Birthday Weekend

Since my birthday was Friday, my oldest daughter's on Saturday and my husband's yesterday, we decided to spend the weekend in NYC with Kim.  It was a quick but fun trip and it was great to get out of the Texas heat.  NY had severe thunderstorms Friday night but we enjoyed seeing rain again!

Saturday was beautiful and in the low 80's.  This is a photo of the Manhattan skyline across the Hudson River from Hoboken where Kim lives. 

We took the Staten Island Ferry and had great views of the Statue of Liberty and NY skyline.  As we were docking, I spotted this anomaly.  Can you see the church and house sandwiched between the skyscrapers?  They are actually quite large buildings but are dwarfed by the modern towers.

One must-do on our list was to revisit the World Trade Center.  Back in 2001 Kim had just moved to NY for the first time and our first visit was two weeks after 9-11.  The site was still smoking at that time and we saw glimpses of the total devastation.  It's hard to believe it's been ten years! 

This is the new Freedom Tower which is about half-finished. When completed, it will have 104 stories plus a spire.  It's a beautiful building but I'm wondering if they will get any companies to occupy it. Would you like to work there? I doubt I would!

 The new victims' memorial was not yet open - I think the dedication is Sept. 11 - and was still hidden from view so we only saw artist-renderings.  It looks like an amazing and beautiful tribute to those who lost their lives on that tragic day.  Two pools are located on the original footprints of the twin towers and waterfalls will flow over the inscriptions of the names of all who died.