this was the day my sis and her girls were coming down to visit the big apple.  i had gone to bed rather tired and woke up still a bit tired.  but i knew a visit to some starbucks would be my power up.

she wanted to see the “today” show first thing, so i hopped on the train and headed for 50th street.  after a bit of sms-tag, i found my fam.  while the girls stood in line for the show, dan and i found a starbucks.

once her cameo was done, wen listed the things she wanted to do/see; and i now having a good grasp of the subway system, we plotted our course.  our journey started at the top at belvedere castle in central park.  i hadn’t seen central park so this was something i got to add to my list of sights.  walking through the park takes you momentarily out of the city life.  we walked to the top of the castle, took some pics with the buildings peeking over the trees, and saw turtles.  i like turtles.

from the top to the bottom, we headed to lower manhattan to ride the ferry to staten island so we could see statue libby.  this was my second visit to see her.  it was less overcast letting more sun light her up.  we pulled a round tripper and rode back to manhattan to find some pizza.  (it was good pizza, but ray’s was fresher.)

the statue of liberty is in the background between the girls, just next to k2′s head.

next, we walked over to wall street and ran with the bulls.  ok, no bulls, but we walked wall street to brooklyn bridge.  it was still there, right where i left it a few days before.  some clouds had started to cover up the sky and before we got to the bridge, drops of water spinkled us as we started our crossing.  about midway, it cleared up for a while.  more views of libby and empire state building.  on the other side, we caught the train at high street.

next destination was ground zero.  it had been raining some more.  the humidity wasn’t going to give us a break.  yet we started our walk toward the world trade center…going in the wrong direction.  i might have figure out the trains, but i never did figure out which way to walk when the street names weren’t numbers.  (unless i knew the streets well enough, which i didn’t after just four days.)  after we doubled back to our train station it was just a few blocks to get to the site.  since it was a weekend, however, some of the side streets were blocked off and our visibility of the area wasn’t as good as i had found it on friday.  you could still see a couple of the building rising out from behind the fence.

the sun had started to come out now, but all of us were tired.  the k’s felt it worse and wanted to head back.  it was starting to get later in the afternoon so the decision made to go back to dan’s car.  while looking at the map, we decided to make one more stop at grand central.  we walked (underground) to the station.  it’s just like you see on the televisions.  and after a brief stay, we headed back out at street level to the garage.

whew!  it was quite the day walking around.  i did get to see the first and last stops as something new.  seeing all the other stuff for a second time was actually rather fun.  i enjoyed hanging out with my fam.

>> final evening