New York City Baseball - 2

Monday, 7/27, it was back downtown, this time down to lower Manhattan to Ground Zero. Walking from the subway station to the site of the World Trade Center took us by St. Paul's Chapel. I like to visit old churches, so I said, Let's go in. You may recall, I didn't, the role this church played in the aftermath of 9/11.

From the church website:

"For eight months, hundreds of volunteers worked 12 hour shifts around the clock, serving meals, making beds, counseling and praying with fire fighters, construction workers, police and others. Massage therapists, chiropractors, podiatrists and musicians also tended to their needs."

The church's exhibits bring that tragic time back quite vividly. Here's one banner that caught my attention.

"Oklahoma Loves You"

Here's a collection of police and fireman shoulder patches.

The chapel has been there a long time. George Washington worshiped there the day of his inaugural - here's a depiction of that event.


It was good to see all of the construction going on at Ground Zero.

I haven't kept up with the plans, but from the internet I found these pictures of the future.

The open area is the 9/11 Memorial site and a guide told us that it would be open and dedicated on 9/11, 2011. The site's center piece Freedom Tower will be 1776 ft. tall. I don't know its schedule. Right now they seem to be working on the underground transportation center to replace the subway terminal destroyed by the collapsing buildings.

Next we went back to midtown to ride on The Beast - a speedboat trip (up to 45 mph, they said) to the Statue of Liberty and back.

A crew member got this shot of your intrepid travelers.

We got lots of ill-focused and -framed shots of the shore from a bouncing boat. At the Statue, The Beast paused for a calm photo-op. As you probably read, the Lady Liberty is open again and you can climb the stairs to the top, but those tickets are sold out long in advance.



Going out, folks on the other side of the boat got sprayed royally. Coming back it was our turn. Jason really got a kick from that part of the ride.

Next we walked: Times Square, Broadway, Central Park, East Side, then finally Grand Central Station where we caught the train to the Mets game. Along the way we snacked, climbed rocks in the park, waited out another rainshower under construction scaffolding, people-watched, and gawked. Here's a shot of the Chrysler Building reflected in the glass building across the street.

The Mets' new field is CitiField. (I don't know if it is coincidence or planning that both NY teams moved into new fields the same year.) This had a more comfortable feeling to me -- red brick and dark green girders and seats -- than new Yankee Stadium.

Anyhow, we saw another good game. The Mets beat the Rockies on an eighth-inning grand slam home run by pinch-hitter, Fernando Tatis. Our seats were in left field, a few rows up from the fence, an area that was treated to four home runs and several long fly balls during the game.

(It was interesting: on the subway ride after the game we were sitting next to a chap from Tennessee who had also come to NYC for the baseball weekend. I believe he did two Yankee games and the Mets game.)

We all flew home the next morning with great memories and some musing about future years -- say Chicago/Milwaukee, or LA/Anaheim/San Diego, ...

Cheers,

Rob, Mike, Jeff, Jason