Happily Ever After: Fall Tour of New England

We just wrapped up our second week of our Fall Tour of New England. WOW! I don't think my pictures do it justice, but at least you can have an idea of what we saw.

We started with a full day in NYC - our favorite city to visit. We spent time shopping - Bloomingdale's, Tiffany's, FAO Schwartz, to name some of our favorite spots. And yes, we started our Christmas shopping!!!

Then we went down to the financial district. Steve had never been in that part of Manhattan before, and neither of us had been since 9/11. Here are a few pics:

Steve in front of the New York Stock Exchange:

The famous bull - notice all of the Chinese people who were taking their own photos with the bull. Seriously, just how much of that bull is going to show up in your picture when you're taking a self-portrait that close? There were so many Chinese people surrounding it, that we couldn't get any closer to take a better picture.

Then we headed over to Ground Zero, if you can still call it that. It is no longer just a giant whole in the ground. It is full of construction, and it's difficult to get close enough to take a picture. The city is definitely rebuilding.

These pictures were taken through a small whole in the fence.

The construction dumpsters are all painted with a reminder of why they are there.
Yes, I know, I took a picture of a garbage dumpster; but in this case, I truly believe it's art.

And there are still crosses and other monuments made from the remnants of the WTC that line the streets near the construction site.

Steve's First Officer for the week experienced and survived 9/11. He told Steve all about it. Hopefully Steve will be able to share that with you within the next week or two. Even though it seems at times like it happened so long ago - it seems like it could never happen again - it happened. It happened here. And we must never forget!

Our day in NYC included lunch at the Hard Rock Cafe in Times Square. (And for those interested in pop culture, yes, we saw the Naked Cowboy. He's not all that impressive.) We had dinner at our favorite pizza place in Little Italy - Rudy's. We sat on the sidewalk patio and enjoyed a perfectly beautiful evening while we ate our pizza. We had a fabulous time!

Then we were off to New Hampshire. We stayed at a beautiful inn. They have a really nice courtyard with trees and a pond filled with koi. Steve just had to take this picture of the sign posted above the pond.

Our favorite part of this sign is "if you must make a wish". Seriously, are there people out there who MUST make a wish?! (Those of our readers with three-year-old boys may indeed know of someone who MUST make a wish! lol)

Once again, we took a road trip. We went from New Hampshire to Vermont. It was raining, and most of the pictures were taken from the car; but here are some New Hampshire pics:

Then we crossed over into Vermont - which I must say is the most gorgeous place we visited this year. We even had to pull over a few times to take some pictures.