After our time on Liberty Island and Ellis Island, we headed to the Financial District to visit the 9/11 Memorial. But first, we were all starving and were excited to grab lunch at Hudson Eats in Brooklyn Place. Hudson Eats is basically the fanciest and best food court around, I had eaten here before and every time I come I have the hardest time deciding where to eat because everything looks and sounds so good.
This time around Karin, Dad and I got salads from Chopt Creative Salad Co. and it was probably the best salad I had ever had in my life. I so wish we had a Chopt in Utah, I would eat there every day! After we had all gotten our food, we met at a table by the windows and enjoyed a beautiful view of the Hudson River while we ate.
As we were heading over to the Oculus, we passed by this macaron stand, and my dad knows how much I love macarons, we have tried macarons all over the world together. So he suggested we get a few to try.
Now, like I said, I have tried tons of macarons from all over the world, and I can honestly say, with no exaggeration, that these are the best macarons I have ever had. Some flavors were better than others, as is usually the case, but the ones that really blew me away were peach, strawberry poppy and passion fruit.
I was really obsessed with the peach one, it was one of the best things I have ever eaten. I obviously have very strong feelings when it comes to macarons.
I was so excited to see the Oculus, construction hadn't even begun on it last time I was in New York, so it was a completely new experience for me. It is absolutely gorgeous, such a beautiful building with such a unique design.
The Oculus aka The World Trade Center Transportation Hub, is a PATH station and has an associated transit and retail complex, it opened on March 3, 2016. It was designed by Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava and composed of a train station with a large and open mezzanine under the National September 11 Memorial plaza. This mezzanine is connected to an aboveground head house structure which is known as the Oculus—located between 2 World Trade Center and 3 World Trade Center—as well as to public concourses under the various towers in the World Trade Center complex.
Next, we visited the memorial fountains. The design for the memorial, which is called Reflecting Absence, was created by architect Michael Arad and landscape architect Peter Walker. Their design was selected from 5,201 entries from 63 countries as the winner of the LMDC's design competition. Two 1-acre pools with the largest man-made waterfalls in the United States comprise the footprints of the Twin Towers, symbolizing the loss of life and the physical void left by the attacks. The waterfalls are intended to mute the sounds of the city, making the site a contemplative sanctuary.
The names of the 2, 977 people who died during the 9/11 attacks are inscribed along the top of both fountains. Every morning, before the memorial opens to the public, a staff member checks a binder located in the 9/11 Memorial Museum that has each name and birthday listed chronologically then they place a white rose at the name of each victim who has a birthday that day.
Museum volunteer and 9/11 survivor, George Mironis requests this responsibility on the days he works. He even comes in on days he’s scheduled to be off to place the roses. For him, it’s a way to honor the friends and co-workers he lost 15 years ago.
There is at least one birthday for every day of the year and often more than one a day.
On my previous visits to the 9/11 museum and memorial, I hadn't ever seen or read about the survivor tree, a volunteer pointed it out to us this time.
There were sweet little drawings of the tree tied around the gate.
Through the leaves of the survivor tree, we could see new growth embodied in the new One World Trade Center.
Our last event of the day was walking across the Brooklyn Bridge. When I visited Bethy back when she was living in New York, she taught me the best way to do the bridge is taking the subway over to Brooklyn and then walking over to Manhattan, that way you get beautiful views of the Manhattan skyline while you walk.
When we got back to our hotel we were exhausted!! We had walked all over the city and climbed so many stairs, the stairs in and out of the subway stations are so steep! Not to mention the stairs to the crown of the Statue of Liberty. The Burton's decided to order in pizza and stay at the hotel. Dad and I opted to go across the street and get a casual dinner at Juniors Diner.
One of Dad's all time favorite things is a classic chocolate milkshake, and this one hit the spot after our long day of adventuring!
We did order food, I promise, but it just wasn't as fun to take pictures of as our sweets.
Junior's is a family owned restaurant that is WORLD famous for their cheesecake, it was called the best cheesecake in New York by New York Magazine after a blind taste test. So, it wouldn't be right to eat here and not get a couple slices of their outstanding cheesecake.
I ordered a slice of their brownie explosion cheesecake and it was amazing.
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