Day Two

What a walk! We started the day nice and leisurely with breakfast by Schmoopie. After lounging a bit, we set out about 10:00 AM. We hopped our first subway and then walked to the site of the World Trade Center. A sad way to start the morning; I couldn't help but shed tears as we looked into the empty hole that remains. I did not think I would cry, but all the footage from that day started replaying in my mind. There was a hushed, respectful silence of the crowd as many people there looked at the devasted area. It did seem to have a strange smell to it, kind of dusty. People were taking pictures and video, though we refrained as we usually don't think of gravesites to be appropriate photo opportunities. It was tremendously windy today, but at the site it was eerily still. We decided not to linger too long as I started to really get emotional when we walked by the photos and timeline they have posted on a fence in front of all the construction. After our silent lament, we left to find Battery Park.

It was SO windy, I have to say it felt colder today that it has at home recently. Battery Park is right on the Hudson River which was beautiful. There were tumultuous waves, and we took pictures of the Statue of Liberty from the edge of the park. I got a few pictures of the park areas that reminded me of the footage from Desperately Seeking Susan, though I don't think we were in the same area as they were in the movie....darn it! It was just too busy, too windy and too cold to mess around with being a stickler for finding the exact area. My sister will appreciate the photos, though, as both she and I are big fans of the movie ;) There were THOUSANDS of tourists, and it didn't take us long to decide that an 1 1/2 hour wait for a ferry to the Statue of Liberty was out of the question today! We decided just to buy some New York gear and move along to our next stop.

It doesn't seem like only two stops should take so long, but it was quite a lot of walking, and in the nasty wind and cold we'd worked up an appetite so we wandered around until we finally came upon a Subway. A touch of the crabbies had hit me (low blood sugar and completely snarled hair is never a good mix) so we chilled for a bit and regained our strength for more walking! We decided to find CBGB's next! I'm always surprised when people aren't familiar with the legendary CBGB's, but in case you don't know, it's one of the most famous punk rock clubs anywhere!! It was the starting place of the original punkers themselves, the Godfathers of punk rock, The Ramones. After many years in business, it will be closing this November, and we had to make our punk rock pilgrimage. We even got to get a close up look of the owner who was wandering about!! He's just as hairy in person as he is in pictures ;) It's nothing more than a shitty hole-in-the-wall type of place, but just thinking about all the wonderful talent and pure energy that those walls have seen, it was pretty cool. So I got a red and black "girly" CBGB's t-shirt. I said I would never buy an unofficial CBGB's shirt--and now I've got one right from the bar/gallery! The gallery side had a bar, lots of funky photos (that included pix of Joey, Dee Dee & Tommy Ramone, Sid Vicious, Steve Jones, Stiv Bators, Iggy Pop, Joe Strummer, Stan Lee playing with The Damned, Lux Interior, and Doyle from the Misfits), different kinds of *unique* art and where they sold all the t-shirts. I was surprised that they had more photos of Sid Vicious than of The Ramones. We didn't actually go into the club part of CBGB's since it didn't appear to be open yet. We took a bunch of photos and also of the street "Joey Ramone Blvd" that was dedicated to him after he died. What a highlight!!!

Then off to TEANY (singer Moby's vegan tea shop) which once we got there, I felt too stupid to venture into and so we just took pitcures of me outside the door. *Blush* I'm an idiot sometimes. Quickly we found Joe's, The Art of Coffee and stopped in for a couple of *delicious* latte's, a chocolate cupcake by Amy Sedaris and a much needed rest for our feet. After that, a swift run through the Gourmet Garage to try to find Amy Sedaris' cheeseballs, to no avail. We left with just a regular brick of cheddar and a couple of other things and headed off to find a subway home. Point of note: the subway system here is a lot more confusing than any other city with rail systems we've been in. And we witnessed a couple of dudes that seemed to be starting on of those "fake fights that turns into a real fight" so we hurried on our way. Right outside Grand Central Station we just happened upon a big protest that we almost joined in, but we had no more energy so just hustled on back to the hotel.

Now it's cracker time as we take a little rest at the hotel. I'll relax a bit and then try to post some of our photos of today :)