Thursday is my last full day before the conference, Hope 2026, at the New Yorker Hotel, starts. I rose, as usual when in this time zone, at 6 and watched the sun rise over NYC, with a view of the Empire State and Chrysler buildings from my single window in my room on the 33rd floor of the hotel. I embrace jet lag and know that I am not here long enough to swing into the local time. I travel to the East often now and know what to expect.
I write the blog as my window shows NYC changing colors at sunrise. It was a busy day yesterday, and it took me a few hours to finish the story. It is August in NYC, and it is hot and sticky with travelers everywhere. My hotel is full of folks who, in the heat, show that less clothing is more. This is not Oregon T-shirts and come-as-you-are, but careful summer fashions that better fit The Devil Wears Prada in August NYC heat.
That is, until we computer people showed up with dark, weird T-shirts and mismatched, non-fashion shorts. And many of us Hope 2026 folks look uneasy in social settings. Nobody owns the room when they walk in.
I finish the blog as it gets near 9, get a shower, and pick another UFO Festival shirt (which also gets lots of comments like yesterday) to wear. I take my voucher and have another coffee, juice, and a bagel for breakfast at Tick-Tock, the 24-hour diner off the lobby. From there, I head back into the city.
There is a subway entrance for the E train against the hotel, and I climb down the steps, scan my phone to pay the $3 fee, and find my way to the correct platform to head downtown to the World Trade Center. I have more than an hour before my VIP ($85) access to the One World Observatory. I walk to the footprint of the lost towers, and sadness is nearly overwhelming. For me now, Death is serious business, and while I did not know anyone who died on September 11th, I know people whose bosses died on the Boston-headed flight. Still, the space has become more of a park than a memorial, and I like the change.
I tried the Oculus building and walked through the mall inside, enjoying taking my time and following signs to locate my tour, which starts locally. The building is white and seems pure. It seems to say it is OK now, and the space has been reclaimed for the future. Enjoy! I walked it twice after checking in for my tour and was told to return before my tour. I also walk the park outside.
I get some coffee after seeing the river, then connect to another mall via an underground passage. It is a pleasant long walk. Ryan is our tour leader, and there are just three of us. A young California gal with her cousin or brother from Utah. The kid would be nearly bored to death. Ryan covers the tower construction, and soon we are in the “fastest elevator in NYC,” with the kid discovering that it is hard, nearly impossible, to jump in the speeding elevator. Its walls are a movie of the city’s growth.
The view is 360 on the 101st floor with huge, clean windows. No outside here. I think the view is better from the Empire State Building’s outdoor observation deck (and the extra cost for spire access is about the same). Still, it is impressive, and I enjoy Ryan pointing out various buildings, including the Leaning Building, now dressed in graffiti at the top. I read more about it (leaning now, reportedly a full foot, and facing demolition).
I have $15 to spend, and my $30 lunch of grab-and-go and stand-and-eat tables has a view of New Jersey. I would have preferred Manhattan. The restaurant with coffee tables and chairs does not open until 2. There is no chandelier to show the building swaying with free drinks when it tilts far; at least that is my memory of the bar at the top of the lost towers, which I never visited. Ryan said this new tower only sways a few inches.
WTC2 has started, and a new huge tower will be finished in the 2030s. It is just a single story of cement base now. Ryan had pictures and pointed out Trinity Church, which will not be visible soon, as the new tower will be just below the eye line of this observatory. Ryan tells us about the two churches visible and mentions that Alexander Hamilton is buried at Trinity. I decide to visit Mr. Hamilton. I tip Ryan with a portrait of Alexander.
Pencils at the Observatory are less than $1 each, but the T-shirt is not cheap. The salesperson asks me if I have my voucher left, and I tell her, “Oh, I ate that,” which gets a laugh. I tell her that pencils at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library cost $1.50 and that they should raise their prices. More laughs. I find my way to the restroom and think about how far that has to go while I complete that process.
The elevator screens are a flyover, and I have to grab the walls as the strange flying feeling in that fast elevator (41 seconds to travel 1,700+ feet down) makes me stumble. Wow! I wanted to take that again!
I walk the three blocks to Trinity. I find my way into the graveyard and can’t find Alexander. I talk to a friendly docent who points out that Alexander’s wife’s sister (one of the Schuyler sisters) has a simple stone. “You would think she deserves something better,” the docent shares. I walk out as directed, pass the church entrance, see there is a line, and walk into the other graveyard. There I find the grave and some others. His wife, Eliza, another Schuyler sister, outlived Alexander Hamilton and spent her years helping people and even getting the Washington Monument (she knew the man) finished; she is buried with him, along with some of his sons. After the musical and all the reading I have done, it was nice to finally get a bit closer to Hamilton.
Wall Street begins at Trinity Church, and I walked past the NYSE and, as Deborah said, waved to our money. It was 3-ish now, and I took the 4 train back to the hotel. I then showered and rested for a few hours. I then headed to the second floor, got my badge for Hope 2026, and met a few people I remember. Frank had a working gaming console; he is from a local hacker space (they actually rolled the machine onto the subway). He and others had learned electronics and then built a coding framework to build games. They are hopeful of finding some graybeards to port some old games to their platform, or find some new coders who want to try it out. Frank opened the back and showed us how they created a USB-to-VGA converter. It was surface-mount, too.
I stayed in the lobby and chatted with a few folks here and there, a few I remembered or remembered me. Kat was there at 7:30, and I had an idea for dinner. We walked ten blocks to El Forno: Hell’s Kitchen (though it is not really there, as that is four or five blocks away). I wanted Italian, and Kat agreed. I had the fixed-price dinner and Kat had a pasta meal (she shared a taste of my salad and more than a taste of my dessert). Sam was our waiter and helped us pick out our items. All was great, and the taste was sort of smoky with a hint of spices.
With dinner mostly inside us (Kat took some home), we walked back to the hotel, and Kat then went off to catch her train and sent me a note that she was home. I returned to the 33rd-floor meeting, met more folks for the conference, and learned that the party at the Irish place was good. I had skipped it to see Kat. Kat is available this weekend, but I am busy into the evening each day. We might connect on Sunday, or if I feel I need a break and she is free.
BTW: Kat works for Buck and enjoys her work. Her company is keeping up with AI trends, and she feels safe as both an artist and a technologist.
I was able to sleep well, woke just before sunrise, and managed to roll over again. It seemed to be a dreamless sleep. I was stiff from walking 5 miles and 7 miles the day before.
Thanks for reading!
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