Manhattan

To day we walked many miles in Manhattan on a beautiful sunny day.  From our hotel we took the NJ Transit's "Midtown Direct" into Penn Station - takes about an hour. Then we hopped the "1" subway down to lower Manhattan to see the 9/11 Memorial. Amazing goings on! First of all, there are so many tourists you have to register in advance to reserve a time - that's to spread out the traffic evenly over the day. We had a "Appointment" for 11:00. You have to go to a Visitor Center on Vesey Street to get your pass, then you walk many, many blocks, through several security stations (like the airport) before you finally get to the memorial. The memorial itself is two large fountains built on the footprint of the two original buildings, with the names of those lost engraved around the perimeter. Of equal interest is that there are four or five new skyscrapers under construction all around you, all part of the new World Trade Center complex.

After our visit there, we hopped on the "E" subway and went back uptown to meet with John M. and Lisa A. at UBS, our long-time financial advisors. (I had worked with them when we were at Tucker Anthony in Florham Park back in the day). They took us (clients) across the street to the Capital Grill for a great lunch, then back to their office on the 20th floor for more chit chat. It was a fun "reunion".

Then, we walked all the way back up to 33rd street, through Times Square and Herald Square, back to Penn Station to catch the train back to Madison. Mobs of people everywhere - most of them stressed! We were pleased with ourselves that we had no problems with the public transportation.
 Dinner tonight at our favorite old haunt, the Nautilus Diner. We decided we could probably live in Madison as it meets all our criteria, but its incredibly expensive!

John McGrath and Lisa Angeline

Our trip so far- half way there?