Ground Zero

          I took the ferry across the Hudson River from Hoboken to the World Financial Center in Lower Manhattan at 12:30 PM today with a new friend from Norway and her son. I had originally planned to just take them to the ferry terminal and point them in the right direction, but the sun was shining ... and I love the trip ... so I went along and ushered them across the river, past Ground Zero, and down Broadway to Trinity Church at Wall Street. From there I sent them toward Battery Park at the southern end of the island and I retreated to the World Trade Center Path Station and the next train back to Hoboken.
          We had caught the 11:17 AM New Jersey Transit train from Maplewood to Hoboken with its train station adjoining the ferry terminal on the Hudson River. We had walked from the house in Maplewood to its train station in a hurried twelve minutes.
          Returning to Hoboken alone after escorting my visitors to the heart of the financial district, I paused and thought for a moment how ordinary the trip had become.