We're Here!!

I had good intentions of posting something on Saturday and yesterday but we ran in to some internet issues. But, part of them are taken care of and I can now post from the apartment. '

We had a great trip. Our flight was 30 minutes early getting in to Memphis and our connecting flight left on time AND arrived 30 minutes early........WITH luggage!!! We had to kill a couple hours in the airport so we didn't get to the apartment too early. The cab driver had no clue where he was going and had ME put in the address in the GPS. It was a wild ride, of course.

The apartment is better than expected. The neighborhood is Jamaican and fairly quiet. There's a club behind us that played music until midnight or so Saturday night but it wasn't bad at all. The street is lined on both sides with brownstones. We spent the rest of Saturday getting a few groceries and settling in. Our only complaint with this place is there is NO storage. The bedroom has a bed.......period. No night stand, no dresser or chest, no lamp.....just a bed. There's even room for something! We put the suitcases on the floor along the wall and left our stuff in it. The living room has a futon, a small bar height table with 4 chairs, a tv stand with a 19" tv. Oh well, we don't plan to watch much anyway!

Sunday morning we got up and dressed and walked to the subway. The closest one is closed on weekends so had to back track and find another one. It wasn't too far. We decided to spend our first Sunday at John Street United Methodist Church. It was the first United Methodist congregation in the U.S. in 1766. It was a really nice service and the minister was a great speaker! He introduced himself to us and asked where we were from. The guy couldn't be too bad because he knew Arkansas had beat Texas A&M! We had gotten there early and walked around St Paul's church, across the street from Ground Zero. The only damage to it on 9/11 was a huge, old tree was uprooted. The church was used as a rest place for workers and some injured were taken there. It resembles more of a museum inside than a church. We walked down Wall Street to South Street Seaport area then to the church. After church we walked back towards the water at ate at Johnny Rocket's. Best cheeseburger and sweet potato fries.

Later we ended up under the Brooklyn Bridge, my favorite. We'll be walking across it again sometime during our trip. We worked ourselves back to the subway at that point. It was a beautiful afternoon for pictures. The new tower at Ground Zero is going to be really impressive. We tried to get tickets to the 9/11 memorial before leaving home but they were already full in to mid-November. They say there are a few available at the visitor center so we may try to get there early one morning.

Today we spent the whole day at the American Museum of Natural History. I know we'll spend at least another day or two there. It is huge and the exhibits are awesome. We did most of the first floor and part of the 2nd floor today. We stopped by Whole Foods on the way back to pick up something for dinner (salad with some precooked grilled chicken and also some apples and bananas). Got back home after dark today and it is pretty well lit between the subway and apartment and we felt perfectly safe.

Still trying to decide on an adventure for tomorrow. Stay tuned.......

Linda