Brooklyn Bridge and 9/11

It was set to be a hot day in the city, so we made our first stop at the Brooklyn Bridge. We walked across the entire bridge (1.83 km) and into Brooklyn. Before leaving on our trip, we watched a documentary about the construction of the bridge, so it was quite fascinating to see it up close!

Once we were in Brooklyn, we walked over to Juliana’s for their opening time. There was already a line when we arrived, but we still managed the get a table. Juliana’s is owned by the Grimaldi family and they specialize in coal fired pizza. We had a classic with meatballs and ricotta. It was perfect! Chewy crust, lots of ricotta and a lovely tomato sauce. After lunch we passed a Shake Shack, so Evan just had to get a mocha cookies and cream shake. With his beverage in tow, we headed to the waterfront to see the view of Manhattan.

We made our way back across the bridge and ended up checking out a street performance. Four guys were doing flips and break dancing. For the big finale, they pulled Brad (one guy said, “I’ve got a sexy white dude!” and pointed at Brad) into the trick! They lined up five people and did a flip over them. It was an unexpected fun pit stop on our way to the 9/11 Museum and Memorial.

We used our Go City card once again to skip the ticket line. After a run through security, we headed down into the museum, which is built below ground level. The main part is more a memorial than a museum. There is an entire room where the names of the dead are read out and you can see their photo as well. There was a few pieces of the twisted metal columns that the plane that hit tower 1 had gone through. But then there was a separate section that chronicled the entire day in great detail. Timelines, photos, videos, and personal effects were all arranged. I didn’t quite expect to get so emotional, but reading some of the voicemails people left for one another or the calls the flight attendants made for help after their planes were hijacked was heartbreaking. The exhibit was totally engrossing and so well put together. We spent over two hours looking, watching, and recalling our own memories of the day. After the museum, we went to the memorial fountains which there are two of - exactly where the towers used to stand.

Running short on time, we left the area and caught the subway to Greenwich Village. Tonight’s dinner was at Barbuto. We were seated right by the kitchen and I was disappointed when I didn’t see chef Jonathan Waxman there, but five minutes later he showed up! We have seen him on Top Chef so many times that it was pretty neat to see him in person!

We ordered the famous kale salad to start and it didn’t disappoint! Then we shared two pastas: pappardelle with lamb, and fettuccine with morels and favs beans. Both were surprisingly light! We also shared a half oven roasted chicken with salsa verde. To finish, we shared a cheese plate that came with focaccia and bread sticks.

Very full, we got on the express train home and tried to cool down for the night. Tomorrow is our last day in NYC!Read more