Starting to get sad now ...

Because the trip is winding down fast... it's Tuesday, the last day of the show and the last day of sitting in the booth, thumbing thru magazines b/c my feet hurt too much to walk around. It was fine by me, tho... b/c I was still in NYC!! :-) Violet, on the other hand, was a little disappointed because there wasn't as much traffic as the show in October. But she did pick up a few new stores, passed out quite a few linesheets for Fall '06 and definitely got her name out there more, so that's always good!! After we tore down the booth and packed it all up, we grabbed our massive amount of luggage and headed off to find a taxi... which leads us to crazy story #1.

We started walking down the street to find a taxi and we walk by a towncar. They cost more, so we didn't even make eye contact. This dude has the nerve to jump out of his car and say he'll give us a ride for free. Yeah, right. We politely say no thanks and keep walking... he comes around the back of the car and pops his trunk. Maybe he didn't hear us the 1st time... NO thank you. Violet says something about us only being a few blocks away and we keep walking. He starts to behind us... Violet got pissed at this point and she said something about rapists being less aggressive and we kept walking and hailed a cab 5 seconds later. Craziness.

We took a quick break at the hotel and then headed toward the subway for a ride to Brooklyn!! Here is where crazy story #2 and #3 take place. Okay... it's our first time on the subway, so you can expect a little bit of confusion, right? We ask a few questions, get our Metro cards, make our way thru the little gates and then stand there trying to figure out which way we need to go. It's at this point that a loud buzzer repeatedly goes off and people start running down the stairs! RUNNING!! Violet and I look at each other, completely freaked out, wondering what the heck is going on!! Bomb... fire... should we be following these people... what?? All of a sudden a monotone voice comes over the intercom... "that's not your train, you want C." Oh. Got it. The embarrassment quickly turned into laughter and needless to say, the phrase was repeated numerous times for the remainder of the trip!

1st subway ride

Crazy story #3 happened on the subway, as well. We were sitting there, probably still laughing about being called out at the subway station, when this group of kids come in from the other car being loud and obnoxious. One yells out for everyone to listen up and they bust out an improv rap session. It was one of those times when you didn't know if it was okay to make eye contact or not, but then it was just funny when they busted out the rapping! And even funnier when the older ladies were making fun of them when they got off!!

So, we finally made it to our stop in Brooklyn and realized just how windy and cold it was, so we decided to skip dinner, since we didn't know exactly where the restaurant was, and just make our way across the Brooklyn Bridge. It was GORGEOUS!!! Poor Violet was freaked out about being on a bridge and being cold and I made her stop about every 10 ft. so I could take "just 1 more" picture!!! The skyline was magnificent and none of my pics even come close to the beauty of it!! We could see the Statue of Liberty to our left, and to our right was more bridges, the Chrysler and Empire State Buildings, all the buildings were lit up... it was AWESOME!!!

The end of the bridge dumped us off in the Financial District so we started roaming! We saw City Hall, Trinity Cathedral, Wall St., the New York Stock Exchange, and the Trump Building (diff. from Trump Tower). We were a little indecisive that night and kept going back and forth, but we met some nice people along the way!! Big shout out to Jerry and Paul who were very helpful and entertaining!! :-) City Hall

Trinity Cathedral

Federal Hall (the site where Pres. Washington was inaugurated)

New York Stock Exchange (from Wall St.)

New York Stock Exchange

Trump Building (Wall St.)

Note: HUGE barriers! Increased security after 9/11 doesn't allow you to drive through!

While we were roaming up and down the streets, we saw a well-lit spot in the distance and we were trying to figure out what it could be, but kept wandering around... about 30 minutes later it finally hit us that it was Ground Zero, so we eventually made our way there. I didn't really know what to expect, and to be honest, it didn't hit me as hard as I thought it might. Granted, it's been 4.5 yrs. and they've rebuilt the transit station underneath it. Construction is still going on, but due to the families being divided on what the memorial should be like, not much progress has been made. I think if I had seen the towers and area before 9/11, I might have had a better understanding of what was missing. They had fencing around the entire site with the names posted as well as a detailed time-line, which was pretty moving.

Just a small portion of the names of those lost on 9/11...

But what really got Violet and I, was walking by the firehouses... we walked past 3 of them during our trip. And that's what really hit me hard. Each house had different memorials for their fallen heroes, whether it was a mural with the names, or a bronze plaques with their pictures... but all of them had pictures on the inside, some with added pics of their kids and wives. Those images made a bigger impact on me, than the actual site.

This particular house had only lost a handful in the past 100 yrs. Then on 9/11 they lost almost 20 in one fatal swoop...

Anyway, at this point it was late, we were cold and hungry and it was time to head back to the hotel. Thank goodness we were in NYC, where everybody stays open and serves food til 4am!! We stopped in a little pub for some food and beverages, made some late night calls to wake up our friends back in KS and then called it a night!! The morning was going to come quickly, and we had a lot of things to squeeze in on our last day!!