Where in NJ is your hotel?

Jersey City near Path Station

Friday afternoon / evening
Take Staten Island Ferry to view and take pictures of Statute of Liberty
Walk to WTC sight and St Peters (does anyone know approx how far that walk is???)
>>The church you want to visit is St Paul's Chapel. The walk is about 10 minutes.

Back to NJ Hotel (easiest way from this area????)
>>Where is your hotel in NJ? If you are taking the PATH train as you mention later in your post, then the only option in midtown is at 33rd St/6th Avenue.

Is that too much for Friday afternoon / evening?
>>I would save Top of the Rock for when you are near Times Square on Saturday.
Rather than head to midtown on Friday evening, your girls might enjoy shopping and dinner in the East Village/Greenwich Village. Lots of interesting shops and reasonable restaurants. From there you can catch a PATH train at 9th St/6th Ave.

Should I watch where I am around 5:00 due to rush hour, etc. Traffic, subways, etc. very crowded????
>>Avoid rush hour? and miss a true NYC experience? I would not change my plans to do so. Just see how the timing works out and deal with it.

sorry . . . I missed your mention of Jersey City . . .

And let me amend my timing . . . I think for your group you should allow 10-15 minutes for the walk from the ferry to the WTC site.

ive mentioned this to others,but to me the the best way to see the WTC site isto go into the World Financial center one building and go up the escalator.There are several large picture window that overlook the site--if youre lucky therell be a docent who will give theor personal story.Then head over to World Financail 2 building,go downstairs and eat a casual meal at SouthwestNY Cafe--it has alot of outside dining at reasonable prices, overlokks NY Harbor.If youre taking the Path, id visit the World Fnancial center complex first, its right there when you come up from the PATH.Then go to St pauls,and after St Pauls take the subway to Rockefeller Ctr--its a 20 minute ride to Rockefeller Ctr and Top of the Rock.have fun

I second the idea of saving Top of the Rock and Rock Center for the day you explore Times Square. They are both uptown in the same area. I'd definitely recommend the East/West Village or SoHo for visiting and shopping and maybe dining after the SoL and WTC. All three neighborhoods are great for wandering and exploring and just hanging out. There will be a lot of people out an about in all three. If you're up for it, it's not a bad walk from WTC to SoHo on a nice day. SoHo has high end designers as well as the usual JCrew and H&M kind of stuff. East and West Village have lots of stores and boutiques in varying price ranges.

Though the subways are crowded during rush hour, the great thing is that they run very often -- some every 3 minutes or so. Just make sure you have a plan if you get separated (such as "get off at the next stop" or make sure everyone knows the destination.) Though not likely, it does happen, and most cell phones don't work in the subway.

Enjoy your trip!

dont know if its an issue,but when i used to commute to NY from Newark, there were 3 possibilities when the Path would get to Jersey City.There was a PATH train to WTC, a Path train to Penn Station, and a Penn train from Newark to Penn Station.Just make sure the train youre getting on is headed to WTC.Penn station underground can get very complicated, so read the direction signs very carefully to make sure your headed to the right train