9/11 Memorial – A Traveling Fool

Past Trips

Navajo Reservation

One of my favorite parts of the trip I did to the Western National Parks in the US back in the spring of 2013 was to visit the four corners area and the Navajo Reservation. The place where we stayed (Goulding Lodge) and all of the restaurants where we ate and gift shops were owned and operated by the Navajo.

All of our excursions while there in and around Monuments Valley were also led and hosted by the Navajo who lived there. I was able to learn so much more about their culture and lives than I had known before. We also had one of the last living code talkers from World War II join us during a cookout to tell us about his experiences. I had watched a movie about that. But to hear actual stories from someone who had been there was very special.

Battlefields and Other Sites of War

I have also had a real interest in visiting battlefields, both in the US and other places. In the US, I have visited a couple of Civil War (Gettysburg, Fredericksburg) and Revolution (Yorktown) battlefields. But also several other locations having to do with either war (Appomattox Courthouse, Richmond, Harper’s Ferry, Valley Forge, Charlotte, Savannah, Beaufort, Williamsburg).

Overseas, it has been a lot of European World War II sites (battlefields, D-Day landing sites, and concentration camps), but also the Culloden Battlefield in Scotland (where Bonnie Prince Charlie and the Highlanders with him met their downfall), where David met Goliath in the Valley of Elah in Israel, and where the 300 Spartans met the Persians in Greece (at Thermopile), and Gallipoli in Turkey (World War I) where so many Australians lost their lives.

One of the reasons why I find battlefields and other sites connected with wars interesting is because of the heavy toll such actions take on human lives and the incredible stories that are associated with both the loss of life and some of the miraculous survivals that also took place. History is about peoples’ stories. I find learning those stories to be fascinating. Seeing where they took place (when the battlefield has been preserved) brings it into perspective. And yes, each time, I am left in tears.

NYC 9/11 Memorial

On my most recent trip to New York City in 2016, which was also my first trip back to NYC since 9/11, I visited the memorial. I recommend it to everybody. It is one thing to imagine a twisted firetruck or a collapsed staircase or a mangled piece of one of the World Trade Center buildings and quite another thing to see them for yourself.

I do have to say that I did not go into the room with the photos of the people and their voices from their last cellphone messages to loved ones. I just couldn’t. It was too much.

Kennedy Space Center

One of my cousins eventually worked at the Kennedy Space Center on the space shuttle crew, mainly for Endeavour. But he was also involved with all of the shuttle launches. Many years before that, Mom and I had visited the Kennedy Space Center and toured everything that a regular citizen on a tour could see. So, when he started working there, we already could picture a certain amount of it. I love it when something pops up in a TV show or movie or some other context and I been there and have seen whatever it is.

Hadrian’s Wall – Vindolanda

I have long been fascinated by Hadrian’s Wall. On one of my trips to Scotland (in 2016) I took several day trips to parts of the wall. One of those trips included the Roman fort of Vindolanda, which actually predates the wall. They had a wonderful museum containing items discovered at the site – shoes and other clothing, dishes and pottery, bridles, saddles, stirrups, etc from horses plus loads of other items. They also had much of foundations of the fort, despite the location having been robbed of much of its stone works over the centuries. A favorite of mine was the replica of the wall that gave a really good idea of the actual size and dimensions of it. I could also go up on top and walk along it.

This Trip

Van Gogh’s Art Techniques

Vincent Van Gogh is a favorite artist of mine. I have visited many sites associated with his life and death as well as viewing his art at the Musee d’Orsay during past trips to France. So, when I saw that I had the option to join a class on Van Gogh’s techniques while in Arles, I signed up for it immediately. I ended up painting a very quick version of a portion of his most famous “Starry Night”, which is now a treasured souvenir of the experience. Since returning home, I have also begun a couple of his other paintings that he did in Arles – “Starry Night over the Rhone” and “Café Terrace at Night”.

Truffles

On the Grand France River Cruise, I was able to visit a truffle farm and watch how the dogs searched for truffles. Then I was able to sample the truffles. It was fun to learn about truffle farming and to pet the dogs once they were off-duty.

Crepes

Although I have had dessert crepes before in restaurants, I had never had a savory crepe prior to this trip. On the day that we were setting sail for Les Andelys, we were offered savory crepes for lunch. I went with a buckwheat crepe filled with ham, cheese, mushrooms, and onions. There was some crème fraiche on top. Delicious. Since returning home, I have purchased a special crepe pan and spatula in order to make my own.

Chocolate Mousse

Chocolate Mousse is something I have made myself. But I have to say, the two that I had in France made mine seem more like a simple chocolate pudding. In Bayeux I had one at the restaurant where we had lunch. It was heavenly. On the ship, we had a mousse made with dark, light and white chocolate that was also amazing.

Calvados

An optional tour to Baveux and the Calvados region of Normandy included a visit to the Le Breuil-en-Auge Calvados Distillery. We learned all about how apples became Calvados and sampled some of the finished product. I felt that the amount in the glass was a tad stingy until I actually tried it. It is about 82 proof. It made my eyes water and my voice go raspy. I have since learned to mix it with cider and drink it with ice.

Hospices de Beaune

Touring and learning about the Hospices de Beaune, which were in service from 1443 to 1971, was really fascinating. We could see the wards, the pharmacy, the kitchens, etc. much as they had been.

Swimming Pool for Horses

At Bizy Castle, there was a lovely pool in the courtyard. Its purpose wasn’t just for looks. It had been created to allow the horses to cool themselves off. How thoughtful. Out of all of the castles I have seen all over Europe and the UK, I had never seen one with a swimming pool for horses before.

The morning after seeing the play, I started my first day of my two day Hop On Hop Off tour of Manhattan. They had two loops – Lower Manhattan and Upper Manhattan. I started with Lower Manhattan.

Taking photos along the way, I waited until the tour bus reached the vicinity of St Paul’s Chapel way down in lower Manhattan before hopping off for any length of time. The church’s nickname is “The Little Church That Stood”. This is because of its close proximity to the World Trade Center and all of the debris that rained down on it. The church was spared any heavy damage – mostly because of a very large tree that protected it (and gave its life to shelter it).

I used to visit both Trinity Church and St Paul’s Chapel often when I lived in NYC. Sometimes I took friends or family who came to visit (we would visit the Trade Center and then the churches) and sometimes I just went on my own.

Back in 1764, when the St Paul’s Chapel was built, it was the tallest building in the city. A militia group at King’s College (which later moved farther north and was renamed Columbia University) used to drill in the churchyard. Alexander Hamilton was one of the officers of this unit.

In 1776, when the British captured New York City after the Battle of Long Island, there was a huge fire which destroyed about a quarter of the city, including Trinity Church. St Paul’s Chapel survived.

Starting with his inauguration in 1789 and lasting for the two years that New York City was the new nation’s capital, George Washington worshiped at St Paul’s Chapel. His pew has been preserved as it was.

Just outside of the church, in its graveyard, is the Bell of Hope. It was given by the Lord Mayor of London and the Archbishop of Canterbury (St Paul’s Chapel is Episcopal, which is what the Church of England is called outside of the UK) on the first anniversary of 9/11. Created by the same Whitechapel foundry that made the Liberty Bell and Big Ben, the bell is rung every September 11^th.

Since 2016 was my first time in NYC since 9/11, I was very interested in visiting the memorial and museum. I started with the reflecting pools, which I thought were beautiful, and then got in line for the museum. Although it was a long line, it moved fairly quickly.

The bent tridents were the first things I saw while riding the escalator down to the main part of the museum. The last column standing was very prominent as was the slurry wall (which can be seen on the left of the photo of the column). This was the original wall that held back the Hudson River.

I photographed the survivor staircase from both the top and the bottom. That was where hundreds of people were able to successfully evacuate down from the plaza on which the Twin Towers stood.

There was one room where, as I approached, I could hear the sounds of recordings of the final phone messages of some of the victims and could see parts of some photos. I began to tear up and shake and knew I could not go in that room, so I skirted it as best as I could. I was now not following the path that we were being led through and needed to do some maneuvering to find my way back to where I would have come out of that room.

After leaving the museum, I found a nearby place to sit quietly and have some lunch before continuing on to Trinity Church.

Trinity Church, at the corner of Wall Street and Broadway in Manhattan, has long been one of my favorite churches – along with Westminster Abbey and Temple Church in London, York Minster, St Giles in Edinburgh, Notre Dame de Paris, the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul, and King’s Chapel in Boston. I have loved these churches not just for their historical importance and beauty, but for their unique personalities as well. That is difficult to put into words, but what I mean is that each of these churches has an atmosphere all their own that draws me inside and which I find welcoming and comforting.

Then there is Alexander Hamilton. When I lived in NYC I had very little money –certainly none to go traveling. So Hamilton, being the only founding father whose grave I could visit, became my own personal founding father. I happily showed him off to everyone who visited me, sometimes having to explain who he was.

The Trinity Church currently standing is the third on the site. The first one, built in 1698, benefited from the use of the runner and tackle from Captain Kidd’s ship to hoist its stones. That version was destroyed in the Great New York City Fire of 1776 which took place after the British troops conquered the city and the Colonial troops had fled.

The second version was completed in 1790 and was pulled down after being weakened by severe snow storms in the winter of 1838-39. That was the version of the church where John Jay and Alexander Hamilton were active parishioners. That would have also been the version of the church that was standing when Hamilton was buried there.

The current version of the church was completed in 1846. During the September 11^th attacks, a large number of people took refuge inside of Trinity Church.

In addition to Alexander Hamilton and his wife, Eliza, their son, Phillip is also buried at Trinity, but nobody knows where. Eliza’s sister, Angelica Schuyler, is buried in the Livingston family vault. Where Hamilton’s friend, Hercules Mulligan, was buried is now underneath this larger third version of the church, but there is a Mulligan family vault in the churchyard.

After leaving Trinity Church, my next stop was at Federal Hall (the building with Washington’s statue out front). The original building on the site was completed in 1703 and was New York City’s first city hall. After the American Revolution, it served as the first congressional meeting place and was also where George Washington was sworn in as president. That building was torn down in 1812. The current building was constructed in 1846 and, after serving as a custom house and then a sub-treasury building, became a memorial to the events that once took place where it stands.

In 1671 a private home was built on the site where Fraunces Tavern now sits. The original owner’s son-in-law then built a new, larger home on the site in 1719. In 1762 this home was sold to Samuel Fraunces, who established a tavern in the building. The Sons of Liberty used to meet there prior to the American Revolution.

During the Revolution, a student militia, of which Hamilton was a member, commandeered some cannons and fired upon a British ship. This was met by the British lobbing cannon balls at the city, one of them hitting the roof of Fraunces Tavern.

In 1783, one week after the British had finally left the city, George Washington and his officers had dinner in what was known as the Long Room upstairs in the tavern. This was when he gave his farewell address to his troops. Once Washington was sworn in as President, the newly founded departments of Foreign Affairs, Finance (Treasury), and War were housed in the building.

The bus had a pickup point at The Battery (a park at the tip of Manhattan). Not far from the pickup point was the James Watson House. The house was built in 1793 and extended in 1806. Though now across the street from The Battery (which had been built up and enlarged over the centuries), it was originally right at the water’s edge. It is also one of the last surviving mansions of that era in lower Manhattan.

I stayed on the tour bus until we reached the South Street Seaport. This has been a seaport since 1625 when the Dutch West India Company set up an outpost in what became New York City. From 1815 to 1860, it was called the Port of New York. This was where my maternal great-great-grandparents (who are buried just steps from my mom) would have entered the US in 1843.

Eventually the waters were deemed too shallow for newer ships and the seaport became derelict. In the 1960s the South Street Seaport Museum was created. Then, in 1982, refurbishment of the port itself, as well as the surrounding area, began.

As part of my two day hop on hop off tour, I also had a ticket for a free harbor cruise. So, since I was starting to get a little tired, I decided to hop off the bus and hop on a boat. It was a very pleasant little cruise around the southern end of Manhattan, which finished by the Intrepid in midtown near. They then had a bus to take everyone into Times Square, which was where my hotel was located.

Next time – Upper Manhattan and finishing the Lower Manhattan leg from South Street Seaport on.