Day 13
Thursday, June 30, 2016 STATUE OF LIBERTY
This was our busiest day yet. We covered much of the city in one day so I'm going to break it down a little differently for you by event.
Room service came a little early so we were rubbing our eyes when I answered the door. That was interesting. Time was a wasting so we rushed to eat and Josh and Carmen ran to Statue Cruises to score some of the Pedestal tickets for The Statue of Liberty. The boys and I were still trying to get ready when Josh called and said "I GOT THEM!" So we had to run down to the platform where he was waiting for us in line. We went through airport like security and bordered the boat. We were all really excited to have this opportunity. The view of the city from the water was stunning. I have so many wonderful pictures. We were packed like sardines on this boat but Josh has learned to be one step ahead of the crowd. His leadership role really peaked in New York.
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| On board the Statue Cruises |
580 people can board this ship in one trip to the Statue of Liberty
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| The pedestal tickets allow you to go into her pedestal onto the platform you see under her green part that she's standing on. |
When we approached the Statue of Liberty, Josh rushed us to the front of the boat to the exit so we can be one of the first people of the day on top of Her Pedestal. When we got into the building, we realized we had to climb stairs to get up. Chandler decided to count our steps. To get up to the viewing area, we climbed 187 stairs. Viewing the Crown is more than double that. It was quite the event. When we got up there, the view was amazing. You could almost touch the bottom of her feet we were so close. It was a very small landing to view from and it was going to get crowded fast. So we took as many pictures as possible and took the hike down the stairs to her museum. It was very hot this day and we were practically worn out by 10 am.
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View from Statue of Liberty Pedestal Observation deck |
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| We were so close to her! |
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| You can see Charlie's tiny head in the center platform on the bottom of the pedestal |
going down!
After our tour of the Statue of Liberty, we hopped on the Ferry to Ellis Island. We went through the museum and viewed the memorabilia, information and artifacts relating to the immigrants that came through Ellis Island. We watched a movie at the museum that was very helpful for us to really grasp the happenings there as the immigrants arrived and what they had to go through to stay in the U.S. One of the gentlemen said that if you were sick at all, you would not be accepted into to U.S. They didn't want you to be a burden on society. He said that those who got turned away would rather jump ship than return to their country. Very profound words. We made an appointment to research family members that could be in their database. It was fascinating to see the amount of detailed documentation they had on each person that came through.
Josh and Charlie in the Booking room
Colin and Charlie realizing how many people came from other countries to the U.S.
After we returned from Ellis Island, we walked down Wall Street to see the New York Stock Exchange Building. Josh was super excited about that. The building was fenced and had plenty of security. It was interesting to see the amount of people sitting around watching the building. There really wasn't much to see except the scroll with stock updates which ran above the entry door. The architecture of the building was beautiful. The Wall Street Bull was very crowded. We decided to see it from afar.
New York Stock Exchange
Wall Street Bull
Across the street from the Bull was TGI Fridays where we decided to stop for lunch. It was nice to take a break and rest up. After lunch we got on the train and went to Times Square. It was so over stimulating! The ads were everywhere and the people were a sight. There were street performers, peddlers and people everywhere. It was overwhelming but really neat to see how the city flows. We even got to see the "Naked Cowboy" who was serenading the people of NY.
Naked Cowboy
As we walked towards Central Park, there were men pushing us to pay for the bike tours. We repeatedly turned them down. When we finally arrived at Central Park, we were completely overwhelmed by the size of the park after walking as long as we had. So we decided to take the bike guy up on his offer, the kids were so relieved. The guide was happy to learn that we were big movie buffs and knew most of the movies that were filmed at Central Park. He had a great sense of humor and took the time to point out things to us and give it a movie reference as well. We saw the fountain filmed in the opener of "Friends", the bridge where Spiderman proposed and Ghostbusters building. The Park was just beautiful. Many things going on at the park that day.
The family in front of the "Friends" Fountain
Ghostbusters building on the left
Spiderman Bridge
Strawberry Fields Memorial
(photo by Charlie)
Our bike tour
The tour through Central Park was a wonderful experience. When the tour was over we walked through town looking for ice cream. I knew there was a Ben & Jerry's somewhere so we used GPS to find it. Fortunately it was located right inside the NBC building at Rockefeller Plaza. That was one more GREAT unexpected stop we were able to make to top off our day.
