We talked with cops and funeral directors and grieving spouses and little kids and a guy with a python around his neck.<\/p>\n
They all told us a lot of stuff, but it boiled down to this:<\/p>\n
Our collective loss was more than anybody could possibly imagine, much less explain.<\/p>\n
But we noticed something else back then, too, even as we drove.<\/p>\n
The post-attack America of late 2001, just 10 months removed from a razor-close election, wasn\u2019t in a mood to squabble.<\/p>\n
Democrats, Republicans, tweeners, people who don\u2019t vote, people who can\u2019t vote, people of all cultural and economic leanings; everybody agreed on a few things \u2013 America is a cool country, we really hate that bin Laden guy, and we love firefighters, cops and everybody else willing to risk their lives for others.<\/p>\n
Flags weren\u2019t political. Politics wasn\u2019t tribal. Decency felt normal.<\/p>\n
That America didn\u2019t last, of course, but it was real at the time. We saw it.<\/p>\n
So, what happened?<\/p>\n
![\"Jeff](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/OCR-L-911TRIP-WRAP-0913-18.jpeg\")
Jeff Gritchen, Andre Mouchard and Sierra van der Brug, of the Southern California News Group in New York City on Friday, September 11, 2026. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register\/SCNG)<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
That question is part of what prompted our bosses \u2013 now with the Southern California News Group \u2013 to send a new(ish) team out of town to update the 2001 story.<\/p>\n
Photographer Jeff Gritchen and reporter Sierra van der Brug joined Mouchard this time<\/a>. We spent nine days driving from Southern California to Newark, New Jersey (we took a clueless Uber into Manhattan), stopping at Sept. 11 memorials along the way. We logged more than 65 hours and 45 minutes in our vehicle (a rented Jeep) and covered 3,593 miles. We didn\u2019t fight, though the return traveler whined semi-frequently.<\/p>\n We missed pythons, but we did catch up with librarians and Steelers fans and an Indian-American guy who lifts a lot of weight, among others. We shot video, took photos and wrote stories about every day of the trip.<\/a><\/p>\n And before we flew home Saturday, we learned this: A lot of the Americans we talked with think common ground is still possible, maybe. Others do not.<\/p>\n But all of them \u2013 of all political stripes \u2013 want the \u201cUnited\u201d part of our nation\u2019s name to make a comeback.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019d love to live in that country,\u201d said Kamir Badal, a 48-year-old restaurant owner from Cheyenne, Wyoming.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019d love to show that country to my kids.\u201d<\/p>\n Here are some of the trip\u2019s greatest hits:<\/p>\n We\u2019re staring at the fake flame held by the fake Statue of Liberty in front of the New York-New York Hotel & Casino<\/a>, a gloriously fake version of New York City.<\/p>\n We\u2019re clocking that the blue-ish rubber turf that stands in for New York Harbor is wearing thin, and that even guys dressed as cartoon characters (Donald Duck and Mickey Mouse) make U-turns to avoid this place.<\/p>\n Which stinks.<\/p>\n We\u2019re here because this place is sacred, kind of. It\u2019s the spot where thousands of people \u2013 tourists and locals alike, sober and otherwise \u2013 once created what was in the running to be the world\u2019s biggest spontaneous memorial.<\/p>\n Starting minutes after the attacks and carrying on for a couple years, people brought all manner of nonsense to lay down at faux Lady Liberty; plastic flowers, shot glasses, T-shirts, at least one pair of barbecue tongs. They did it as a way to pay real tribute to real people who really died.<\/p>\n And as it grew, the small mountain of tchotchkes became the most authentic thing in a pretend town.<\/p>\n But it\u2019s gone. The only reminder that it was ever here is a solid, seriously gray plaque. It\u2019s on a fence, but set low enough that unless you\u2019re a little kid you need to bend down to read it.<\/p>\n But part of the message is interesting, maybe as cool as the plastic baby feet somebody once tossed on the pile.<\/p>\n \u201cOur World Changed Forever on September 11, 2001. The people of our nation demonstrated strength and resilience, as well as love and compassion for our fellow man\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n Think about that. We honored people who died trying to rescue others as \u201cheroes,\u201d and that was apt. But love? That\u2019s apt, too. Heroes often risk their lives \u2013 or lose them \u2013 simply because they love others enough to do it.<\/p>\n \u201cLove\u201d isn\u2019t the word most people link to Sept. 11. Leave it to gamblers and drunks and waitresses and cabbies to break the mold.<\/p>\n Day 2: Murray, Utah<\/p>\n Whoops.<\/p>\n We\u2019ve driven several hundred miles to Murray, a pretty town about 15 miles south of Salt Lake City. But we\u2019re learning that the people who supposedly oversee Murray\u2019s Sept. 11 memorial can\u2019t find it<\/a>.<\/p>\n A nice, capable guy who works at the amphitheater in Murray Park, Robert Wyss, expresses a bit of guilt about this.<\/p>\n \u201cI probably should know where it is.\u201d<\/p>\n So he makes some calls. And, soon, the mystery is solved: They used to have one, but it\u2019s gone.<\/p>\n Why?<\/p>\n The words.<\/p>\n The message on the plaque that\u2019s no longer around began like this:<\/p>\n \u201cOn September 11, 2001, a handful of men put their beliefs on the line in a stand for terrorism. As a result, the discarding of their lives cost the lives of thousands of world citizens\u2026 \u201c<\/p>\n Those words were not intended to be pro-terror \u2013 c\u2019mon, it was part of a Sept. 11 memorial. But they are less than clear. And if you squint hard, you can read them as not quite anti-terror enough.<\/p>\n Anyway, some vandals in town did, in fact, read it that way. And they were so persistent in desecrating the memorial that, eventually, an exasperated park supervisor hauled the whole thing off. The de-installation, we were told, happened in \u201cthe dead of night.\u201d<\/p>\n For us, the Murray bench incident hints at something sad:<\/p>\n The unity that America felt after Sept. 11 was driven by a lot of shared feelings, including anger. But over the years, as some of those feelings faded \u2013 things like sympathy and solidarity \u2013 the anger stuck around.<\/p>\n For a time, anyway.<\/p>\n Day 3: Cheyenne, Wyoming<\/p>\n Badal, the restaurant owner,\u00a0wears a turban in public, always, even when he lifts weights. And, right now, as the sun rises and the inside of this shockingly clean Planet Fitness heats up, the headwear is getting a little moist.<\/p>\n No matter. Badal pushes more than 300 pounds off his chest. He does this silently, not even breathing hard. He\u2019s a beast.<\/p>\n As I ask him about the turban and about people\u2019s responses to it, and about the prospect for unity in post-Sept. 11 America, Badal nods a little and stacks weights for his next exercise, apparently a leg press.<\/p>\n \u201cI moved to the United States a few years after (Sept. 11). And some people gave me (grief) about the turban,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cI didn\u2019t live here before that, so I don\u2019t know how it would have been, but I\u2019ve always thought that was because they thought I\u2019m one of the terrorists.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m brown. I have a turban. To some people, it makes sense.<\/p>\n \u201cBut you should know that was never most people. Or even a lot,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n \u201cJust some.\u201d<\/p>\n He moved to Cheyenne, from Texas, about four years ago, and since then he\u2019s noticed two things about what he hopes is his forever home.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is a super conservative place, politically. And I kind of thought the turban would be a thing, you know?. But it\u2019s not. I can\u2019t recall a single incident. And I don\u2019t think twice about my kids going to school, either. People here are very kind.\u201d<\/p>\n And the other thing?<\/p>\n \u201cMaybe it\u2019s not just Cheyenne,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cMaybe it\u2019s just time. Maybe people are letting it go.\u201d<\/p>\n Red Rocks Amphitheatre, this high-altitude music venue with 70 rows of seats that climb more than 100 feet straight up, hosts an annual Sept. 11, 110-story \u201cstair\u201d (it\u2019s actually the seats) climb. It\u2019s a tribute to the firefighters who died in the Twin Towers<\/a>.<\/p>\n But, until then, Red Rocks is a very public workout zone.<\/p>\n Dozens of lycra-clad men and women run, skip and crawl up and down the 70 rows, huffing in the thin air (we\u2019re at 6,450 feet). Non-exercisers stand around and watch, sometimes clapping. Exercisers stand around, too, between sets, gawking at each other. And, clearly, some want to be gawked at.<\/p>\n Enter Emmy Agustin, a first-timer to Red Rocks who, since getting here just after breakfast, has gone native.<\/p>\n She might be the most popular person here. She schmoozes new friends, moving from group to group. She grins. She listens. She lets her easy laugh rise over the sweaty hum.<\/p>\n But she\u2019s not always this festive. At 41, the Hawaii native who now lives in Aurora, Colorado, holds a job, flight attendant, that\u2019s linked, probably forever, to Sept. 11.<\/p>\n Three years ago this week, she was one of four people chosen to represent her union, the Association of Flight Attendants, at a ceremony in Washington, D.C., to honor the 25 flight attendants who died in the attacks.<\/p>\n It was a somber event, and Agustin doesn\u2019t seem to do somber.<\/p>\n But she is smart, and she has some thoughts about what she did.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was just a flower that we each put down on the tarmac, but it really meant something. It was important.\u201d<\/p>\n When asked about Sept. 11 and whether we can get back to the unity that came after, she offers what she concedes is an unusual opinion.<\/p>\n \u201cWe should be grateful. Obviously, not about what happened on Sept. 11; it was a terrible thing,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd I\u2019m not talking about the victims\u2019 families or anything. That\u2019s different.<\/p>\n \u201cBut most of us should be grateful because of what it did later. The terror didn\u2019t make us break apart. It did the opposite.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd I totally think that\u2019s still possible again,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n \u201cActually, I know it is.\u201d<\/p>\n Twenty-five years ago, as they watched TV and saw big planes crash over and over into a big city, leaders of this tiny, wheat-farming town had the same thought that millions of other Americans were having:<\/p>\n How can we help?<\/p>\n In the end, Anthony, Kansas, population 2,108<\/a>, went micro, channeling all of the town\u2019s effort to help the family of a single fallen firefighter, Joe Spor. The son of a firefighter, Spor, 35, was a member of an elite rescue squad when he died. He left a wife and four kids.<\/p>\n It\u2019s unclear if Anthony\u2019s bake sales and other fundraisers brought in big money. It apparently was enough to help the kids.<\/p>\n But the town\u2019s kindness was sincere and powerful.<\/p>\n It was powerful enough, in fact, that New York-area fire officials have come out to Anthony several times over the years. And, if history is a guide, some people from town are likely to be in touch \u2013 yet again \u2013 with FDNY sometime this week.<\/p>\n But nobody around here brags about it.<\/p>\n As we sit in our new favorite bar, Idle Hour, in downtown Anthony, the bartenders and patrons talk about how the new Kansas weather pattern (it\u2019s more than 100 degrees today, same as it\u2019s been for the past several weeks) might be grim for this year\u2019s crops. They talk about schools and real estate. They talk about how almost everybody in town who isn\u2019t in this air-conditioned bar is at a nearby lake.<\/p>\n But they don\u2019t talk \u2013 without prompting \u2013 about the help they provided to Spor\u2019s family, or about the town\u2019s artful Sept. 11 memorial, which stands, unvisited today, in a sun-baked park a few blocks away.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re all just friends now,\u201d said Earl Ratliff, an Anthony resident of an indeterminate age, referencing the town\u2019s connection to New York.<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s just how it worked out.\u201d<\/p>\n Day 6: Oxford, Ohio<\/p>\n \u201cI was eating Cap\u2019n Crunch.\u201d<\/p>\n That\u2019s Chad Bennett\u2019s answer to the inevitable \u201cwhat were you doing when\u201d question about Sept. 11.<\/p>\n The firefighter from Los Angeles was 7 that day. Now, at 32, he\u2019s part of a huge cohort \u2013 more than 1 in 3 Americans \u2013 who either weren\u2019t born or were young children when Sept. 11 supposedly changed everything forever.<\/p>\n Bennett was in New York City when he talked cereal, not here, at the campus of Miami University of Ohio<\/a>. But if he had been here, he would have fit in.<\/p>\n Sept. 11 isn\u2019t a top issue around for these (or, probably, any) students, even as the 25th anniversary draws close. It\u2019s not disrespect. It just reflects growing up in a post-Sept. 11 world. Most Baby Boomers don\u2019t have an emotional connection to Pearl Harbor.<\/p>\n We interviewed a half-dozen students, asking them to sit on a Sept. 11 memorial bench near the school\u2019s fitness center. There\u2019s a plaque on the bench recalling Kelly Booms, a Miami of Ohio grad who died in the attacks, but none of the students knew that before we told them. (To be fair, the plaque is tiny.)<\/p>\n We asked, among other things, how they think their lives are different than they might have been if the attacks hadn\u2019t happened.<\/p>\n They\u2019re less free, they told us; more surveilled. They say their views on politics and culture and religion have been shaped, to some degree, by something that happened just before they were born. But they can\u2019t really say how.<\/p>\n Can anybody?<\/p>\n The park worker here, at the Flight 93 National Memorial, shares the scoop, anonymously, that he stops dancing every time he blows his leaf blower anywhere near the stone that serves as the memorial to the exact spot where Flight 93 crashed<\/a> on Sept. 11. It\u2019s in a field, about a half-mile away from the visitor center, so it\u2019s unclear why it needs protection from leaves, but whatever.<\/p>\n He still wears the headphones, he says, but he doesn\u2019t listen, at least not when he\u2019s near the stone.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s sacred.\u201d<\/p>\n When we check the stone, it does, in fact, look sacred.<\/p>\n Maybe it\u2019s a theme.<\/p>\n The chalk artist who is at this memorial for a special day of chalk artistry \u2013 using photos to paint the faces of two of the 40 people who died when the plane went down (other artists are drawing the other 38) \u2013 picks the same word.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen you do this, and you look at every detail of a person\u2019s face, and you really focus for as long as you have to do to do this, it\u2019s sacred,\u201d said Erika Thurkins, who lives in Pennsylvania.<\/p>\n She picked today\u2019s subjects after reading their profiles, and noted that the woman she\u2019s drawing, Hilda Marcin, was about to move in with a daughter in California when she was killed.<\/p>\n \u201cThere was something about that decision, which wasn\u2019t acted on, that moved me.\u201d<\/p>\n Thurkins noted that recreating the faces, even temporarily, is a step short of keeping them alive. But it\u2019s a small step.<\/p>\n Of her subjects, she said this:<\/p>\n \u201cI listen to them.\u201d<\/p>\n Even the Steelers fans at this site, on this day, are talking spirituality.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have a choice, kind of a sacred one. We can either let this country be as divided as it is, or we can choose to be united again,\u201d said Patti Fitzpatrick, who lives near the site.<\/p>\n \u201cWe don\u2019t have to be subject to this division.\u201d<\/p>\n Hal Mante, and his wife, Joyce Mante, sit on a bench as they look toward the crash site at the Flight 93 National Memorial in Shanksville, PA, on Wednesday, September 9, 2026. Hal Mante, in comparing this memorial to Ground Zero, said New York is more graphic while Shanksville is more peaceful. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register\/SCNG)\n<\/p>\n Items from passengers recovered at the crash site are displayed at the Flight 93 National Memorial in Shanksville, PA, on Wednesday, September 9, 2026. During the Sept. 11 terrorist, American Airlines Flight 93, from Newark to San Francisco, was hijacked. The passengers, hearing about the other attacks, took over the plane and caused the crash in Pennsylvania. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register\/SCNG)\n<\/p>\n Rick Fitzpatrick, left, and his wife, Patti Fitzpatrick, at the Flight Path Overlook at the Flight 93 National Memorial in Shanksville, PA, on Wednesday, September 9, 2026. During the Sept. 11 terrorist, American Airlines Flight 93, from Newark to San Francisco, was hijacked. The passengers, hearing about the other attacks, took over the plane and caused the crash in Pennsylvania. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register\/SCNG)\n<\/p>\n Show Caption<\/p>\n 1 of 3<\/p>\n Hal Mante, and his wife, Joyce Mante, sit on a bench as they look toward the crash site at the Flight 93 National Memorial in Shanksville, PA, on Wednesday, September 9, 2026. Hal Mante, in comparing this memorial to Ground Zero, said New York is more graphic while Shanksville is more peaceful. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register\/SCNG)\n<\/p>\n Expand<\/a> We\u2019ve smelled a lot of weird smells on this trip.<\/p>\n Cheyenne, Wyoming, Dodge City, Kansas, Newark, New Jersey \u2013 the impossibly big cloud of weed we inadvertently ran into in Las Vegas; different cities offered unique and, in several cases, less-than-excellent odors.<\/p>\n And 25 years ago, this place, lower Manhattan, put out its own weird smell.<\/p>\n It was the world\u2019s biggest blown fuse.<\/p>\n The air was powerfully metallic, with a dash of sulphur. Two of the world\u2019s biggest buildings, with all the wiring and piping and insulation that modern buildings employ, had just gone down in flames, so a lingering smell made sense. There was white powder everywhere. It probably added to the smell.<\/p>\n That visit came fewer than 10 days after the attacks, but even then workers cleaning up the rubble weren\u2019t noticing the smell anymore. Or, at least they said they weren\u2019t.<\/p>\n One guy even thought we were being rude when we asked about it.<\/p>\n \u201cExactly what smell are you talking about?\u201d<\/p>\n He said this while wearing a mask that you\u2019d see later, during COVID, but whatever.<\/p>\n Aerias Pinto and her brother, David Pinto, pause during a moment of silence outside FDNY Ladder Company 10 and Engine Company in New York, NY, on September 11, 2026. Their father lost his great grand aunt Susan Pinto during the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. This was the 25th anniversary of the terrorist attack at the World Trade Center, Pentagon and Shanksville, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register\/SCNG)\n<\/p>\n People wait in line to enter the 9\/11 Memorial Pools at Ground Zero in New York, NY, on September 11, 2026. This was the 25th anniversary of the terrorist attack at the World Trade Center, Pentagon and Shanksville, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register\/SCNG)\n<\/p>\n Paul Gasser and his wife, Barbara Gasser, stand at the 9\/11 Memorial Pools in New York, NY, on September 11, 2026. Paul teared up as he remembered his escape from the 51st floor of tower two during the Sept. 1a terrorist attacks. This was the first time he returned to the site since the attacks. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register\/SCNG)\n<\/p>\n Family members arrive at the annual 9\/11 memorial event at Ground Zero in New York, NY, on September 11, 2026. The was the 25th anniversary of the terrorist attack at the World Trade Center, Pentagon and Shanksville, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register\/SCNG)\n<\/p>\n Show Caption<\/p>\n 1 of 4<\/p>\n Aerias Pinto and her brother, David Pinto, pause during a moment of silence outside FDNY Ladder Company 10 and Engine Company in New York, NY, on September 11, 2026. Their father lost his great grand aunt Susan Pinto during the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. This was the 25th anniversary of the terrorist attack at the World Trade Center, Pentagon and Shanksville, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register\/SCNG)\n<\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/OCR-L-911TRIP-WRAP-0913-01.jpg\")
A small plaque tells the story of an impromptu memorial that grew at this spot in front of the New York Hotel & Casino after the September 11 terrorist attacks as people walk past in Las Vegas, NV, on Thursday, September 3, 2026. The artifacts are now at the Special Collections and Archives department at the UNLV Lied Library. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register\/SCNG)
\nDay 1: Las Vegas<\/p>\n![\"Emmy](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/OCR-L-911TRIP-WRAP-0913-03.jpg\")
Emmy Agustin, a flight attendant for United Airlines, after running up the amphitheater at Red Rocks in Morrison, CO, on Saturday, September 5, 2026. Three years ago, Agustin was among four flight attendants picked to represent her profession during a 9\/11 memorial in Washington, D.C. Red Rocks Park & Amphitheatre is the site of the annual Colorado 9\/11 Stair Climb, a charity event honoring heroes and supporting FDNY fundraising efforts. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register\/SCNG)
\nDay 3: Morrison, Colorado<\/p>\n![\"Main](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/OCR-L-911TRIP-WRAP-0913-04.jpg\")
Main Street in Anthony, Kansas, on Sunday, September 6, 2026. The city is home to the state\u2019s official 9\/11 memorial featuring three pieces of twisted steel from the World Trade Center, dirt from the United Airlines Flight 93 crash site and limestone from the Pentagon. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register\/SCNG)
\nDay 4: Anthony, Kansas<\/p>\n![\"Earl](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/OCR-L-911TRIP-WRAP-0913-05.jpg\")
Earl Ratliff has lunch at the Idle Hour bar in Anthony, Kansas, on Sunday, September 6, 2026. The bar, opened in 1878, has hatchet marks in the bar top where famous prohibitionist Carrie Nation smashed alcohol in the early 20th Century, according to bartender Ali Harbin. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register\/SCNG)<\/p>\n![\"Miami](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/OCR-L-911TRIP-WRAP-0913-06.jpg\")
Miami University student Anna Rasmusson, left, Katie VandeWyngearde, both 20, talk about the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks as they sit on a bench dedicated to Kelly Booms in Oxford, OH, on Tuesday, September 8, 2026. Booms, 24, was a graduate of the university and aboard American Airlines Flight 11 when it was crashed in to the North Tower of the World Trade Center. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register\/SCNG)<\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/OCR-L-911TRIP-WRAP-0913-16.jpg\")
A boulder that marks the impact site at the Flight 93 National Memorial in Shanksville, PA, on Wednesday, September 9, 2026. The impact site is closed to the public. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register\/SCNG)
\nDay 7: Shanksville, Pennsylvania<\/p>\n![\"Chalk](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/OCR-L-911TRIP-WRAP-0913-09.jpg\")
Chalk artist Graham Curtis draws Alan Anthony Beaven, a passenger aboard Flight 93, during a live chalk art event at the Flight 93 National Memorial in Shanksville, PA, on Wednesday, September 9, 2026. Twenty chalk artists from across the country drew portraits of passengers and crew along the flight path of Flight 93. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register\/SCNG)<\/p>\n![\"Hal](\"https:\/\/www.ocregister.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/OCR-L-911TRIP-WRAP-0913-17.jpg?w=620\")
<\/p>\n![\"Items](\"https:\/\/www.ocregister.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/OCR-L-911TRIP-WRAP-0913-07.jpg?w=620\")
<\/p>\n![\"Rick](\"https:\/\/www.ocregister.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/OCR-L-911TRIP-WRAP-0913-10.jpg?w=620\")
<\/p>\n
\nDay 9: Manhattan<\/p>\n![\"Aerias](\"https:\/\/www.ocregister.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/OCR-L-911TRIP-WRAP-0913-12.jpeg?w=620\")
<\/p>\n![\"People](\"https:\/\/www.ocregister.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/OCR-L-911TRIP-WRAP-0913-14.jpeg?w=620\")
<\/p>\n![\"Paul](\"https:\/\/www.ocregister.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/OCR-L-911TRIP-WRAP-0913-13.jpeg?w=620\")
<\/p>\n![\"Family](\"https:\/\/www.ocregister.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/OCR-L-911TRIP-WRAP-0913-11.jpeg?w=620\")
<\/p>\n
![\"LAFD](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/OCR-L-911TRIP-WRAP-0913-15.jpeg\")
LAFD firefighters stand during a moment of silence near of FDNY Ladder Company 10 and Engine Company near Ground Zero in New York, NY, on September 11, 2026. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register\/SCNG)<\/p>\n![\"LAFD](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/OCR-L-911TRIP-WRAP-0913-19.jpeg\")
LAFD firefighter Jared Bennett before the start of the annual 9\/11 memorial event at Ground Zero in New York, NY, on September 11, 2026. The was the 25th anniversary of the terrorist attack at the World Trade Center, Pentagon and Shanksville, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register\/SCNG)<\/p>\n