My wife and I are spending a long weekend in New York City this weekend. I wouldn’t want to live here, but I sure love visiting Manhattan. It is beautiful, exciting, unique and ecclectic everywhere you turn.

Our hotel happened to be immediately across from the World Trade Center site (top photo, from our hotel room on the 46th floor), where construction is taking place around the clock to build the new Freedom Tower and the 9/11 memorial. You can see the foundation of the Freedom Tower beginning to rise on the right in the photo, and some of the surviving WTC buildings are in the backrgound. One of the footprints of the Twin Towers is discernible on the left side of the photo. Both footprints will be preserved as reflecting pools that will be part of the memorial.

Though I’ve visited the WTC site twice before, it was a little peculiar at first to be staying right next to the location of such a horrible tragedy. As the hours have passed since we arrived Thursday evening, though, seeing everyone else nearby going about their business and their daily lives has made the scene feel more ordinary.

I also had the chance to walk over to the Brooklyn Bridge, which is a few blocks from our hotel. Having walked across the Golden Gate Bridge before, I’m not sure I’ve ever given this famed Manhattan landmark more than a passing glance when spotting it from a distance. That was a mistake. I walked out to the first tower on the bridge (bottom photo) yesterday, and it was breaktaking. Seeing the beauty of the bridge itself and then taking in the view of the rest of Manhattan was stunning. It was a perfect sunny day, and there were pedestrians and cyclists everywhere. I felt like I was a small part of a huge mass of life crisscrossing all at once, and I am thrilled to have had the experience. It’s another good reminder that there is just nothing in the world quite like New York City.