Howdy y’all! Been a bit of a weird month for me. Trying to keep busy and keep my head down y’know. I’ll probably make a little wrap-up video just so all the footage doesn’t go to waste; I have a lot of little clips that are fun :)

Anyways! Todays plan was to go get a good little starter pack for some isopods with a quick detour beforehand to Liberty State Park since we were already in the area. Ryan sent me a little guy to bring place(s) so I figured we could make a quick pit stop. About a 30 minute drive later we ended up at Liberty Park.

About the Empty Sky Memorial:

The ‘Empty Sky’ 9/11 Memorial is the official State of New Jersey Memorial that honors the memory of the 750 people that lived in or had ties to New Jersey that lost their lives at the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and Shanksville, PA on September 11, 2001

The names are placed randomly on the twin brushed stainless steel walls. Individuals’ names (4 inches tall) are within reach and engraved deep enough for hand rubbing. The memorial, designed by Jessica Jamroz and Frederic Schwartz, was dedicated on September 11, 2011, the 10-year anniversary.

The brushed stainless steel twin walls are 210 feet long, the width of each side of the World Trade Center Towers. They rise 30 feet, standing parallel to each other with a 12-foot wide paved path of bluestone between them. Like the World Trade Center, the stainless steel reflects the constantly changing light of day. The memorial invites visitors to literally and metaphorically look toward the empty sky in memory and look forward as a community. ¹

When we pulled up to the Empty Sky Memorial, I saw the pieces of steel beam from the World Trade Center. The vibes were heavy. I’m not normally one to believe in spirituality kind of stuff but man it hit different seeing an actual piece from the tragedy. As usual, an occasional tourist taking a smiling family picture with the pieces and the walls of the memorial but that’s a given. Still weird to me, and I don’t think that’ll ever change. To each their own though… 🤷‍♀️

When I was getting out of the car, I realized I couldn’t find the bunny :( I PANICKED, realizing that I had lost him. Guess this will be a short trip since the photo op was the main point.

What was cool was seeing the history Central Railroad of New Jersey Terminal (CRRNJ), even though it wasn’t open due to the ferry being closed. Some info about that:

From 1892 through 1954, the CRRNJ Terminal stood with the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island to unfold one of this nation’s most dramatic stories: the immigration of northern, southern and eastern Europeans, among others, into the United States. After being greeted by the Statue of Liberty and processed at Ellis Island, these immigrants purchased tickets and boarded trains at the Terminal that took them to their new homes throughout the United States. To learn more about the CRRNJ’s history, visit the Historic CRRNJ Train Terminal site. ¹

Facade of the CRRNJ

Interior views of the CRRNJ

The ferry to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island apparently closes on the NJ side in the winter (this started after a hurricane flooded the shit out of the facility some years ago) so I just poked around the grounds for a little bit so the trip wasn’t a total wash. It was weird seeing a tourist destination totally devoid of people; it felt almost liminal. Took some quick photos and headed back to the car.

Next up: ISOPODS! We went to a newer and smaller shop that we hadn’t been to before, Exotics and Aquatics in Bayonne. Was a bit of trouble getting the wheelchair in, but we got to talk to the owner for a bit and she was very kind !! Her dog was just hanging out with the biggest tegu I’ve ever seen in my LIFE, one of the birds was just hanging out outside of his cage. Very cool store :^)

We got about 40 assorted isopods; mostly powder orange, but also a few HUGE giant canyons! I’ve had a lot of fun getting their enclosure set up. Their substrate is currently some CVG mix we had leftover from some mushroom projects. We also got crickets for Felix that day on the way home @ Petsmart after going to Blaze Pizza… Felix LOVED the crickets but we won’t be doing that again anytime soon. He had fun batting them around and cronching them but it gave me the jeebies having crickets. Also at Petsmart I got some superworms I’m hoping to pupate into darkling beetles and breed them, but we’ll see how that goes!

That’s it for now! Cheers :)

-A