9/11 Museum and Flight Home

The highlight of today was visiting the 9/11 Museum and Memorial. A view as we descended the escalator to the museum.

Our tickets for there were at 2:00. I really wish we had had more time to stay and see things, but we had a plane to catch. We'll have to come back again. So this morning we packed up our stuff and dropped off our luggage in a storage room by the front desk, and headed to the subway to go to church. But, alas, the church was empty.

Some sister missionaries let us know that it was take conference today. That started at 10. Corey said "That's a wild card. You just can't plan for that." So we didn't take the sacrament, but we did catch the last hour of the New York New York Stake Conference messages which were broadcast into a room at the church. We got to hear the Mission presidents speak - President and Sister Holmes. They are from Draper! And my thoughts turned to Corner Canyon and I missed biking. We walked home after church, because it was just past noon and we had time before our 2:00 tour, and cause I am too cheap to spend $12 bucks on a subway pass again for the four of us. We had to go back to the room for Abi to change her clothes.

Abi's shoes were not made for walking though, they were made for tripping. 

That is one of her many stumbles. Her shoes were a bit too loose. And she was cold.

She was laughing/crying, we were mostly laughing and were not very sympathetic. "Can't we get take the subway?" she'd ask again. Corey said "This is literally a 'walk in the park'!" (aka something very easy to do and pleasant!) We tried to help her face her hardship by thinking of the pioneers of Martin's Cove. They didn't even know when their suffering would end! You've just got 40 minutes of this, you're ok.

A picture near the end of our journey.

It's pretty cool having a green park in the middle of a big city. Group selfie.

The walk was a little long cause we were going slower for Abi, so we had to change our clothes super quickly at the hotel - get luggage, go to bathroom to change (down one floor via the elevator, good thinking Abi to keep her room key!), changed, pack luggage, check luggage back in to storage, then we ran to the subway. We got there in perfect time and took the train Downtown for the 9/11 Memorial and Museum. It was  pretty amazing and sobering. On our flight home, I was reading in the book "Considering the Cross" by John Hilton III and this quote from Joseph Smith on page 49 stood out to me. Joseph recorded this while travelling with Zion's camp in 1834: "Whenever a man of God is in a place where many have been killed, he will feel lonesome and unpleasant." That was the feeling at the museum ~ quiet, reverent, sad... Here's some links to some displays of the collection are online. I kept searching through items on there trying to find the Etch a Sketch that was on display there - in a part where we couldn't take pictures. I think it was from a firefighter. He wrote a note to his daughter on the etch a sketch that they found later after he died. That just made me bawl and I was trying to control myself, cause it was so quiet in there except for me choking up. So I walked around to try and calm down. Here at this link - "Inside the collection" - are even more things than we were able to see in the museum. You can search things by items used by First responders, or specifically by the FDNY, other recovered property, items from the victims, and things worn or used on 9/11. And it's cool that on any of those items, it will link to the person with a photo and where their name is in the memorial. At this link is a guide to the pool memorial, showing where the names are for the people from the flights, the first responders, and even the 6 people killed in the 1993 bombing. In the museum, behind a big art work with a blue square for each person, is a repository of the remains that they are still trying to identify - two more people were identified this year before the 20th anniversary. Also there is a glade with monoliths, honoring the thousands of people who have died since 9/11 due to their exposure to hazards and toxins in the air at and around the World Trade Center cite as they helped in recovery efforts. It is really neat how the memorial above continues to the museum beneath, so the big fountains above show the shape of where the two towers were above and below in the museum. It helps you appreciate their size and you can imagine you are walking below them before they fell.

They had a beam that was at the first point of impact from Flight 11, and they know it was the point on impact because each steel beam was marked with a number, so they were able to figure it out. We weren't allowed to take pictures in most of the exhibits. Corey told me I'd like this one though - Some colonial era finds that they recovered during the clean up! Very cool.

Flags representing the nations where each of the victims were from.

Outside at the Memorial Pools - South pool - 

And the north pool.

After that, we took the subway back to our hotel, got our luggage for the last time, and headed back to the subway for a long ride our to the Jamaica Center, and then to the JFK train. As we were waiting for the subway, we saw our first New York City sewer rat! 

He wasn't that big and wasn't dragging a pizza along with him, but we'll take what we can get. At the airport, check in went smoothly. Corey tried to get us all into the Delta Sky Lounge. with his business account, cause at the Dallas Airport, he was able to bring two guests, which worked perfectly for Seth and Wesley. But not at JFK. It would have been $40 each. So Corey went in and got a bit of food (that he snuck out and shared with us) and we went to the gate. The chicken and rice they had was amazing, and all I wanted the whole flight home was another bite. Especially after Corey said that he thinks our Premium Delta Amex card probably would have worked to get me in. Nooo! I could have had my own cup of food. I wish I had the recipe. The flight left at 6:30 pm and it was good. I read the book "Consider the Cross" for most of the flight, when I didn't pause to close my eyes cause I got tired. we arrived pretty much on time around 9:15 Utah time. Wayne found us, and we headed to pick up the kids. We missed them and we all cheered and hugged. Natalie was relieved that we made it home safely (even though we did not pick up four parachutes like she told us to!) Hugs all around. They said the kids were very very good. Wes practice and practiced with Peter to say "Who are you?" when he saw me, but he forgot when the moment of excitement came and just followed the lead of the other kids who were jumping up and down and cheering. Then Wes reminded him of his line. And Peter said "Who you?" I'm glad that he remembers me. He climbed in my arms and said "I wanna go home." So we did. Joseph had come up from BYU and helped out a little bit this weekend, so that was good and gave us enough room in the cars to get everyone home. It's good to be back with all our little chicks.