oculus |

A long line of picture posts has preceded this one, including the La La Land HBowl & the first few days back east, followed by the first half of our big day down at the WTC area. That post took a long time though and I had to end it so I could get some sleep – but let’s try to finish up these pics, why don’t we?

When last we met, Larry & I had just left the One WTC Observation Deck (and 2 glasses of wine each), so we were a bit hungry now. Across the street is a mall that has something similar to Eataly (Mario Batali’s high-end take on an Italian-based food market) but for French food, and that sounded amazing. Thanks, Stuart, for the recommendation! So we went there to get some delicious rotisserie chicken and then took a seat at the wine bar and savored the food with some beaujolais. mmm….

After that, we then walked back to the Oculus to get on the subway and head back up north a little bit, close to the Meatpacking district. Took a few more photos of the Oculus as the sun was out in full force by this point.

Wed, May 31 – Lunchtime and the Oculus revisited

The Brookfield mall that housed our fancy French lunch place

World Financial Center downtown

Wine bar

The Oculus gleaming in the sunlight

It really is a like a monster

Up at the Meatpacking district area, we walked west towards the hip parts, walking through and noticing some places weren’t there any more (goodbye Black Market, White Market?), before getting to the site of the new Whitney Museum of American Art. I hadn’t been to this new location yet, as it had moved from the Upper East Side a few years back. Larry had visited it and was up for seeing it again, and it has some pretty great vistas for just the surrounding area. Happily, our LACMA membership got us free admission, and we were near the end of their opening hours, so we did a very quick run through of just a few floors, while also making sure to take in some of the rooftop sights.

The Whitney Museum

There’s the Standard Hotel

The cobblestone streets of the Meatpacking District

Outside the Whitney

It’s art to just see a silhouette

View out to the Hudson

This actually is art

The Whitney is mostly modern art

Up on the roof, the view during a beautiful day is pretty amazing

The Standard

Looking south from where we’d just come

1WTC

The Observatory is part of the top 3 floors

So NY

Hi Empire State Building

We’ve been to that bar in the Standard

More art

The location of the Whitney is also a fantastic spot for walking the High Line, NYC’s elevated park, which has an end point right there and allows you to meander north through 20-30 great blocks of NYC. It’s a very rich area and while the park itself is very narrow, it’s a fun thing to do. Although by that point, it must be said, our feet were killing us by the end of it.

Walking the High Line

Saruon awaits

The southern end of the High Line

It’s a great public space to wander through

Larry

You go under the Standard

Looking back to the Whitney

10th Avenue can be looked at as it goes underneath

10th Ave can be looked at as it goes underneath

As can the people watching

Lots of architecturally interesting buildings to gawk at

Back on teh ground as make our way back to our hotel

That was our day of sightseeing! It was quite exhausting but the day was gorgeous and totally worth doing. Back at our hotel, we took a well-deserved nap to get some energy, as we weren’t exactly done with going out and doing stuff. That night, Larry found us a cool ramen place that we could get reservations at in the Lower East Side called Ivan’s Ramen. Larry even navigated us there successfully over subway and sidewalk! There was a threat of rain, and while it did sprinkle a little, no biggie. And our reservation actually was useful, as we only waited a little bit of time before getting seats at the bar. It was a fun meal, with a very friendly waiter (and some particularly attractive waiters elsewhere in the restaurant). The ramen was a unique take on it, and good, but it definitely varied from what you’d expect a ramen to taste like. We ended up being one of the last few people there before closing (this was a Wednesday, so it’s not staying open until 2am), and we then had a nice journey back before crashing at the hotel for a well-earned rest.

Ivan’s Ramen

We had a seat at the bar at Ivan’s Ramen

My beer was a Ramen beer from Europe

Larry (and hot waiter in the background)

And that concludes that epic day and this post. More to come from that week o’ fun.

Because this series of pictures could go on forever, I had to take a break yesterday and thus break up the posts (the latest Twin Peaks was on and it isn’t gonna watch itself, people…twice). The previous post was about the first few days of our week off, and so this one will focus on the remainder…

Wed, May 31, 2017: Starting the day off

Unimpressed with our hotel’s breakfast

Cool view of the ESB though!

Me, with a super genuine smile

The subway we took to get down to the WTC

So this day, the plan was to visit the area down by the World Trade Center. We were there when the project finally started getting built, but even by 2010, it was still not very much higher up than above ground level. But in the last 6-7 years, definitely lots of progress was made:

Back in 2009 – just a large pit:

Then in 2011 – a giant amount of height achieved:

And in 2012 – we got a bit closer to see the progress:

By late 2013, the building had been topped out, but it still took a while before everything inside opened up, and it wasn’t until the last year or so that the observation deck and the 9/11 Museum were open, although by this point, the memorial waterfalls were open:

Anyway, it’s been a long road for this complex to be all open. Beside the construction of One WTC (formerly the “Freedom Tower”), there is also the construction of the Oculus, the other-worldly train station adjacent to 1WTC. It’s kind of stunning to see and very hard to describe, so here are the pictures I took when we exited the subway right into the Oculus….

Pics from our Arrival at the Oculus

From the floor of the Oculus

A multi-billion dollar train station? Sure, why not.

It is mesmerizing to behold

It was a little cloudy, but you can see 1WTC through the roof

Outside you can see the sci-fi aspects that much more

We had reserved tickets for the morning to explore the 9/11 National Museum, which is quite an experience. It’s built underground and includes quite a few artifacts from Ground Zero, as well as a lot of meaningful displays around that day. Eerily, it has the footprints of the original towers as something you walk around, and a few galleries are within that original footprint. The main gallery, and by far the most intense, is that which walks you through the day as it began, as it occurred, and the immediate and long-term aftermath. They advise children not to enter this and I can’t see anyone under 10 ever going in there, as it’s quite intense to have everything brought back to you. There are some quite graphic displays that make you mad and sad all over again. Throughout the museum as a whole, it’s a combination of awe at how well designed and presented the museum while experiencing it with tears in your eyes.

The 9/11 Museum

Entrance to the 9/11 Memorial Museum

You continue to walk down a ramp to get to the main floor of the museum

This is an original, in-place surrey wall that kept water from the bay flooding in to the foundations

Looking down at the last support beam

Part of the lattice frame where one of the airliners crashed into one of the buildings

These blue panels are artist interpretations of the color of the sky that day

This is the footprint of the original towers

And in the ground, you can see where the building bolted in

This became a last remaining place to craft memorials for those lost

The escalator out

Some of the exterior frame

Afterwards, it was a nice thing to go from remembering the horror of September 11 and then visit what has been built since…One World Trade Center. It’s a quite impressive feat of engineering. We had purchased a timed priority pass, so we could pass by the main line and go straight to the elevators. And man, that elevator ride alone is worth the price of admission as it’s completely covered in video screens that show a chronological evolution of NYC from before the 1600s. As you go higher (and you get to the top in a VERY short amount of time) you catch up to current time, with a brief view of the original Twin Towers.

At the top, you then line up against a railing looking at a video screen of NYC activity, and then triumphantly, a stunning reveal is made at the end of the video. I won’t completely ruin it, but it really must be seen to be believed. It was a fantastic, jaw-dropping moment before heading out to the main observatory floor.

The sun had finally come out by that point – happily, that was the case as the days before were gloomy and rainy. So yeah, getting a view was a relief, although it wasn’t crystal clear. But the view? Amazing. I need to find my pictures from when my dad and I walked all of Manhattan and visited the top deck of the old WTC, as this is quite a spectacular view. I won’t bombard this post with every pic I took, but a few highlights are in order. Before we left, Larry & I had to go and get a few drinks on the top of the world – so we grabbed 2 glasses of the exclusive ONE white wine each. It’s a unique feeling to just drink and look down over a thousand feet to the world.

Visiting One World Trade Center’s Observation Deck

Jersey City

LIberty Island

Mouth of the Hudson

Larry with our guided iPad experience

Looking down at the start of the West Side run

Still not sure what the Sky Portal was

Inside the Observation platform

The city silhouette to keep you from sitting on the grill

Lots of development around Port Imperial

My old apartment complex

Ah, Manhattan

Midtown!

Some of these buildings are just crazy

ESB and 432 Park

30 Rock

So High Up

Towards the Bridges

Manhattan & Brooklyn Bridges

Brooklyn

The Oculus from above

Closer view

The memorial waterfalls

Better pics of us

At our perch in the bar

So high up

At the bar

The stunning view

Looking up the building

The Oculus looks like a Pokemon from here

At the memorial waterfalls

And the day was not over – but I think I need to get ready to go to bed. So yeah, this is Pt 2 of my pictures posts, but really, it’s just the first part of this one day as we walked a LOT that day.