Manhattan Meihem, Part II

My second full day in Manhattan began with a brief walk into central park. We started at the John Lennon memorial and saw the building he lived in. While we were waiting for our tour guide I enjoyed snapping pictures galore. What a pretty place! Our tour took us around central park. We went into Harlem. Apparently it has been cleaned up a lot since people are buying building and converting them into condos. We also went to Rockefeller Centre - another pretty spot. Next, we had lunch at a pier and then went off to Wall Street for pictures with the bull. It is good luck to kiss the bull and it is said that if you kiss a certain body part you will win a million dollars! Needless to say, I didn't go near that part!

We got on the Staten Island Ferry, went across to the island to see a view of the city, the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island from the water. When we landed we walked through the building and got back on the ferry again!

Next it was an hour to tour the ground zero site. There is reconstruction of the the site so there was not a lot to see. We got there too late to go into a pictorial museum and the St. Paul's Chapel. St. Paul's Chapel is one of the only (if not the only) building to not sustain damage when the towers fell and it is across the street from the reconstruction site. A miracle! I also took a picture of Ladder Company 10 who lost so many of its firefighters since they were close to the towers (right across the street from the reconstruction site) where there still are some memorials.

Finally, we went to China Town and Little Italy for shopping on canal street and dinner. Now, Canal Street is a very interesting place. It is a place to go to buy knock-offs of the high price designer clothes, shoes, handbags and jewelry (in other words, illegal things). All you have to ask is for ____ brand and you are lead to another place, sometimes in the back of the store front and sometimes down a dark alley, to the illegal stuff. While we were there one of the teachers and her husband were standing in front of one of the stores when a mass of police officers invaded the shop. They confiscated everything in the storefront, even bags that buyers had in their hands, threw it all in van, and posted a sign. I took a picture of the court order sign.