Ghost Town - Down Town

Saturday was the day to head further downtown Manhatten. We heading out on the downtown subway to take the Staten Island Ferry and see the Statue of Liberty. Once again a friendly New Yorker gave us a few tips before we embarked complete with a fun exaggerated New Yorker accent at the end that made us laugh. And thanks to another mom and daughter team from Katy's dance studio who came to ABT last year we have this set of New York City walks and a little fold out map so despite not really having a plan we never really feel lost. We came up out of the subway in "Financial District" so we shuffled through our cards until we saw a walk we could join up with. We quickly connected up with the Wall Street walk and soon discover that the Financial District sleeps on a Saturday. Where are all the business people in suits with their lap top bags? I thought they were work-a-holics who worked on the weekends! We are sure that Vancouver does not have this ghost town feeling on a Saturday. Maybe it is because shopping and skyscrapers are more mixed in downtown Vancouver? Even the little shops …one which held the shoes Katy was looking for for only $9.99 were all closed!! The only hubbub was created by the mass of tourists climbing up to take a photo by a statue of George Washington just down the street from one of the Trump buildings and adjacent to the New York Stock Exchange which was adorned with a huge United States Flag - probably for the upcoming July 4th celebrations. So we "occupy Wall Street" on a bench and eat our salads I packed for lunch. Soon we find ourselves merging into another walking card - the Ground Zero walk. Within minutes , two groups of 6 security guards came running towards us with urgent and serious faces adding to the drama of the area - never did find out what that was all about! i'm sure that area will forever be on high alert. The first place we went to was the church that stood unscathed despite sitting in such close proximity to the towers. Truely amazing that this church survived to become a refuge for the many injured and rescue personnel. ..it was hard to keep the tears back. I had heard about this but to be inside and see and read the memorial items was overwhelming. I remember being in our little townhouse in Ladner in the upstairs room when the kids were just little watching the second plane hit. Never really thought I would come to visit. We didn't stay too long in the area as we plan to book a tour of Ground Zero on another day. After trying to guess which were the new towers that were being built, and reapplying sunscreen in a nice shaded sitting area, we headed towards the Staten Island ferry…or at least we thought we did!