A Month in New York City: A Day in Lower Manhattan

Today was going to be a beautiful day after a couple of cloudy days so we decided to go to Lower Manhattan and follow a self-guided walking tour we found in a book. We started out at Battery Park and Castle Clinton. Castle Clinton has been many things but was a processing center for immigrants before Ellis Island was built. Now that's where you buy your ticket for the ferry to go to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. We walked around the park and sat for a little bit, watching the people board the ferry to the Statue of Liberty. There is a beautiful walkway along the waterfront and we walked it almost up to Ground Zero. We went to the World Financial Center because it has a walkway between buildings where you can see Ground Zero. We were hoping to see the 9/11 Memorial from there but no, you couldn't see it. We had a great view of the new buildings they are building to replace the WTC.

Then we worked our way over to the US Custom House. It is a beautiful building and the inside is almost all marble. They have the Museum of the American Indian there and Conrad loves it. After spending more time there than planned (but hey - we have plenty of it!) and headed for a free museum of urban archaeology, New York Unearthed, where New York's past is revealed in what is buried underground but it was closed for renovation. We stopped by Fraunces Tavern where George Washington used to hang out and part of the Revolutionary War was planned.

After lunch we were headed back towards the Wall Street area and the protesters were out full force. We had seen a few on Sunday but they took up a small area and this morning when we walked by that same place, there were a lot more. This time there were so many and they were marching along. I bet it was at least a mile long! I've never seen so many police in my life! Wall Street was almost spooky. They had barricades up along the sidewalks so you couldn't walk in the street (it's always closed off to traffic). So many areas were barricaded, even Broadway, a four-lane street, was blocked in two lanes and traffic was backed up and police directed traffic. K-9 patrols and bomb detecting trucks were all over. We saw the Federal Reserve Bank. It has more gold than anywhere else in the world and it belongs to more than 80 countries. We walked past the NY Stock Exchange, Tiffany's, one of the many Trump Buildings and then walked through Federal Hall. This is where George Washington was sworn in as president in 1789. We went to City Hall Park and had planned to go in the building but it was also closed off. That made us decide to find another part of the city to visit.

We hopped on the subway and headed to Chinatown. I had wanted to do a little purse shopping but it looks like all those shops have been permanently closed down. We walked through part of the area then through Little Italy. Chinatown is full of "souvenir" shops and Little Italy is nothing but restaurants! After 8.5 miles, we decided it was time to head back to Brooklyn. We're thinking tomorrow will be a Brooklyn day. We want to walk around the area near the Brooklyn Bridge and may even walk across it again. We love the waterfront areas. Our friends from Bartlesville, OK will be in town tomorrow night and we'll spend Friday and Saturday with them. Not sure the city is ready for the four of us!

I think tonight will be an early to bed night. We sleep really well here. We're in a pretty quiet neighborhood.