The Sun Sets On Manhattan

I'm going to try and get caught up on posting my photo albums from my various trips. This slideshow has most of the photos from my trip to New York City at the end of July. (I posted pics from my visit to the 9/11 Memorial separately, you may recall.)

I arrived on Sunday afternoon and, after checking into my hotel (Comfort Inn on the Upper West Side -- I got a nice rate but it wasn't so great -- refer to the first picture in the slideshow) I went for a walk and discovered a street festival on Columbus Avenue. After I had a margarita and a huge burrito for dinner (not planned, but it started to rain and the place was right there) I took the subway to Brooklyn, and walked around the riverfront park, eventually arriving at the Brooklyn Heights Promenade. Then I walked across the Brooklyn Bridge back to Manhattan. Some of the pics I took during this time of the skyline are among my favorites of all the pictures I've ever taken.

Taking A Picture

After I visited the new 9/11 memorial at the Schuylkill River Trail I was headed back up the ramp towards Market Street and noticed a woman (see bottom right corner) stop to take a picture (or video, perhaps) of 30th Street Station and the Cira Centre in the background, so I took one as well. The bridge shown is Market Street where it crosses the Schuylkill.

By the way, why is the official spelling "Centre" for the Cira Centre -- we are in the USA, after all -- and if that isn't odd enough, why is their website URL ciracenter.com?

Philly's New 9/11 Memorial: Good, But...

After I toured Eastern State Penitentiary this afternoon (pics will be posted at some point), I walked down towards Center City and decided to check out the city's new 9/11 memorial, which was dedicated on Tuesday, the 11th anniversary of the terrorist attacks. The steel beam, from one of the Twin Towers, isn't lying flat or standing straight because the artist says it symbolizes how our society is not as secure post-9/11. It's set in granite and includes plaques with the names of three Philadelphia residents who died in the attacks.

It's a little stunning to actually see a piece of one of those buildings. The placement of the beam is clever. It's certainly a fitting memorial. However...

The 9/11 Memorial

I have a bunch of pictures from my three-night stay in New York City at the end of July. I haven't figured out how exactly I want to present them -- whether in one big album or in smaller ones devoted to each of the places I visited on this trip. But with the arrival of the 11th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, it seemed fitting to put the pictures from my visit to the 9/11 Memorial into a separate album. And since I used the Picasa photo service from Google, I'm even able to embed the slideshow.



And since this is the 1,000th post on this blog, it's nice that it's not about a more trivial subject.