OT: September 11, 2001... Where were you?

[judsonhamlin]

My wife, daughter and I were on vacation in Spain. I remember looking at a TV as we were walking out the door from this great roadside restaurant in the Picos de Europa and seeing a building on fire, but it didn't connect. About an hour or two later, we arrived at our hotel in Potes, which is a remote village in the mountains and it was on the tv in the bar. Everyone was amazing to the three of us and the rest of the day was a blur. Our daughter was less than two and we tried to be strong for her, and took her to a carnival where we met up with a young Spanish couple who literally led us around for the rest of the day. The rest of the trip was spent trying to connect with friends and family ( from NJ here) and wondering what was next. The feeling of being so disconnected from the events was (and still is) difficult to explain.

[bigfanNY]

On a train headed into NYC for a meeting at World Financial center. When it pulled out of linden you could see the towers and black smoke was pouring out of one. I called my wife and she turned on the TV and it said a plane had crashed into the WTC. Saw second plane hit and everyone on plane was crying out of concern for folks they knew. When train got into Penn Station I walked right down and got on a train going back home ( I was told the last to leave Penn station that morning) When the train came out of the tunnel one tower was already down the second collapsed before we reached Newark. I had finished a project on the 40th Floor of one WTC on August 27th. I have never looked at the city the same way since. Now when I go to city I drive in. Sad day