Who would have expected to see this on two consecutive WDW trips?

(you can click for larger images)

The lefthand photo was taken on our trip of October 2000.  That's the Main Street flagstaff, looking towards Cinderella's Castle.  The picture was taken from the train station platform. 

The flag was at half-staff in honor of the sailors killed on the USS Cole in Oman harbor.

The righthand photo was taken on 9/26/01 (just a few minutes before the ceremony to raise it back to full staff, in fact) from the exact same location.

It's not all that often one sees the flag at half staff, so to see it twice in two trips was weird.  Not to mention sad and thought provoking, of course...

On a semi-related note, parents - be a good example to your kids and TAKE OFF YOUR DAMN HATS DURING THE NATIONAL ANTHEM!  I cannot believe how many "proud Americans" during the particularly moving flag-raising ceremony on 9/26  were standing there "respectfully" during the national anthem, with their hats squarely on their heads.  Also "sad and thought provoking..."

OK, here's just a little more ego, but I dug this up (well, ok, I asked my stepmother...) that same week, here's a personal snapshot of me and my brother on the Staten Island Ferry in, oh, about 1979 or so.  I've been to NYC more times than I can think to count, but oddly, this is one of the few pictures I could find of myself and the WTC...  (I'm on the right, Gary's on the left, for non-Fenstermachers out there who don't know that.  :)