Visit to lower Manhattan

On Friday we headed up to Jersey City and caught the Paulus Hook Ferry to lower Manhattan. Mike, Henry, and I were all interested in seeing the 9/11 Memorial. Grandpa came along for the trip. I apologize for the not-great-quality of the pictures but when we travel with Mike he is a bit of a packing nazi. Remember that scene in Spaceballs when Bill Pullman's character tells Princess Vespa "TAKE ONLY WHAT YOU NEED TO SURVIVE!" That's kind of like Mike. He only takes what he will ABSOLUTELY need, nothing more. The new charges on checked baggage certainly did not help his obsession with packing light.  So I left the big camera at home in order to pare down on our "stuff." He still double checks what we are bringing and makes you justify and plead your case if you want to bring something that he deems unnecessary. So that's the long story on why no nice camera this trip.

 The new One World Trade Center going up - awesome!

 At the 9/11 Memorial - the waterfalls are in the footprints of the two towers. The names of those who died are inscribed on the wall around the waterfalls.

 It was a very solemn place but very neat to see.

 A closer shot of One World Trade. It will be the tallest building in North America when it is finished.

 We ate at George's Restaurant downtown. A great greasy spoon diner that was very reasonably priced for Manhattan.

 On Wall Street- the NY Stock Exchange is on the left, and this really cool old church is straight ahead. I wish I could remember the name of it. It was cool how it was still nestled in among all of those tall, modern structures.

 This was a protest going on outside the Federal Reserve Building, where one quarter of the world's gold bullion (more than Fort Knox) is 5 stories below.

 At first we were thinking the protest was the Occupy Wall Street people, but when we edged closer we realized it was...

 The conservatives! Now if you know Grandpa Bill you know that he is the biggest, proudest  Republican alive. The Fox News truck drew him in like a homing beacon. He asked one of the protestors if he could hold her sign for a picture. Mike and I were laughing so hard we had tears streaming down our faces. Bill was pleased as punch.

 In Battery Park City - the Statue of Liberty in the background.

 Another shot in Battery Park City.