Category Archives: New York City

September 11, 2001: Never Forget

  By Anne Patrone | September 9, 2011 - 7:22 am | , , ,
3 Comments
World Trade Towers, circa 1996

I’ll never forget what I was doing on September 11, 2001. 

I was taking my oldest son and the younger sister of one of his friends out for a walk around our neighborhood in a double stroller to calm them down. As I started off, a neighbor poked her head out of her house and told me a plane had hit the World Trade Center. 
I honestly thought it was some poor soul in a twin-engine or small plane and how horrific and then kept walking. 
When I returned from a 15-20 minute stroll, my immediate next-door neighbor saw me walking back to my house and ran out into the street shouting “He’s okay, Anne. He’s okay. John just called and he’s okay.”
She disappeared inside with a final shout – “Turn on your television!”
I had no idea what she was talking about.
Until I came inside and turned on the TV – and watched the Twin Towers come down. And realized I had missed the frantic phone messages from my husband who worked in Times Square telling me he was okay and they had evacuated his building, but that he was okay. 
The rest of the day was a surreal experience with my friend coming over to pick up her daughter seconds after the first tower fell. We watched the second come down together – not crying because we couldn’t quite grasp what was going on. 
She left to wait for her husband, who also worked in Manhattan, to come home. 
I turned the TV off and tried to play outside with my 1 1/2 year old son because despite the horrors, it was a beautiful sunny day. I fielded phone calls from our relatives around the country reassuring them that although his company had a main office in one of the towers, he didn’t work there . . . and he was safe.
Unlike the over 3000 others who weren’t.
September 11, 2001
Never Forget
Photo Friday – sponsored by DeliciousBaby.com 

“Cool” Spots in the Bronx Zoo

  By Anne Patrone | July 21, 2011 - 1:25 pm | , , , , , ,
2 Comments

With the Northeast in the middle of another heat wave, I thought I’d comment on a recent field trip my son’s class took to New York City’s Bronx Zoo – when the “real feel” temperature was around 100 degrees!

The Bronx Zoo is one of our family’s favorites and listed in Frommer’s 500 Places To Take Your Kids Before They Grow Up. It’s a big zoo and great for kids, but when it’s hot, the last thing you want is to be miserable. You need shade – and preferable air conditioning . . . so where are the “cool” spots in the Bronx Zoo?

One top pick is a visit to Madagascar!

Madagascar! at the Bronx Zoo

Besides being indoors (and therefore, air-conditioned), there are plenty of dark areas where you can wait out the worst of the heat and the lemurs are really cute.

A new 4-D experience entitled Dora and Diego’s 4D Adventure is another “cool” way to beat the heat.
If you have an urge to be outdoors, consider the Congo Gorilla Forest. It’s an extra fee if you don’t get the Total Experience Package, but well worth the money when you walk through shaded paths and a water-misted trail on the hunt for gorillas and monkeys.
Gorilla in the Congo Gorilla Forest

Last, but not least, if the shaded paths along the Children’s Zoo and the darkness of the Mouse House are still too hot for you, try visiting the one place in the Bronx Zoo where the air-conditioning is always blasting . . .

Gift shop at the Bronx Zoo

. . . the gift shop!

Other Sights to See at the USS Intrepid Museum

  By Anne Patrone | July 19, 2011 - 9:00 am | , , , , , , ,
1 Comment
USS Intrepid

The main attraction of the USS Intrepid Sea, Air, and Space Museum is the “Fighting I” and I would recommend taking the guided tour of the main areas that I mentioned in yesterday’s post. But there’s more to see than just the two main decks the guided tour covers so we took a short water break before heading up to the Captain’s bridge.

There, a volunteer explained how sailors navigated the aircraft carrier and the kids got to look at the compass, maps, and other equipment used on a ship this large.

Hands-on science displays in the far section of the aircraft carrier demonstrate the physics of flight and how a rocket works. My guys practiced getting in and out of a rocking lifeboat and fortunately didn’t beg to ride one of the two simulator rides also located in the aft of the ship.

Since it was Fleet Week, there were men (and a few women) in uniform everywhere . . .

Some lucky Marines with a dancing troop

. . . but there’s always something special going on at the USS Intrepid Museum.

We chose to bypass visiting the Concorde positioned on the end of the pier and explored the USS Growler (a diesel-powered submarine that carried missiles armed with nuclear warheads during the height of the Cold War).

USS Growler berthed near the USS Intrepid

On our self-guided tour, the boys examined the torpedo rooms and the control center . . .

Control Center on the USS Growler

. . . while marveling at the small amount of space submariners dealt with.

Officer quarters on the USS Growler

The kids loved revisiting this favorite from Frommer’s 500 Places to Take Your Kids Before They Grow Up and I know we’ll be back when the space shuttle arrives . . .

Coming Attraction at the USS Intrepid Museum

Revisiting the USS Intrepid – A Family Favorite

  By Anne Patrone | July 18, 2011 - 9:00 am | , , , , , , ,
1 Comment
USS Intrepid in NYC

One of the great things about living so close to New York City is the chance to revisit old favorites like the USS Intrepid Sea, Air, and Space Museum. Since the boys and I last visited, the USS Intrepid has undergone a major overhaul and opened new areas of the ship to the viewing public.

Since we were going in the middle of Fleet Week (when several naval vessels visit New York Harbor), I decided to purchase our tickets on-line a few days before. With our tickets already purchased, we were able to speed through security and hop to the front of a very long line. In addition to our regular admission ($24/adult & $19/child 7-17), I chose to purchase ($20/adult & $15/child) a 90-minute guided tour of the ship to get the most out of our (re)visit. I wasn’t sure that a guided tour was going to be worth the extra cost, but oh my, was I wrong.

A LEGO model of the USS Intrepid

Our excellent guide was enthusiastic and full of so many fun facts about the USS Intrepid that we were happy to spend an extra 30 minutes with him when the tour ran long.

We started off in the main hangar, learning the history of the ship and how it only took 18 months to complete (work was begun six days before the Pearl Harbor attack).

We walked through the major exhibits including the area where two kamikaze planes attacked the ship in the final days of World War II. Our guide pointed out how the planes were painted blue on the bottom to blend into the sky and showed us the Mercury capsule the ship recovered.

Mercury capsule on USS Intrepid 

Then it was over to the Portside Aircraft Elevator for a special ride up to the flight deck. Although we leisurely made our way up, this elevator could zip planes up to the flight deck in less than a minute when needed.

Riding the Aircraft Elevator from the Hangar Deck to the Flight Deck

The last part of our guided tour of the USS Intrepid took place on the flight deck. It was by far the most special part of the tour because we were allowed to get up close and personal with a select group of planes including an A-12 Blackbird, a Coast Guard Sikorsky helicopter, and a Cobra helicopter.

A-12 Blackbird
Inside the Sikorsky helicopter

Cobra Helicopter

Twitter Travel Trivia: The Cobra helicopter was the only aircraft that actually LANDED on the USS Intrepid. The US Marines handed over the keys and took off. Little did they know that some gasoline remained in the helicopter’s tanks. When some guides started pushing buttons after hours, the rotors started up and the weapons went “hot.” A nervous museum staff contacted the US Marines and they quickly emptied the tank and poured concrete into all of the gun barrels!

By the end of the tour, the boys were enthralled and begging to explore more of the aircraft carrier . . .

Photo Friday: A Tale of Two Train Stations

  By Anne Patrone | June 24, 2011 - 9:00 am | , , , , ,
9 Comments
Union Station Washington DC

Lovely Union Station in Washington DC

I probably shouldn’t compare lovely Union Station in Washington DC (clean, gorgeous architecture, civilized waiting area) with Penn Station in New York City (dirty, crowded, ugly, and not a seat to be found), but I can’t help it . . .

Penn station New York City

Penn Station - the ugly end of the line

 

 

 

 

 

. . . could you??