9/11 in New York: Munching, Museums, Memorials

So our hotel was very close to the World Trade Center. Very, very close. While I was showering, the fire alarm went off. On September 11th. It was a test. Who tests the fire alarm system in a hotel in that location on that day?

Anyway, after getting ready I left to meet my friend (DP hereafter) for lunch in the Upper West Side. I've never seen as many on duty police officers in one place at one time before. Around our hotel and the neighborhood in general there were easily two per block. Every block. Pretty strange to see, but not that surprising.

DP and I decided to wait for Grace to finish work, so killed the time by grabbing a beer. A nearby bar seemed appealing in that it was implicitly vouched for by the two dozen firefighters there. We didn't take into account that this made us by far the least important customers. Oh well.

Once Grace arrived we set off in search of lunch. Ended up deciding on Jacob's Pickles. The website bills it as "a new American craft experience," which probably tells you everything you need to know: hip to the point of satire (of course you'll be drinking out of mason jars). Shamefully, this is pretty much right up my alley, despite not liking pickles much. I got draft root beer, something featuring fried chicken and deliciousness in equal amounts, and we all split a bunch of pickled veggies of various types. The pickles were tasty but formidable in quantity. It's hard to eat a whole lot of pickles.

I wasn't kidding.

I wasn't kidding.

After lunch, DP had to attend to some chemistry, so Grace and I went on our way to the Museum of Modern Art. It was awesome; I wish we could have spent more time there. I generally think taking pictures of existing art can be a bit silly (as I assume it's better documented elsewhere), but I snapped a few from our trip.

The MoMA gift shop is almost as awesome as the museum itself. We did indeed exit through it. The rest of the evening was hanging out with family. Got to catch a glimpse of a 9/11 memorial, though.

Hard to see from this angle, but there are actually two separate beams of light.

Hard to see from this angle, but there are actually two separate beams of light.