Back from an extended vacationbreak from WA!
Hi everyone! Well after the Labor Day holiday at least here in the U.S. I am back at it with my business here at WA. The week before I went back up to visit friends and an extended family member up in CT, (Connecticut) where I spent most of my life. Returning back last Thursday evening, I decided to extend my time off from my business through Labor Day, yesterday, as I really needed to recharge my batteries.
I apologize for not immediately getting back to people who added me onto their "follow" list as while having my laptop with me, I simply refused to even turn it on for several days.
One morning going by car down to a town that I once lived in on the shore of CT, (a town called Stratford) and then traveling by train I went down to NYC for the second year in a row. I decided to act every bit like the typical tourist visiting for a day in the city that never sleeps. If you ever wish to visit NYC I would heartily recommend taking a trip down to lower Manhattan and spending the money ($37 for an adult) to actually go up to the top of the new One World Skyscraper recently built next to the former Twin Towers, now 9/11 memorial location.
I tried doing this last summer after attending a Yankees' game up in the Bronx one late afternoon. Then brand new and recently opened, the line of people looking to get into the skyscraper literally wrapped around the building with thousands of people waiting in line. This would have been in August of 2015. I also remember it being a Sunday, about 5 in the late afternoon and they only had scheduled tour visits, the next taking place around 7 pm. I never got into the building as I would have been standing outside in line for hours!
It was not the case this year and indicates how those who run the tour in this magnificent structure have organized it in a very fluid manner. From the time I entered the building, (coming from the area that now marks the former location of the Twin Towers), went up an escalator to purchase my admission ticket, descended back down the escalator and walked around to where you were greeted by employers with 5 waiting elevators to quick whisk you in under 60 seconds up to the 102nd floor, the total time was around 5 minutes!
Being extremely luck on the day that I went there was hardly a cloud in the sky; although outside it was over 90 degrees outside. Btw, now living in North Carolina where on some days 90 degrees in the summer would be considered cool I could only laugh, silently, at people who complained loudly of the heat.
The views as you walked around the entire 360 degrees on the 101st floor, (descending down one flight as the viewing windows were larger) looking in all directions was spectacular!!! Looking straight down to street level well below you, the cars/taxis and trucks looked tiny. I took lots of film, videos on my camcorder and photos with my smartphone.
The Empire State building a few miles looking uptown while over 90 stories high looks small compared to the view in the OneWorld skyscraper. For those who follow tennis the USTA, (United States Tennis Association) completed the construction of a new roof on Arthur Ashe Stadium, the largest tennis facility in the world located in the borough of Queens. From the skyscraper I could easily see this new stadium with its roof, white in color looking out through one of the large viewing windows. In fact it easily stood out amongst all the other sites looking in that direction. The 2 week tournament, one of the Big 4 in the sport each year is currently taking place now, ending this weekend. Beyond that I could easily make out JFK airport and jets landing/taking off.
Other famous landmarks easily seen were, on the other side the Statue of Liberty, Newark Airport in NJ, the football stadium where the NY Giants and Jets play in the fall, the famous Brooklyn, Manhattan and Williamsburg Bridges lined up in a row really close by to the South, looking up town the George Washington Bridge and so many other things. I finally did locate Citi Field next to the tennis facility where the NY Mets play as because of the brick building and color of the stadium it was more difficult to pick out the facility from a distance. Near Citi Field was LaGuardia Airport. Beyond that in the distance would have been the Throgs Neck and Whitestone bridges eventually leading into CT, and slightly south Long Island.
Every 30 or so minutes, one employer of the OneWorld skyscraper will host a 20 minute visual and historical program which not only discusses the construction of the building; but also presents a neat feature on how, really NYC going back to the 1700's has really not changed as far as geographic area. But it has grown upwards with the construction of a number of skyscrapers over the years. What was stated about Times Square I especially found fascinating. It was well worth the investment in time listening to this presentation. In all I spent around 2 hours just slowly making my way around several times around the viewing area.
Unless you don't like heights, I strongly believe such a visit to the skyscraper would be well worth your time. I strongly recommend that you go on a weekday, (M - F perhaps except a holiday) as opposed to visiting during the more busier weekends, (Sat/Sun).
And if you were taking a train into the city it is truly simple to get down to that part of Manhattan. From Grand Central Station you would get on either the #4 or 5 subway train going downtown. After 3 stops you would get off on the Fulton Street stop, (before heading into the borough of Brooklyn). The 9/11 memorial, landmarks and One World Skyscraper is right there. You can't miss the tower, just look straight up into the sky at the very tall, blue-colored building. In fact because of its design/construction you can't see the top of the building from ground level. At 1,776 feet tall, (to match the year in which the U.S. was founded officially) the OneWorld skyscraper is the tallest building in the U.S. and fourth tallest in the world.
So now its back to working on my online business. I feel fully re-charged and ready to go as I really needed the time off.
Thank you for reading my blog!
Jeff
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Welcome back! I'm glad you had such a great time. Your description sounds impressive. It must be quite a sight to see. Im sure it looks great. The first and only time I went to NY was March break just after 9/11. It was still very sad and boarded up.
Anyhoo, good luck back into the swing of things ;-)
Thank you Liz for commenting on my WA blog. Indeed the view on the 101st floor of the new skyscraper is simply spectacular! I have previously been to the 9/11 memorial. What is something that I truly remember however is being on the roof of one of the former Twin Towers back in around 1990/91 as then you could actually go up to the roof and be outdoors.
That day as I remember in the early fall was as spectacular as my visit to the new skyscraper last week. Yet as I took a lot of pictures that day back in the early 90's with what happened on 9/11/2001 I simply cannot look at those pictures tucked away in a folder knowing what happened on that fateful day.
I also once, living in CT at the time, knew a young woman who lost her father that day as he was employed at one of the restaurants located on something like the 95th floor in one of the towers. Once the plane hit the building he either died, or else had no way of getting out before the entire building collapsed.
The gal had a hard time accepting what happened to her father and really, any words one could say to her were really so inadequate.
It's good to be back at my business, in fact publishing my first article on one of my sites today for the first time in two weeks.
Take care,
Jeff
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Welcome back! I enjoyed your article being a native New Yorker who worked downtown for 15 years. However on 9/11 I was working midtown. (A very sad day in history.)