I left home Wednesday afternoon to go to Sherri's to spend the night as our flight left at 6:30 and you have to be at the airport an hour early. We got up and around and were there about 5:15. Got checked in. Didn't know Cedar Rapids had a full body scan machine. The last time I flew out of there they didn't. Our flight attendant, Ken, was a riot I think he was bored. He kept giving us statistics on Barbie (the doll, goes with Ken get it!) and telling jokes. One time he disappeared and the pilot walked back to the bathroom I watched the cabin door and sure enough when the pilot came back to the cockpit here comes Ken out the door. I guess I must have had a funny look on my face cause he made a comment to me. Then he said there were two pilots. I was relieved. I knew American was cutting back but didn't think stewards were qualified to fly. Got to Chicago about 7:30 and found our gate (not clear across the airport but a good walk). We decided to have breakfast at Chili's I didn't even know Chili's served breakfast but it was pretty good. Boarded the place at 9:30 for Newark, NJ and had no problems. All our flights were either on time or early. I had talked to Sherri about using public transportation some cause the Cabs were so expensive and she was agreeable so we used this shuttle from Newark to Manhattan. A cab would have cost more than $60.00 one way and the shuttle was $16.00 for me (sometimes it pays to be a senior) and $28.00 for Sherri round trip. The bus let us off about 5 blocks from our hotel and we drug our suitcases along and found it no problem. The Hotel St James. It was located about one and a half blocks from Times Square. That and the price were the reasons I picked it.
This was our room. It is really big by New York standards. We had plenty of room and a large bathroom. The only problem was the bathroom didn't have an exhaust fan so it got pretty steamy in there when you showered. After dropping our suitcases we headed out. We had appointments at the September 11 memorial at 6:00. It was about 4 by that time but wasn't sure how long it would take us to find the right subway or how long it would take to get there. We walked by this guy. Now it was nice that day, in the 70's, but still too cool for underwear. When Cindy and I were there before there was a cowboy in boots and hat and tighty
whities. He was still there, we saw him later. We stopped at a Deli and had a Nathan's chili dog and lemonade. Very tasty. We found the right subway stop and went down . We had to buy tickets and got them no problem but.... for some reason I didn't get the gate to open and it wouldn't let me through then. I had Sherri try it and she got through fine. So I am one one side of the gate an she is trying not to panic because she is on the other. I finally had to buy another ticket and move a little faster through the turnstile. After asking several people we got on the right subway and made it to the memorial. There are lots of steps in the subway. I'm just saying.
Up and Down! Did I mention it was in the 70's and humid? We were sitting not far from the memorial waiting till closer to time to go in and a guy came around trying to sell us books about the memorial. We told him they were nice but we didn't want to carry them all that way. He told us we could go on in. That it was off season and they wouldn't say anything and they didn't. We were going to stop and get the books on our way out but it started raining on us. We found a different subway entrance to take us home of course by that time it was rush hour and very very crowded. It was also very black. There is a short video of the memorial. I thought it was very moving. Some of the names said Mary Smith and unborn child. I saw that several times. Very sad. Below is one of the new towers they are building.
After I struggled up more steps from the subway we still had several blocks to walk back to the hotel I had to take a couple of breaks. I was sweating like a pig and had been up since 4 that morning. We finally made it back and rested for a few minutes then went next door to the Cranberry Cafe (it was to become our home away from home while we were there). We tried their Pannini's for supper. I had a Cuban and Sherri had a chicken one with some sweet potato chips and a cookie it made a good supper . Fell into bed and slept very well.
