The Braseltons

Man!  Just looking through the pictures makes me think that it took several days to do the things that we did.  I’m gonna recap what we did but I am still abbreviating most things as it is truly unbelievable that we were able to accomplish everything that we did.

We first took the train from Harrimen station to Penn Station (via Secaucus transfer).

We then waltzed on over to the Empire State building.  We did not go up as there was zero visibility.  I can see everything from pictures anyway.  It was still cool to go inside and look around and check out the outside.

We then checked out the Manhattan Mall.  How do they afford the rent in the middle of the city?!?!?!?  Wow.  It was pretty cool to see it there.  You could not tell the expansiveness of the innards from the outside.

When taking the subway, please pay attention to the fine print explaining which lines stop where and also pay attention to the flyers that explain the addendum’s for the weekend.  These are vital for your travels as you might end up in places that you do not want to visit.

That is exactly what happened.  We did not note that the B and C trains were the only ones that stopped at 86th street so we could cross the park and see the museum.  We ended up at 125th street.  That is nothing to most people until you learn that 125th street is smack-dab in the middle of Harlem!  I really dropped a solid brick in my pants as I exited the subway station and saw a sign that mentioned Harlem.  I overreacted.  It was nothing but another neighborhood.  We ended up getting to see the Apollo Theater and see some really nice buildings and churches on our 2.5 mile hike to the Guggenheim Museum.

We finally made it to the Solomon Guggenheim Museum.  We heard that museums were free on Sunday.  No such luck with the Guggenheim.  It’s $18.00 all of the time.  It is pretty cool.  I’m no art connoisseur and I think that most of the crap in there could have been done by a blind paraplegic person but there were a few things that stood out to me.  I really enjoyed most of the drafting type drawings of some complex structures.  I was most impressed with an exploded model of a building that was held from the ceiling with fishing line.  It displayed great detail and even represented the heated flooring copper tubing that was to be put under the flooring.  That was the most impressive for me.  We were not allowed to take pictures in the museum.  Ahh, we were able to take pictures in the children’s section but they are on Tammy’s phone.  We got some good pictures of Zoe (of course).

I just took these walking around.  Can you believe the sky?

While we were walking around, Tammy noted a store that we thought was really out of place.  It was KMart.  We went in.  It was a multi-floor jobber.  To me, it was still just a KMart.

After the KMart, we successfully grabbed the correct subway train to the World Trade Center remains (the E train).  It led us right to it.  It was more modern that the other trains as it had an electronic sign that showed every stop.  The site where the buildings used to stand really was able to pull out some emotion.  I was able to recall where I was at the time of the event as well as what I was doing.  It was heart wrenching!

We had a long day and took the 21:11 train to our “home” train station.  It go us there at 22:50 or so.  We got home at about midnight.  We were and ARE pooped!  It was worth every ounce of energy.  These are experiences that will last a lifetime!  I am very appreciative that I get to experience them.  It is also great to spend it with my family.