FlamingSickle history

I don't know how many of you have been to New York since the September 11th attacks, but I went for the first time since then on January 26th, 2002, with my mom and stepdad. It started on Friday, the 25th, when we went to Mommom's to spend the night so that we would not spend 10 hours driving on Saturday. We woke up at 6 AM (actually, I didn't get up until 6:50) and planned to leave at 7. It turned out that we didn't get moving until 7:30. We had taken the mini-van so that we would be comfy while driving. Plus, if we had taken the Jeep, I wouldn't have been able to drive at all.

And drive I did, on a stretch of the New Jersey turnpike until we neared New York. We had gotten on at about exit 4, and needed to get off at 10, and the rest stop was about 9 or so. Then Joe took over again, and he drove in the rest of the way. We took a route that took east through Staten Island and over the Verazona Narrows bridge to Brooklyn. It was interesting seeing the new skyline from afar. The only really tall thing there was the Empire State Building, with some medium buildings scattered in between that and southern Manhattan, which rose up again to the right of the view. Manhattan slipped out of sight as we got deeper into Staten Island, but I had done a quick sketch of the skyline in my sketch book, which I had brought along to practice with. Maybe once I figure out the scanner I'll put them in. I took a few more sketches of the Verazano Bridge, too.

Once in Brooklyn, we went down to Coney Island to get one of the famed Nathan's hot dogs. Personally, I liked it, even though my mom was saying how they "bite back." And I did a sketch of the inside of Nathan's. Interestingly enough, the cup I got developed a hole later in the day, leaking into the holder and making quite a mess. After that we drove up through the Jewish section and over the Brooklyn Bridge (another quick sketch). We headed west through Manhattan and wound up a bit lost trying to get to Ground Zero. We asked a policeman how to get to the viewing platform and he told us to take a right on one of the roads and then right on Broadway. Later, Mom commented on how his eyes looked. How for his age he seemed so mature and sad at the same time. She also said that was the hardest part of the day.

On the way there we kind of got lost again and wound up almost driving through the construction site, where we eventually parked. We then walked back east, and were stopped by one of the construction men as we tried to turn right because he said trucks needed to be able to get down that path. So we continued along, but not before another thirty-second sketch. We happened upon a memorial set up there. By the way, while I'm thinking of that, they took down the one by the Pentagon that had all the people's memories, flowers, cards, pictures, and whatnot. I don't know how they felt they had the right to do this. But perhaps they just moved it. But anyway, seeing all this wasn't as bad as we had anticipated, at least while we were there in New York, like we had come to accept it, or something. While Joe asked a cop if it was okay to park where we had (it was), Mom and I pretended not to know him. Tourists. Sheesh.

We got pizza then while also getting a bathroom break (which you probably didn't really need to know), and on the way back, I found the perfect spot to see down into the site without going to the platform, the line of which was at least 3 hours long, the tickets for which being at the mall on South Street to boot. I just stood up on this, um, thing...whatever it was, some wooden barrier or something, and I could see into it. No cops yelled or anything, so Mom and Joe handed me the camcorder and camera. And, if I get that infamous scanner working, I'll put some up.

After that we went to the van again (Mom being quite relieved that it hadn't been towed) and drove around Manhattan a bit, trying desperately to figure out how to get out of the lower area. Well, we did, and we went to the Empire State Building to go to the top. We decided this time to go to the Sky Ride, which offers some views of New York. But don't let the advertisement deceive you. This isn't some graceful glide over the city seeing the sights, this is a violent, Star Trekkie, ride with sharply moving chairs along with the virtual reality. If you get motion sickness, do not go on this. My mom often had to shut her eyes. And they've decided to keep the Twin Towers in the video. I realized that as the "ship" we were on flew towards them, that was probably the last thing the people on those two planes ever saw, that same view. And that's a bit disturbing. As the ride neared it's end and flew by the Towers again, it brougth tears to my eyes as I truely realized that they would only exist in pictures and videos from now on. But crying on a virtual reality ride didn't seem too wise. Hmm, now that I think about it, I was PMSing a bit, so it may have been partly due to a mood swing.

After the ride, we went up to the top, where I sketched the south view. It was kind of strange without the Towers, but oddly not all that bad. After this we went back down and got 20 White Castle burgers (those are so cute!) for the road and headed home. It really hit me when I was looking back at the city and not seeing the Towers. It was then that I started to actually feel hate for Osama. Anyway, I slept most of the way home, and the next day in church could have cried again when they mentioned terrorism. Another mood swing, I presume, although I wasn't PMSing anymore. And that's all she wrote. The only souveneir I got was a Yankees cap on the way back from Ground Zero. If you haven't gotten there yet, I definitely recommend you go. Although it may not fully hit you while you're there, you'll realize it the day after how truely gone the buildings and people are.

But I'm not here to lecture.