Showing posts with label New York City. Show all posts
Showing posts with label New York City. Show all posts

Sunday, September 6, 2026

25th Anniversary of 9-11 in New York City


 This is how I'll always remember the Twin Towers in New York City. 

This photo hangs in the 9/11 Memorial and Museum.

 When I saw this photo on a visit to this very emotionally touching museum, I had an immediate flashback to the last time I saw the towers in August of 2001, when I waited to meet my husband, who worked in 7 World Trade Center, located across the street from WTC Tower 1. I sat in the WTC promenade by the fountain, and I remember watching a window-washing crew at work up high on Tower 2. 

We had traveled all around Italy with our college-age children that past May, and I remember thinking how we traveled so far to see so much beauty in Italy, but then sometimes take for granted the marvels we see almost every day here at home in the USA.




The unidentified remains found in the rubble after the terrorist attack are located behind this wall inside the 9/11 Memorial and Museum. The New York City Medical Examiner's Office is still identifying remains as tests become more sophisticated.



This photo is of our children when they were young, standing inside the glass tunnel entrance to 7 World Trade Center from the WTC Promenade. My husband worked in that building from 1987 to 2001. WTC 7 collapsed at 5:20:52 p.m. on Sept. 11, 2001, after enduring fires for almost seven hours, from the time of the collapse of the north WTC tower.

We were all fortunate that day, as my husband was home preparing to leave for a business golf outing. Our daughter was home as she was attending NYU and did not live in the dorm that year, but drove to the college from our home in Brooklyn. Our son, who had graduated from college in Washington, D.C. that spring, stayed to work there at the time and lived a few blocks north of the White House. He was preparing to go to work when he heard the news that the WTC towers and the Pentagon were hit.


Part of the memorial for the 343 firefighters killed on 9/11 at the Ten House Firehouse, located on Liberty Street. My older brother was an FDNY lieutenant for almost 30 years and had retired a few years before 9/11. He knew many of the firemen who perished that day. 

I have written many blog posts about 9/11, as you can see by the tab on my blog's sidebar under "Labels." Some of them show the many memorials to the memory of 9/11 that we have seen all around the country. The latest one we saw was as part of the Counterterrorism Education Learning Lab we visited with friends last summer in Denver, Colorado. You can read about the purpose of this museum on their FAQ page.

They had a steel beam from the WTC on display as part of an exhibit.


When we moved from NYC to Colorado in 2013, we learned the pilot, Jason Dahl, from the third hijacked airplane on 9/11,  Flight 93, had lived in our neighborhood. 

His flight was the plane that the brave passengers brought down in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, to prevent further destruction in Washington DC.



This memorial was dedicated to his memory in the area where his home was located. 

In 2002, the Captain Jason Dahl Scholarship Fund was established to provide two deserving aviation students a scholarship grant in Jason’s name.

Our neighborhood all gathered on the 20th anniversary to remember and honor Captain Dahl, and we plan to do the same for this 25th Anniversary.

“If we learn nothing else from this tragedy, we learn
that life is short and there is no time for hate.”
~ Sandy Dahl, wife of Flight 93 pilot Jason Dahl


The 9/11 Memorial and Museum has a special 25th Anniversary Remembrance and Service page.

Is there a 9-11 Memorial where you live? I'd love to learn about it in your comments below.

To all our friends, neighbors, and work associates that we lost on 9-11...

We will never forget!


It is up to all of us to make the world a better place.
 Let us spread kindness and defeat hate!

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Monday, September 2, 2024

A Joyful Drive Around Manhattan, NYC!

A view of lower Manhattan from Brooklyn, New York


Usually, the word "joyful" doesn't usually match well with the phrase "driving around Manhattan in New York City," due to heavy traffic, lack of free parking, and expensive parking garages. However, my husband and I enjoyed a wonderful sightseeing car tour of a part of Manhattan when we returned to Brooklyn, New York after our East Coast Princess Cruise in June. We had spent a few days visiting family and friends in Brooklyn and Long Island, and on this particular day, my dear friend Rosemary wanted to spend the day with us and offered to drive around to show us all the old and new sights we had not seen in quite a while. If you have been a long-time reader of my blog, you will remember I lived in Brooklyn, NY all my life until we moved to Colorado eleven years ago to be closer to our children and grandchildren. The first five years of this blog mainly focused on my life in New York City.




This brand new luxury condominium building called Olympia in Brooklyn faces the East River with sights of lower Manhattan.





We drove over the East River on the famous Brooklyn Bridge.






We're now in Lower Manhattan.

Rosemary and I were happily chatting about many things as we drove along, and all the while, I snapped photos with my cell phone.





Rosemary drove on the West Side Highway where we passed many new high-rise buildings and a new elevated park along the Hudson River at Pier 55 called Little Island (photo in the upper right of the collage above)




We continued driving north on the West Side Highway, passing numerous tall penthouse-type buildings and an exclusive-looking senior living facility. (All photos will enlarge in size for easier viewing of details if clicked on)  We drove a bit further north and then traffic became heavy and slow so Rosemary drove east crosstown.






We passed  one of the entrances to Central Park





Some of the buildings surrounding Central Park and one of the many horse and carriage rides that can be hired for a tour inside the park.





As we continued driving south on 5th Avenue, we passed many familiar buildings: St. Patrick's Cathedral on the upper left, the Apple Store on the right, Tiffany & Company on the lower left, and Cartier on the lower right.





Saks Fifth Ave on one side of 5th Ave and Rockefeller Center on the other side





In the distance, I could see the Empire State Building. What was that figure ganging onto the antenna on top? Could it be King Kong??  No, it turned out to be a large dragon that was promoting a HBO TV show called " House of the Dragon."




We next passed the large New York Public Library main branch on 5th Ane with its iconic lion statues, Patience, and Fortitude, in front.






The triangle-shaped Flatiron Building in the upper left was covered with netting as it is being extensively renovated to turn it into luxury condos. The New School building is on the lower left of the collage.





Next, we drove through the Greenwich Village neighborhood and passed the Washington Square Arch and New York University.
We stopped to buy some delicious gelato cones to eat and stretch our legs a bit.




We returned to the West Side where we passed more new very tall apartment or condominium buildings in Battery Park and the elite Stuyvesant High School building which requires an entrance exam for admission although it is a public school.



We were very close to the new World Trade Center complex at this location. The largest building in the complex is called the Freedom Tower. It is hard to see it all when one is close up!




We drove east towards the Brooklyn Bridge and I could see the Brooklyn East River waterfront.




We drove across the Brooklyn Bridge again...






Once we were back in Brooklyn, we had a view of Lower Manhattan in the distance, and we passed the large ETSY headquarters.





We treated Rosemary to dinner at one of our favorite restaurants in Brooklyn. I've missed their wonderful fish salad! She took our photo but wouldn't allow us to take hers because she had tears in her eyes knowing that we were leaving the next day to fly home to Colorado. She promised me that she would visit us in Colorado again soon, and asked us to wait until then to take photos. I am holding her to that promise!

I hope you enjoyed riding along with us in Manhattan in this post! I have a lot to catch up on this blog with what has been happening this summer in Colorado and I hope you'll be back again next week!  
Happy September!

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Sunday, June 30, 2024

Back From An East Coast Cuise and Extended Family Visit!


Lower Manhattan and the Freedom Tower


My husband and I have birthdays in early June and we were looking for a way to celebrate it together and visit New York family and friends we have not seen in a few years due to the pandemic. We saw an East Coast Cruise offered by the Princess Cruise line. and decided to go!



The Statue of Liberty


The 10-day cruise itinerary was Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, Boston, Massachusetts, Norfork, Virginia and Charleston, South Carolina, then returning to the cruise terminal in Brooklyn, New York.  Every other day would be a "day at sea" with relaxing onboard activities.





Sailing away from the Brooklyn Cruise Terminal into New York Bay and then the Atlantic Ocean.




We could see Coney Island in the distance as we sailed under the Verranzano Bridge.





We had a wonderful time! At each port stop we took an excursion and saw Peggy's Cove in Halifax, The Kennedy Library and Museum in Boston as well as some of the city, the historic sites of Jamestown and Yorktown in the Norfork, Virginia area, and then a day in pretty Charleston, South Carolina.

We then spent a wonderful week visiting our extended family and friends in Brooklyn and Long Island.  It was so good to see everyone again!

Obviously, the month of June flew by and we had quite a bit of catching up around our home when we returned to Colorado but I'm now happy to be back on my blog, where I've missed all my readers!

I'm back to blogging about Colorado, but I'll also show some of the wonderful historic places we saw on our cruise in future posts.  I hope everyone has been having an enjoyable summer so far--Happy Month of July!



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Sunday, January 7, 2018

On Our Way To Italy, With a Stop in New York


Happy New Year, again, to all my readers! Our Christmas decorations are all safely packed away, and we're back to a healthier diet and trying to fullfill our resolution to begin to walk or hike a few miles again every day.  Happily, our weather has been sunny and mild, as we escaped the cold front plaguing the east. All we need is more snow, as we are far below normal so far this season

 As I promised in my last blog post, I'd like to show some of the photos and memories I have of a trip my husband and I took to Italy this past summer. It was an "off the beaten track" type of trip, as one half of it was visiting Calabria, in the very south of Italy, in the town where my husband was born, for a celebration of the patron saint of his town. We also visited a few more towns in the south--many places American tourists usually don't visit, unless they have relatives that originated from them, but very worth seeing. The other half of the trip we visited my husband's relatives living in the north, in Genoa and Bologna, and a few other scenic towns.  


 We began our trip to Italy with a stop in our old hometown of Brooklyn, New York.  It is always a thrill for us to return to New York for a visit, as it seems we have made a trip there every year in the past five years that we've lived in Colorado.  I've been blogging for ten years and the first five years was mainly about my life in New York City.  If you click on the word Brooklyn, under my header photo, it will take you to all my posts about my hometown borough. If you click on the words New York City, it will take you back to all the places I visited in New York.  In both categories, you will have to scroll back and back and back, and so on, to see them all, as I blogged quite a bit about the greatest city in the world!



Because we had to change planes in New York, before continuing on to Rome, Italy, we decided to spend a night in Brooklyn with dear friends.  It was a beautiful day in early August, so we took a walk along Brooklyn Bridge Park to enjoy the sights. I blogged quite a bit about this part of Brooklyn, and you can read those multiple posts pages beginning here. if you are interested in this fabulous and scenic part of Brooklyn. 

Brooklyn Bridge Park offers spectacular views of Lower Manhattan...


...as well as the iconic Brooklyn Bridge.


...and contains the very fun, Jane's Carousel, which you can read more about here.


It was fun to visit with our friends and begin our trip to Rome and then take our connecting flight to Lamezia Terme International Airport in Calabria. In my next post, I'll show you the town in which my husband was born, and how it prepared for the very important and festive feast day festival that lasted a full week. It was a dream come true for my husband and me!

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Sunday, September 11, 2016

Reflections on the 15th Anniversary of 9-11-01


It is the fifteenth anniversary of 9-11-01, but it still feels to me like it happened yesterday.


I'm sure most people who were connected in some way to the actual event will never forget it.  Some are connected intimately by the loss of a loved one that day, and we know and have met many in that sad position over the years. Others have had their lives disrupted in other ways that may seem less significant, but nonetheless have been life-altering and traumatic, and the pain for them also never goes away.

An American flag from the World Trade Center site hanging in the 9-11 Memorial Museum

I've written many blog posts about 9-11-01 before this one--click here to read those posts from the latest to the earliest.  From the very well done 9-11-01 Memorial and Museum, to the beautiful and touching Memorial Waterfalls inscribed with all the names of the victims, to the Angels Circle in Staten Island, NY--a very heartfelt memorial to the local residents that perished, and the many other memorials--some homespun, others official throughout the boroughs of New York City. The pillar found that became known as the World Trade Center Cross, to St Paul's Church -the Little Chapel that Stood, that meant so much to the recovery workers in the aftermath, to the FDNY Memorial that is on the wall of the 1010 firehouse that stood across the street from World Trade Center Tower 2, at 124 Liberty Street.  


I've often come in contact with unexpected memorials to 9-11-01 in my travels, and when I moved to Colorado from New York City I was shocked to find that I now lived in the same community that Jason Dahl, the pilot from United Flight 93, that was hijacked by terrorists and most likely aiming to destroy the US Capital, but was brought down in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, by the hero passengers. This memorial stands near the neighborhood where the Dahl family lived. A scholarship in Jason Dahl's memory was established to help students achieve their dreams of becoming pilots.  
This evening, I will be attending a candlelight vigil in memory of Jason Dahl at his memorial, and we will also hold in memory all who perished that horrific day.


The repository for the unknown remains of those who perished on the WTC site on 9-11-01 in the 9-11 Memorial Museum.


It has been fifteen years, and the 9-11 Memorial has preserved for all time what was, and what remains, and the new World Trade Center is open and functioning as a testament to rebuilding, and that life goes on. We shall never forget, but as with all mourning, time allows us to move forward and honor those who were lost by living life and cherishing the good.  The city, the nation, and the world came together after 9-11-01 to help, to show solidarity, and to aid in recovery, and it is good to remember those feelings now, in a world where so much discord prevails.   It is up to each and every one of us to make the world a better place.  We all have that responsibility. Hate only leads to more hate. Let us honor the innocent lives that were lost with love.

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