Memorial Day weekend has begun and summer has arrived in NYC. It was hot today, but clear and beautiful. We walked across the Brooklyn Bridge into downtown Manhattan to visit the 9/11 Museum.
We’ve seen a lot of sailors this week since they’re here for Fleet Week. A group of them went into the 9/11 Museum as we approached and the museum employee was yelling “VIPs this way!” as he let them through a special entrance.
As we entered security, Rodney once again had an issue and had to lock up at a police precinct. At least this time everyone was very nice and an officer even drove him to the precinct and back.
The museum is located mainly underground inside the footprints of the twin towers and beneath the memorial pools. The officer who gave Rodney a ride said that he could still smell the smoke when he goes down there. We couldn’t smell it, but maybe it’s something you recognize more if you were familiar with it at the time when it was fresh.
The museum is very well done and every part of it was completed with help and input from the families of the victims. Rodney and I watch 9/11 documentaries almost every September so we were familiar with many of the stories and videos already, but there were many items on display that were recovered from the site that were very interesting. When Rodney and I were here 20 years ago, they were still cleaning up the site (3 years after the collapse). It was nice to see all that they have done to remember what happened that day.
Next, we lightened the mood by going to lunch at the Max Brenner chocolate shop! The food, drinks, and dessert were all very delicious! I had a chocolate martini and the kids had special flavors of hot chocolate served in “hug mugs”. Caleb really liked the hug mug and the hot chocolate was probably the best we’ve ever had. We topped it off with an amazing cookie sundae for dessert. We all agreed that all the food in NYC so far had been fantastic.
After we had eaten enough calories to sustain us for a month, we headed over to Macy’s at Herald Square to go up the wooden escalators. They are so cool!
At the top, we found Santaland. "Santa’s coming!!! I know him!!!"
We bought the CityPass a few months ago to get a discount on 5 different attractions in the city. One of them was a day/night pass to the Empire State Building so we could re-enter at night on the same day of our visit. It was a beautiful day and we could see forever. The line wasn’t bad and we enjoyed the new museum on our way up.
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| Shadow of Empire State Building |
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| Art deco lobby of Empire State Building |
It was a great experience, but we were tired and decided to go back to the hotel to chill before our evening encore. Rodney took the subway back to the 9/11 precinct and the kids and I traveled back on our own. The precinct was located across the street from a hotel that was currently being used for migrant housing. The desk sergeant told him that the hotel had been a very nice hotel and there was a very nice restaurant close by that was frequented by the hotel’s guests for decades. When the migrants moved into the hotel, the restaurant and other businesses in the area lost their customer base and had to close.
After resting and getting cleaned up, we headed back to Manhattan for dinner at Rolf’s, a recommendation from Rodney’s sister Nicole. Rolf’s is known as the most festive restaurant in the city and it keeps the Christmas decorations up year round. We all LOVE Christmas decorations so how could we go wrong? Nicole came here during Christmastime and really enjoyed it, but our summertime experience here was not so great. I had made a reservation, but it was not necessary. There were only 2 other people in the whole place and one guy serving as host, waiter, and bartender. The decorations made the place somewhat claustrophobic. They serve German food so Rodney and I decided to split the jager schnitzel. It was not good. The kids just got a burger to share and it was completely flavorless. How hard is it to make a decent burger? I think we jinxed it earlier by raving about how great NYC food was. Mallory later told us that it is hard to get in to this place during the holidays so I think we just had bad timing.
On our way back to the Empire State Building, we passed the Harry Potter Experience so we stopped in to cleanse our palette with some butterbeer ice cream. Yum!
The Empire State Building at night was magical. I’m glad we experienced it both ways.
Rodney and I took this horrible selfie with our digital camera 20 years ago so we re-created it with my phone camera tonight. My how far technology has come!
We spotted the glow of Times Square and I see why they call it “the great white way”. It was SO bright even up here that it glowed among all the other lights of the city.
We had some big family news today too. My second cousin Miles (Mallory’s big brother) and his wife Peyton welcomed a beautiful baby girl named Scarlett Noelle into the family!
