From the City That Never Sleeps ...

Or at least across the Hudson from it! But a few of those apparent 'Never Sleepers' came to visit the Marriott hotel this evening and as luck would have it ... they ARE OUR NEIGHBORS!!

We had been out late shooting night shots (yeah! more on that later) and were WIPED having gone the wrong way for what seemed miles trying to get around construction, which never ended, thus we turned around in defeat. Stopped at the most wonderful Indian Restaurant and ate dinner, with Gary studying his maps on his iTouch phone.

After sheepishly saying: "Umm, Don't kill me but ..." he got out that had we gone in the other direction a few more yards - we would have seen that all was clear as far as the eye could see!

So, rested, we set off in the opposite direction - but also quite a walk and got our photos. I decided that they are just all that much more beloved when I was willing to 'settle' for a shot through the chain link fence with the skyscrapers of Midtown Manhattan surrounded by bulldozers and cranes! These most definitely do not look like that and we did not have to 'settle' at all!

Came back literally COUNTING THE STEPS it was going to take to get to the front door of the Marriott.

When we got to where we thought it was and realized that it was still a few blocks away, I told Gary that I was giving up - I was going to just lay down on the sidewalk and die. He asked me if he should post my photos as a final wish?

Hell, yeah! They're beautiful!

A block away I asked him if he would go get one of those hotel rolling luggage carts ... complete with the bar to hang your clothes off of. Thought I could just lie down and he could roll me back the rest of the way.

He said: "No"

Upstairs I collapsed in bed for about 15 minutes and then decided that I had better get up if I wanted to see the photos I had taken on my computer or my body was going to lock up and be immovable for the rest of the evening and well into tomorrow.

Gary opted for the 'locking up and never moving again' option but it kills me not to know if my photos are in focus or not - so I ever so joyfully, singing songs that snow white would sing, with a smile on my face - leapt from my bed and booted my laptop. (You just haven't seen Snow White joyfully singing and leaping about in MY world ... DON'T GET ME STARTED on the Seven Dwarfs ...).

About 1/2 hour into that Gary was fast asleep, I was deep into night shots and all of a sudden there is a bunch of yelling, laughing, screaming accompanied by someone trying to break in to our room through the connecting door. Weird ... hitting it HARD ... over, and over and over and over and over and over and over again ... doesn't magically make it pop right open ...

A few hours into the screaming (and some really, really disturbing sounds which sounded like very loud slaps - have only heard those in the movies and I don't know if someone really hauls off and hits someone and tapes that for movies or if they use something that sounds similar - so have no clue - it just sounded like very loud whaps across the face - and then yelling and more laughing.

To say I think they were drunk is an understatement ...

After that I called the front desk - something I have NEVER DONE. Never tattled on a neighbor before! But it was 2:30 in the morning and I was tired and had went to bed twice just to lay there and listen to them partying and apparently falling ... heavily ... into our wall many, many times. They said they would send up the security guard and he would take care of it.

I heard him over there - and miracles of miracles - it worked!!!

For about 10 whole minutes!

Then the partying, the falling, the banging the slapping continued and I was not going to call again, so I tried sleep again, but it was a no go. I guess the party was just way to fascinating to ignore and fall asleep to.

Suddenly I heard the guard again - a wee bit angry this time, but they only sounded amused. Mind you I didn't really hear anything - think 'adult-speak' on Charlie Brown - but it had become 'amused-adult-speak' by the hipster crowd and 'annoyed-adult-speak' by the guard.

FIFTEEN WHOLE MINUTES - sequential minutes! Total bliss!


They were then at it again, but their determination to awake the ENTIRE hotel seemed to have waned a bit, then they seemed only interested in racing up and down the hallway screaming - hey - they weren't body slamming someone against MY WALL - I was cool with it ...

And at about 4:30 they started settling down. It is now 10 to five and I SO WANT TO .. well not bang on their door - then they would know where I live ... hmmm? Does a hotel phone have a caller ID that shows what room the call is coming from? I so want to 'ring them up every 10 minutes, say - until about 8:00am' what?


I was in the middle of getting a post ready so I thought that I would just keep it up and finish.

~~~~~

I thought that I would summarize just a few points from the past two days - which have been wonderful, different, beautiful and frustrating all rolled into one big ball of vacation ...

I wanted us to have a hotel directly by a subway station so that we would be able to get around without having to take a taxi - so I got this Marriott. It is roomy, has wifi in the room, and we are comfortable here.

Got directions on how to get to New York since that was the direction we would be headed and they told us that 'all lines from Jersey lead to the WTC' (World Trade Center) so that was where we headed Friday morning.

It didn't take long at all to get the feeling that something had changed around this place.

Sitting down below the earth at our subway stop: Newport - I took a photo having long admired photos of the New York subway terminals - gritty, functional, cool! The next thing I know - I am told in very stern and direct language that no photos were allowed in the subway. I was flabbergasted! What? I see them every where?

Dooce - a blog I read - is often invited to New York for talk shows, her project with Christy Turlington and her episodes on some sort of decorating show on the home and garden station - or something that sounds like that. She IS ALWAYS - RIGHT NOW - taking photos of the subway stations!

Put my camera down and sulked a bit until the train arrived. Got on - and at the WTC we got off. We were surrounded by concrete - that and plywood sheets of wood lying about blocking sight of most of what was being worked on. We saw a sign that gary seemed to recognize from when he was here list year - so up the escalator we went (I might interject here - out of all the subways we have trudged through - we have been on a total of 3 - yes - count 'em THREE escalators! This is out of about 20 - 30 sets of stair ways - don't know what the wheel chair bound do ...

On that escalator, as we were going up - I noticed that we were next to a building that looked damaged - but must have been beautiful! So amongst the rubble - I found this:

The detail work on the buildings here is beyond description! I LOVE taking photos of it!

As we emerged from the building housing the PATH underground system (as apposed to the system that runs in NY - have to change trains and apparently stations at the WTC) we saw the new tower being built? More prograss than I thought they had made!

I was pretty sure we were lost - but there were signs to a building I wanted to go see. I forget the name presently and Gary is getting antsy that I am still up typing so I will let you know later. It had a beautiful atrium I wanted to photograph.

Gary had noticed a building where a bunch of people were on the second floor using it as an observatory to the WTC construction site - so off we went. And soon discovered that it was the building I wanted to see in the first place! Got my photos of the atrium:

Then off to take photos of the construction site at the impromptu observation deck ...

I was snapping away - steering clear of a guided tour when I started to pay attention to what three elderly couples were talking about - I believe it is called eavesdropping. Snippets had caught my attention: "She got a call from him and he had said that the second plane had just hit his building beneath his floor. And then she was cut off"; "He and Johan had been blown back when the first explosion hit, but they got up and ran through the flames to check on their co-workers when a second blast struck them. He didn't see Johan after that. He was in therapy for quite a long time, I remember"; "... and he just walked in the door covered in this white dust and didn't say anything. Just sat on the couch weeping. I didn't know how, when Nancy called what to tell her to do - I was so worried myself, you see ..."; "Yes, Nancy says the youngest is in therapy now since he feels guilty that he doesn't remember his father very well ...".

I was intruding on some very deep conversations and it was very surreal. One - I had only heard people talk like this on TV, not standing beside me (I just wanted to turn around, hug them all and tell them how sorry I was for all of them, but I don't thing that sort of thing is socially acceptable in New York:! Two - The way they spoke ... it was so ... odd ... so nonchalant, like they were swapping recipes for bundt cake. And I realized - this was just an every day part of their lives that they had lived through and processed and moved on from. I, on the other hand, have not moved on - since I have had no need to do so ... It was very difficult to listen to them (and very rude - but now I couldn't stop!) and they were speaking in a tone that did not imply they were trying to be discrete - they were just ... talking. Sad for them, I quickly finished my photos and left.

As I turned around for the first time to see them, they looked like 55 - 65 regular people - but somehow I knew that was not true - I cannot even fathom living in an area where my family and all my neighbors families had to go through that. I hope they kept their TV's off as the vultures played those devastating clips over and over and over again ...

Gary had gone down to get a drink, read and wait for me to finish up and so I went to find him - all depressed. I perked up when I saw him, we had lunch and as we were sitting there I noticed how beautiful the skyscrapers looked out the ceiling of the area we were in:

As we were eating I had to smile! A little girl was absolutely adoring a gentlemans dog that he was walking through the building.

It took me a second for the 'what is wrong with this picture' question starting buzzing my brain. In Norway and Europe this is a perfectly normal thing to see on a daily basis.

When I realized it was not Norway - I looked at him closed and he was wearing an ATF jacket. And a wave of sadness at the change again washed over me ... it was a bomb sniffing dog ...
We then headed outside - beautiful day!

And walked by a policeman's memorial:

There were a few people there and I stayed up to take photos while Gary went down by the pond.

I then headed down to where he was and took a photo of a picture. Probably a birthday present, or they do not live near enough to come often - just speculation on my part.

Gary said: It is not just a 9/11 memorial - it is for all policemen. There are names listed after 9/11 - way after 9/11. I told him that I was sure it still was - and the reason.

My answer was most likely correct as I read the pretty little card that said that he died due to the after effects of breathing in so much toxic dust (worded a bit differently - will change it if I can read the text when I get the time).

We then passed a group of people. We had been told back a ways before this that each morning at 9:00am sharp - 1500 tickets are given out for that day for people to tour the 9/11 site. And I realized, sadly that we were not going to be able to get there (unless we did a ton of rescheduling) myI am at a loss as to how to properly pay my respects ...


We followed a route that day that I had mapped out and then had a hard time finding our way to a connecting train to get back to the PATH station and back on to our hotel. We WERE going to go to Times Square or something and kill an hour before Wicket started, but my back was really having problems, so I opted for going back to the hotel to lay down for a half an hour. Also - I looked like a skank and thought maybe I should do something about that before we headed off to a Broadway production ...

Went back, rested, got back on the subway - on to Broadway and a SPECTACULAR performance of Wicked! I really enjoyed it! I also (ahem...) cheated and hid the light from my camera and took some non-flash photography! PHOTOS FROM A LIVE BROADWAY PRODUCTION!!!! So Cool! So not classy! So Evil! But still ... so cool!!!!


This morning we headed straight to the Empire State Building since I was clearly not doing well and the day had not barely begun! Yes, I know I am pathetic and I DO NOT KNOW why Gary still takes me anywhere ...

Got super ill waiting in lines so was not doing well at all when we got to the top, but I did the best I could and then we left. Took a few photos - I hope they turn out!


Went back - beat! And rested for a bit. Gary slept while I played in photoshop. He told me to wake him up when it was time to go - so that is what I did.

And as I mentioned, after a TON of searching ....


we got our Night Shots!!!!

Lower Manhattan:

Midtown Manhattan:

Well, it is now 6:00am - I better get some sleep and proof read this later - so


sorry y'all for all the mistakes that have to be in here!!!!


Later,



Night ...