There's no crying on vacation!

But there were definitely tears on my vacation, and with good reason.  In fact, I'm not sure why I seemed to be the only person crying.  Too bad my friend Brantley wasn't with me; I at least could have shared the tears with someone.

Russell and I visited the 9/11 memorial.  The museum is currently being built around the only remaining evidence of the twin towers...a steel beam coming up through the ground.  In this picture, look very closely behind the glass, and you can see a brown structure in the middle - that's the beam.

The two waterfalls that cascade where the twin towers stood are very powerful.  All the visitors were very respectful.  There were yellow roses randomly wedged into the names that were etched into the stone.  Something that really struck me was how calm the waters were in some parts of the waterfall and then violently cascaded down the sides.  

The Freedom Tower was beautiful, and you could see it all over town:

(see reflection on lower left):

Paying respect to groups and individuals:

And this is what completely sent me over the edge...if I had been alone, I wouldn't even have tried to hold it together.  Do yourself (and me) a favor, and click on these pictures to enlarge them.