NYC photos

Our last day in NY we started at Battery Park to see the Statue of Liberty. From there we casually wandered over to the WTC site. Along the way we found a great street fair where grace had chocolate covered strawberries on a stick and Nick befriended a NYPD officer. When the guy found out what Nick did he sent him to his precinct to have a look around. It was really cool. When the guys there met Nick they sent him upstairs to the NYPD bomb squad!
Afterwards, we headed BACK to Chinatown for a bit more shopping! From there we walked up to Little Italy. I loved it there. I ate the entire time! I really liked all the shops with hand made fresh mozzarella, parmaggiana, proscuttio...it was heaven! This was the best cannoli I've ever eaten!


After dinner we went back to the hotel. Mom and Grace stayed at the hotel to pack while Nick and I went for a tour of the NYPD Emergency Services Unit!!! When the bomb squad guys heard what all Nick did in Iraq, they told him he had to go to the ESU and meet those guys. They made a phone call and got us in to their unit. This is a very elite unit of NYPD officers that handle all high level emergency situations. These guys are some of the most highly trained officers that I've ever met. They are all scuba certified so they can fish people out of the Hudson, they are all trained to repel off skyscrapers and rescue window washers or they said they weekly repel off the Brooklyn Bridge to rescue some EDP who wants to jump. They handle HazMat situations, can use the jaws of life in car wrecks, they carry thermal imaging stuff to hunt for people trapped in wreckage....it goes on and on. Definately New York's Finest!! I learned alot about the NYPD. All of it great except the fact that a beginning officer in NY makes $25,000 a year! They haven't had a contract in 3 years!! There is NO way they can live on that expecially in NYC!! In my opinion, that is an embarrasment to the ciy of NY. They were 3000 officers short last year in their recruiting. Yes, I plan to write a letter to Michael Bloomberg!


We all had a WONDERFUL trip and Grace is already talking about what she'll see on Broadway on her next visit! I "had" to buy a Burberry duffel to get all our purchases home in and about midnight we were out on Times Square looking for Nick another carryon to get all his stuff home!

Blessings,

Leslie