Yesterday was our last day even partially in NYC. Our train to Miami was scheduled at 11 AM, but before that had two last adventures in the city.

First, we shoved all our clothes back in our bags and headed out from the Edyfi location we stayed at (thanks for having us, Ben & Luke)! On our way to the subway, we got proper New York bagels on my mom’s recommendation:

The main secret seems to be having a ton of cream cheese. When having bagels normally, it feels extravagant to put enough spread on so that I can’t see the bagel through it. They really take it to another level here, though—the bagel : cream cheese ratio is ~1:1 (we think they put about 1/4 lb on each). Very delicious!

After that, we headed south to the tip of Manhattan again for a pre-opening tour of the 9/11 Museum & Memorial (the only time that fit into our schedule this week). It was quite emotional and super educational—I’ve been there before to walk and read, while Mattea experienced it all for the first time. Definitely go if you ever can!

There’s no need for yet another picture of Freedom Tower or the 9/11 Memorial here; we all know what those look like. Instead, here’s “The Oculus,” the WTC’s transit center / luxury shopping mall combo, which is quite striking and mostly underground:

And then we scurried out, hopped on a subway, restocked on water at the station (thanks for the collapsible 3L bottle, Dad, it’s really coming in handy), and were off on the “Silver Star” to our next adventure in Miami!

In the early afternoon, we had a brief layover in DC—but sadly not long enough to go see the National Mall. Can’t wait to be exploring all these museums in two weeks!

(Also, I’m writing this on… Amtrak_WiFi! The legends are true, it’s sometimes actually possible to connect to the Internet without a hotspot onboard 🤯)

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