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Ellis Island - Great Hall
This is the hall where immigrant families were made to wait for "processing" in the Registry Room Ann here - today was Ellis Island and Wall Street day. We rode into Manhattan with Phil today... took the #1 train from Penn Station down to Battery Park... note to future NYC visitors... when you're taking the #1 train down to Battery Park, make sure you're on one of the first 5 trains, otherwise, you won't be able to get off and you'll end up in Brooklyn! We heard the warnings and decided to jump off the train at Rector and run up to the 2nd car to make sure we were able to get off at Battery Park.
Over the course of a week in NYC, today was the day we were faced with the most tourists. We had already decided to pass on the Statue of Liberty and just take the Circle Line ferry to Ellis Island... you can only go up to the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty so we decided that pictures up lady liberty's nose weren't necessary.
Got our tickets, went through the security checkpoint and boarded the ferry to Ellis Island. The ferry makes its first stop at the Statue of Liberty, and then Ellis Island. Most people got off
Photo of immigrants
A picture of a picture at Ellis Island. at the Statue of Liberty which pleased us. Here's another note for future travellers to NYC... if you go to Ellis Island (which we highly recommend!) you must upgrade ($6 more per visitor) and get the audio package. Each of us had our own headphones and audio walking tour through Ellis Island. We can't imgaine trying to do that tour without it! HIGHLY recommend Ellis Island and MUST do the audio tour. I didn't realize immigrants went through Ellis Island as late as 1952. And wasn't reopened as a national park until 1990. A definite must see!
From Battery Park, we headed up Whitehall to Pearl Street in search of Fraunces Tavern... it was 1:30pm... time for lunch... our tour guide (Phil) had keyed us into Fraunces Tavern... a New York meeting house since 1762 (
). The site of George Washington's Farewell Address to his officers. Great place for a quick lunch! There's also a museum there, but we opted not to take the tour, as we had other places to get to.
From here, Katherine planned our route... up Pearl Street, left on Wall Street past the Federal Hall and the NY Stock Exchange... many of NYPD's Fraunces Tavern
Great stop for lunch if you're in lower Manhattan. Guiness on tap! finest in this area... turned right on Broadway past Trinity Church... left on Albany... right on Church Street past the site of ground zero. When you're there, it's so hard to believe (1) that there used to be two huge buildings there, and (2) that more buildings in the area weren't hit by this tragedy. One can tell this is still a much guarded site in the city... numerous NYPD with bullet proof vests on.
We hit a department store (Century 21) that a guy on the airplane from Denver told me about... discount clothes... a truly overwhelming site... multiple floor dept store with far too many people... Katherine bought a couple of things and then we were out of there!
I forgot to mention... when we got back from Ellis Island... Steve called Katherine and asked us what we were doing at 5:15pm... like father, like son... we knew he had a plan! He wanted to make another try at "Rush tickets" for the evening showing of Wicked. I'll let Katherine explain in a separate blog. Anyway... we took the W train up to 49th street so Katherine and David could meet Steve and Brie and the
Lunch time
at Fraunces Tavern.
Wicked theater at 51st and Broadway... like I said... more later.
Phil, Mary, Rich, and I went for pizza at Mario's (a local Stamford restaurant... a place the Borba's frequent on Friday nights). Back home, we socialized and read the blogs. It's 12:30am here... Katherine called at 11:30pm to say they were at a diner in the city with Steve and Brie... like I said... more later.
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catsie
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Friday night pizza
Ahhhh, I thought of you last evening and just figured you all might be out for pizza------that's been their tradition for years!! I doubt that Phil and Mary have ever actully gone to Ground Zero--pretty traumatic for them, each in a different way. Sounds like you had another interesting day!! If Dan and Lorraine come over this evening give them my best regards--Dan will probably bring his guitar and you will have a song fest around the kitchen table--- some more fun :)!! Can't wait to read Katherine's comments, too. xoxo Luv ya'