Day 7 - fun day

Friday was our only full day to explore the city. As a group we set out early to visit the 9/11 Memorial. You can see the Freedom Tower from around the city but it was really incredible to visit the memorials, which sit in the footprint of the World Trade Center towers. The site is still a working construction site, with several buildings under construction simultaneously, but the memorial pools sit on beautifully landscaped grounds.

The tree above, was the only plant that survived the destruction. It was recovered from thousands of pounds of rubble and nursed back to health. This past fall it moved back home to the memorial site. 

The name of each person who died on the day of the attacks and during the recovery period is inscribed on the bronze plates that line the memorial pools.  

The Freedom Tower will be 1776 feet high upon completion, making it the tallest building in North America.

After visiting the 9/11 Memorial we walked thru Battery Park, Wall Street and the City Hall District. We hoped a train to Little Italy and had a fantastic lunch at Lombardi's Pizzeria. Lombardi's claims to have opened their doors in 1897 as the first pizzeria in the United States - they remain one of the only operators of a coal fired oven in New York - today coal fired oven are illegal. Lombardi's has been on Spring Street since they opened - they have yet to accept anything but cash! 

The coal fired oven 

Drew and I demolished an entire pizza - half cheese, half pepperoni 

After pizza we rolled ourselves through Little Italy and China Town then hopped the train to Bryant Park - the home of the original New York Public Library. This library is stunning - while you can't visit the "stacks" since it is a closed circulation library, the actual building is incredible. This is not your average library - lets just say that on my way to the ladies room I passed an original Roy Lichtenstein.  I so wanted to ask for a copy of "9 Lives" by Paul Varjack, but I didn't. Before heading to Time's Square we all gathered in Bryant Park to pray for the city and the church planters we has worked with throughout the week. 

For dinner we returned to Junior's, just outside of Time's Square. I had a salad - my first vegetable of the week - and it was actually really delicious. Of course I finished my healthy meal with cheesecake! As a group we were fortunate to secure student tickets {$26!} to the Broadway show Memphis at the Schubert Theater. Apparently anyone with a student ID can get discounted day-of tickets, who knew? I can certainly see why Memphis has won four Tony Awards {best musical, best book, best score, and best orchestration} it was so full of energy and the music was fantastic.