Monday, November 30-The American Girl Cafe

Evie was 4 years old yesterday. Hard to believe that 4 years ago I was spending the month of December in Honolulu. (Thank you Sara and Matt for that memorable experience) On Monday, Sara and I took her to the American Girl Store at the Easton Mall and had a birthday celebration for Evie and her doll Kanani. We had a great lunch complete with a beautiful birthday cake and then of course we had to shop.  A.J. was quite the trooper and slept through the entire lunch and most of the shopping. What a wonderful way to top off our Thanksgiving weekend.

Evelyn Leah Neufarth, December 2, 2011

Matt returning home after his deployment 2012

That was then, this is now.

Evie with her new Maryellen doll.

Happy Birthday, Evie!!

Last Photos of our NYC Trip

Finally got my desktop back in working order and thought I would take a few minutes to finish the photos from our NYC trip.  I believe I left off on Tuesday which was a great day, weather was fantastic and we crammed so much into one day that we barely could open the door to our hotel room before we crashed into bed.
Wednesday morning we were up fairly early to try and get out of the city and on our way home.  Sharon was a wiz driving the busy narrow streets of the city and before we knew it we were in Jersey. Our plan was to have time to stop at the Flight 93 Memorial near Shanksville, Pa.  After exiting, it was about a 40 minute drive to the Memorial but if you are ever near the area you should definitely make it a priority stop.  It is so well done and as I talked with the rangers they said that it has been very busy with a high attendance rate considering how far out in the country it is located. Once again, as with our entire trip, the weather was perfect for early November.  I will let the photos speak for themselves. 40 passengers on flight #93 lost their lives on 9/11 but they were certainly not victims, they were instead Heros on an Uncommon Field.  There have been several books written about this flight and I hope to read them.  One is titled, An Uncommon Field by Richard Snodgrass.

The park entrance

This granite walkway to the visitors center is the flight path of the plane before it crashed

The Memorial is all about the passengers and other than this diagram showing the seats where the terrorist were seated, the terrorists were not mentioned in any of the exhibits.

There were news broadcasts, several phone messages from passengers to their family and many personal items on display.  All very moving and a testament to their courage

The Memorial is designed to make your eye follow the flight of the plane to it's final resting place.

Sharon and I made the 1/4 mile walk down to the crash site where the names of the passengers are engraved on a marble wall that is lit at night by small solar lights placed in front of each name.

In the distance, near the tree line is the crash site. It is marked with a large boulder

The crash site

The Memorial Wall and you can see the Visitors Center in the upper right .

Friday, November 20- Pics from New York

I had every intention of catching up with the blog when I got home but it seems that I spent time catching up with other things and then my computer crashed and I had to take it in to get a new internal hard drive.  Any who, here is the rest of our trip in a photo essay.  Tuesday we were up bright and early, Sharon's favorite time of the day and we were on the first bus to downtown Manhattan and Battery Park.  Today we saw the Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island, learned that you can't get pepperoni on Kosher pizza, visited the 9/11 Museum and went to the top of the One World Tower.  12 hours and 7 miles later we crashed in our room!

Securing our seats on the Gray Line bus

The Empire State building in the distance

We passed it but never made it inside the store

The weather could not have been better.

Battery Park

The dock heading towards the ferry

Lady Liberty

The Great Hall where all the emigrants would wait to be checked into the country. It involved a cursory physical and an interview. John Bichler arrived here in 1930, he worked various jobs in NYC, one being an elevator operator, before moving to New Jersey where he used his trade as a machinist to work at Ingersoll Rand as well as farming.

The stairs the emigrants would descend, on the right to New York/New Jersey, the left to all other states and the center steps led to the hospital for quarantine or perhaps to be sent back to Europe.

The NYC skyline from the ferry, you can see the One World Tower in the distance.

The 9/11 Memorial

Inside the 9/11 Museum, it is massive and well worth the time it takes to visit

The flag that flew over the destroyed towers during the recovery. It has since visited every state where it was repaired with flags from that state. Very symbolic of how the country came together following 9/11.

A make-shift memorial from post 9/11 that had been covered with photos and mementos.

The entrance to the One World Tower

Our timing could not have been better.  When we got to the top the sun was just beginning to set.  We could see the Statue of Liberty in the distance.

Looking towards Upper Manhattan

Riding the bus back in NYC traffic. Something about the lights kept my adrenaline pumping the entire time I was in NYC