June 4- Day 120 - New York City, New York, USA 

The room is very comfortable...quiet and cool. We sleep like the dead. Our knees are better when we get up, but it probably isn't going to last since we have a busy day planned. We head to breakfast about 9AM. The hotel has a very small dining room with some self service items and cooked to order eggs or pancakes. It is good though not the best we have had.

The day is cool and mostly sunny. Our first stop is the WTC Memorial and 9/11 Museum located at the World Trade Center site under the footprint in lower Manhattan. Carolyn made timed reservations yesterday so we wouldn't have to stand in line to get into the museum part. It is walkable from the hotel, but in deference to our knees we take a taxi. There is a lot of construction with roads blocked around the site and we do have to walk some after all. The taxi drops us off about a block away. We enter the site in front of the fountain on the building foot print. There are many people milling around, but it is surprisingly quiet even with all the construction. The memorial is a very impressive design.

  

From the fountain we enter the museum quickly since we have the timed ticket. The museum is outstanding and is actually in the basement area that connected the buildings. We see the staircase that was the only exit for those trapped, the foundation walls, steel structural beams that were bent like they were paper, not steel, the beams that so many people wrote messages on and many of the vehicles that were mostly destroyed in the collapse It is set up with videos and pictures to tell the story of that horrible day. We spend several hours and could have stayed longer, but our feet were giving out.

We decide we want go up to Central Park and have lunch in that area. Dick is not a fan of subways so we get another taxi. It is about a 30 minute ride, but we head up along the Hudson River so it is very interesting. We have the taxi drop us at the Plaza Hotel and go to the Plaza Hotel Food Court. After walking around and checking out all the option we choose the Todd English Restaurant. It has a funky menu and we decide to do a tasting menu of our making. We order a pitcher of Sangria with lots of luscious fruit mixed, a platter of sliders and a pasta that is to die for and a salad. This delightful meal takes us over two, very pleasant, hours to eat.

We now head for Fifth Avenue for a bit of window shopping past the high-end jewelry and clothing stores. Dick is not much on shopping and it is getting late. We are really limping along. So, after a bit of effort, Dick finally hails a taxi and we head for the hotel. It has been an interesting, fun day, Our huge late meal really ruined dinner for us. We decide just do cocktails and then get some more pizza from the little pizza stand around the corner. We walk over to the stand and get a slice which we eat sitting outside. Our flight is at 2:50PM so Carolyn opts to pack in the morning. We read for awhile and then turn the lights out for the last time on this wonderful, "50TH ANNIVERSARY TRIP AROUND THE WORLD!"