We went to the Federal Reserve today. Going to Manhattan is always an adventure, but that part of town is especially tough for certain people who don't like crowds. The Federal Reserve was quite a respite from all that because it is the Holy Shrine of Gold, complete with sharpshooting monks who enforce silence and humility.
Before you get to go into the vault and see a cage filled with gold bars, you get to watch a video of them handling the stuff. By the wheelbarrow. Literally. And this stuff is 99% pure, not 60%, like the stuff around people's fingers and in their ears.
Anyway, it was quite a mind trip. Especially when the guide asked if anyone was claustrophobic. Because, once your mind is thinking about being trapped, all the information afterward gets filtered through the Escape and Freedom Lobe. Information about being five stories underground in so and so much reinforced steel. And then they start shutting the vault door and talking about how it's air- and water-tight and anyone locked in would stay for 24 hours because the door mechanism is linked to a timer and that there's enough air there for one person for 72 hours. The group had about ten people.
Eek.
Needless to say, I didn't explain any of this to Coco, who gets a little antsy in the subway.
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