First, salmon with A.G. Sulzberger. Then, a glowing fish carousel ride.

It was a day of fish.

But before the salmon lunch with New York Times publisher A.G. Sulzberger and then my spontaneous fish carousel cavorting in Battery Park, it was time for some more New York Times knowledge overload (in the best way possible, of course).

Fun fact: The New York Times building elevators are amazing. You press your floor button and then the algorithm tells you which car to go wait at. So efficient! Plus there are two separate banks for each half of the floors. Waiting for a normal elevator is going to be agony after I leave.

From the elevators, I walked past the hall of Pulitzers on the 15th floor, which commemorates every Pulitzer Prize the Times has won, from their reporting on the Pentagon Papers to 9/11. I also got to see the studio where The Daily is made, which was super cool.

Once I arrived, it was time for more swag. This time, the highlight was a mini-crossword book packed with Will Shortz-esque puzzles.

I also learned that my Times badge gets me a number of awesome New York discounts, from free admission to the Met, the MOMA, and several other New York museums, to a discount in many NYC gift shops, to even sushi and ramen savings. The Times definitely buried the lede on that one.

The highlight of the day was lunch with A.G. Sulzberger, the New York Times publisher. He came across as thoughtful, articulate, and invested in how he could best remove barriers to enable reporters to produce incredible work. James Bennett, the Times editorial page editor, also popped by

At the end of today’s orientation, the fellows were introduced to the entire staff of New York Times reporters (well, at least, those who happened to be in the newsroom this evening). Celebratory cake and champagne followed.

After work, I took the subway south to Lower Manhattan to explore the Financial District.

The 9/11 Museum has free admission on Tuesday evenings if you register for tickets online in advance. My first impression of the museum was that there’s so much empty space. The fragments of the towers are so large that the gaps around them just reinforce how massive the structures were.

A sign from the World Trade Center proclaims that it had 1,200 restrooms and 40,000 doorknobs. To put that into perspective, that’s nearly 35 times the 35 bathrooms in the White Hous

One of the most striking artifacts was a copy of former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani’s schedule from September 11, 2001, with every event after his first breakfast meeting followed by “Cancelled due to terrorist attack.” The subway system shut down. New York’s air space was closed. The city ground to a halt.

To truly experience the museum, you need to watch the videos. They’re so well done, and it’s jarring to hear the final calls passengers on the hijacked planes made to loved ones, as well as the voices of the hijackers alternately threatening and attempting to placate passengers in broken English.

The theme is that there were so many everyday heroes who sprang into action. I lost count of how many volunteers who stepped into help didn’t realize they were hurt – often seriously – until hours had passed, so occupied were they with helping reach survivors. The audio of the ill-fated announcement urging people in the South Tower to stay in the building as the North Tower burned was also chilling. Evacuation orders eventually followed, but by then it was too late.

One of the most haunting sections of the museum was the one devoted to those who jumped to their deaths from the towers. One passerby noted that a woman who jumped to her death held down her skirt as she stepped off the ledge. How very human, even in her final moments.

It was also jarring to read about all the secondary fires in the streets that were just left to burn because all the city’s resources were devoted to Ground Zero. The scale of the tragedy was massive, a toll the memorial outside the museum reinforced.

There are two pools, one for the North Tower, and one for the South. My first thought was just how many names there are, packed all the way around each basin. But it’s also certain that they’ll never be forgotten.

After visiting the memorial, I walked past Trinity Church to Wall Street, where I ran into the famous charging bull. I wish the fearless girl were still there to stare him down.

I also grabbed some delicious hand-ripped spicy cumin lamb noodles from Xi’an Famous Foods, a Chinese restaurant on Liberty Street (they have several other locations as well in Manhattan and Brooklyn).

The verdict: It’s like a spicy ravioli gryo. That was nice, because it was rather chilly and windy so close to the southern edge of the island.

I was ready to head home when I spotted the highlight of my evening: An enormous, magnificent glowing fish carousel.

I watched the fish fire up, then light up, change color, and rise almost all the way to the carousel ceiling (seat belts required). Clearly, I now needed to ride this thing.

It was $5, but so worth it. Please picture me with a goofy grin having the time of my life. Do something today that makes you as happy as my spontaneous fish carousel ride made me.