post by leslie

On our last full day in the city, one of the things we did was head down to the World Trade Center site. The last time we had visited, it was early 2002, and I remember seeing mini blinds from the buildings still stuck in the neighborhood trees.What's there now is something else.We started at the Oculus train station (above and immediately below), which was stunning -- for sure one of my favorite buildings in NYC now. It looks like a space station! And we looked up close at the Freedom Tower (in the above photo to the right of the Oculus), but did not go to the top. It is taller than the original WTC towers, and deliberately measures at 1,776 feet tall -- a reference to the year the United States was formed.A few photos down, you'll see the memorials at the site which mark the footprints of the two original towers. It was extremely touching and somber and we didn't stay too long because Ezra didn't know the significance and we sure didn't want to get into that on this trip. I'm not sure when a child is old enough to learn of that horror, but it's not when you're about to board a plane back home, I'll tell you that much.