn for good. One of the bellhops from our hotel asked me if I had enjoyed my trip to New York and I told him yes. The movies portray New York as a bad place and I did not find it as the movies say. He agreed with me and said that he felt like God used 9/11 to draw the New Yorkers into a new frame of mind. He was proud of his city and that they are learning to lean on one another as before they would just brush you off and cuss you out on the street.
That still happens, but I love that he shared with me his view of how things have changed and that he knew God was the reason for that.
Here is a video I took of the South pool doing it’s thing 🙂 It is very majestic. Enjoy!
My son and I visited the Flight 93 Memorial last July on our way to NYC. It was also sobering and surreal. Last month, my son was in NYC once again for a mission trip and they made it to the 9/11 Memorial. He was really glad to have the opportunity to visit the site where the towers stood and he too, was moved by the experience.
I really loved NYC. I felt safe and found everyone very friendly. I was especially impressed when we boarded a bus and there was a seat seperating me from my son and aunt and the gentleman at that seat offered to get up so I could sit there and be closer to them. We were only on the bus for a very short time so I didn’t take him up on his offer, but I thought it was extremely sweet of him to offer and told him so.
I’m so glad you enjoyed the trip and got to see so much of NY.
Thank you for giving me the chance to go! I loved it so much and look forward to the next time you need someone to go 🙂