Pictures of Manhattan

Recently, we went to New York to see Clay in Spamalot. While we were there we took in some of the sights around town. I am sharing my pictures. I apologize because I am unable to get the clickable codes to work properly at this time and I don’t have time to work on it. After yesterday’s bombing, I thought I would start with Time Square.

Time Square Daytime

At night

The Empire State Building outside

Empire State Building inside (faces removed to protect privacy)

View from the top

Liberty Island and Ellis Island are visible in this picture:

Radio City Music Hall

Saint Patrick’s Cathedral

Wicked at the Gershwin Theater

Rockefeller Center

Hershey’s (They sponsored Clay in a Thanksgiving Day parade even though he’s allergic to chocolate!)

A cool building

The Marriott Marquis Hotel- we stayed here. Guests were interviewed on the news because they heard the bombing.

Every time I get on a plane and go through security I think about this last picture. I think about my daughter, too. She was born at an Air Force Base hospital because her dad was an Air Force officer at the time. Her grandfather was also career military which is how her dad was born at West Point. She has a cousin who is a federal judge. Her great grandfather was a state senator in Indiana. We are Roman Catholic. I think about her when I look at the picture of Ellis Island above, too. Did I mention that her great grandfather arrived there from Lebanon, nearly a century ago. Her other grandfather was a civilian employee of the U.S. Air Force as well. He traveled on a diplomatic passport to Europe when he was chairman of some engineering meetings for NATO. Yet my daughter, traveling in Europe was “randomly” searched on a more frequent basis than her friends. She was guilty of traveling with dark hair, dark eyes and a Middle Eastern last name. She noticed that people with similiar characateristics were in those same "random" search groups with her. This is funny when you are in NYC and so many of the people who live and work there are immigrants. It is funny when a second TSA security screener double checks our driver's licenses and boarding passes. He is an immigrant too. Apparently our Middle Eastern last name made us suspicious characters. After all, we were traveling back home to Ohio.

This last picture makes me think about a lot more than that. Itwas taken at a place that left my husband and I both in tears even after all this time. Along with all of the above events and changes that this last picture makes me think about, I will remember the pictures that I can't show you, too. They are the faces on the wall of the temporary memorial and I will not forget. It is a sacred place.

Ground Zero