New York City - Day 2

Sunday morning we headed down to the World Trade Center site. While we didn't want to spend much time talking through all the details with the kids we felt it was important for us to visit. We didn't do the museum given their ages but spent a bit of time walking around the memorial area. The last time I saw this place was about 2 years after 9/11 and the site was still just a huge hole in the ground. It is now a truly special and breathtaking place. 

This is Anna touching "the Survivor Tree". Several years ago on a business trip to New York City, Zach brought Anna home a book called "The Survivor Tree". The book tells the story of a tree that was growing near the Twin Towers when 9/11 happened. The tree barely survived and it was taken to a nursery where they tried to save the tree. The tree eventually recovered and was planted back at the Memorial. Anna had a special connection to this book and was not going to leave NYC without seeing this tree.

Having a careful discussion about what actually happened on 9/11.

As we were leaving the memorial a fire truck came out of the fire house across the street. This station is called the FDNY Ten House (ladder and engine company 10). These guys were the first responders on 9/11. They lost 5 men that morning. It was so meaningful to see these true heroes in action.

We then took the subway back up toward the Flatiron Building - another one of Anna's "must see" items in New York. 

This kid loved riding the subway

The Flatiron - aside from the fact that it was a landmark in a book about New York Anna has, we're not sure why she loves it so much, but since she showed such an interest we had to make it there.

I think she was a bit disappointed that other than the fact that its a cool looking building from the outside there wasn't anything we could go inside to look at. She couldn't imagine that this building holds only boring offices and a few stores!

A quick stop for a smoothie was required at this point before heading on towards Andrew's "Must See" location - the Empire State Building.

Again, we're not quite sure what started the obsession but Andrew had declared the Empire State Building his "Favorite Building" before ever visiting it.

After taking the photo above in the lobby Zach had to depart for rehearsal. The kids and I noticed that there didn't seem to be that many people there and decided to embark on the adventure to the top. We hit the jackpot - we bought tickets and made it to the top in about 20 minutes. 

We walked from there back to Times Square, passing by the Public Library and it's famous lion statues.

We stopped for some snack food before heading to the room and the kids had a snack in front of the windows, enjoying the view. 

For dinner we took the subway down to the Union Square area for dinner at Otto Enoteca Pizzeria, a Mario Batali restaurant. 

As you can see, the pizza was delicious!