2019 Wk 3 - New York New York

I apologise for my earlier rant - blame lack of sleep - oh, and frustration and annoyance with Sizzix for the appalling design of their long pentagon!

I'm having a go with a stanley knife to see if I can 'correct' the pentagons without too much effort - be seriously, what were Sizzix thinking the die would be used for?

So I was short on sleep due to jet lag - having had a long weekend in New York!!!  I didn't take many pics as it was too cold to take my hand out of my pockets for long (Me on Brooklyn Bridge)

The girls walking ahead of me

I went with the daughters - we had a lovely time.  I did look for Patchwork shops - I thought there would be loads, but although there must have been 15+ fabric shops on 38th and 39th they were mostly fabric on rolls - synthetic fabrics, not our sort of fabric.  I found a shirt-making Aladdin's cave, but there was way too much choice and they were charging $30 a yard!!  The one patchwork shop I found was lovely but nothing that looked amazing and it was all $12.95 a yard which is practically the same as at home.

The best I can offer for crafty stuff was this fab statue

And this lovely man sitting on the subway station making crocheted hats!  Lisa bought the black & multi one in his left hand!

We went to the 9-11 museum.  I have mixed feelings about it.  Very moving and lots of information and well presented if you look at each section on it's own.

But it starts with an enormous space with a few big items, including this art installation.  We took this slow as we thought this was the general design of the museum.  As you can see, very few people

And there was information about all the people who died.  A good friend of mine lost a distant relative: I never met him, but it was nice (?) to have someone to focus on and we found his photo and the information the family had submitted, and where he had been remembered by other firefighters

 

 And there was a quilt to look at

So all calm, and peaceful and soothing in a way, and then we went through a revolving door to a special exhibition . . . where there people: crowds of people, films taking on the day being played, we heard noises recorded on the day, answerphone messages from loved ones who never made it home, we saw posters looking for those who were lost, papers found after the towers came down, clothing and shoes that were found in the clean up, parts of the building, of the plane, the background of the terrorists, stories of bravery . . . it was too much for me especially after the tranquility of the main rooms.

I really would have liked to have been given a route to take: that would take me to everything, and that would tell me I should allow half an hour for the huge room and maybe 2 hours for the special exhibition (and not bother with the Rebirth Film - far too arty and full of itself).

Anyway I went and I'm glad I did but I bought a couple of books so I can explore the bits I want in my own time.

A few more pics:

Our very opulent (and quirky) hotel

Lady Liberty from the Staten Island ferry (why is the ferry free????)

 A funky building that husband and I had watched a documentary on with a glass floored sticky out deck

And the city at sunset from the Empire State Building (why does it have 4 doors that you can't use but without signage to show where the right one is???)

Too many rants - maybe I'm still jet lagged!!!!