Spring Break 2012: Day 2

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Day 2: March 13, 2012

On today's agenda me and Alonzo have a lot going on, Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island and the 9/11 Monument but before we begin today's adventure we have get some breakfast. We both get up watch some ESPN and get dressed, time to head out on today's adventure. Good thing for us their are many choices to eat in the neighborhood so we head around the corner to the local IHOP to eat breakfast. When we walk in it's not too busy, a few people in there and we're seated right away by the nice hostess. After we seated our waitress a nice older lady with very strong Caribbean accent, I can't tell if she's Jamaician or not but defenitely from the Caribbean. We're both really hungry, we start out with orange juice and Alonzo orders the French toast combo and I have a Beligian waffle. In less than 10 minutes, she comes back with two steaming hot plates of food, our conversation come to a halt while we eat. We're done eating and I ask the waitress for the check, she gives us the check accompanied with a smile, then I pay the bill and

tell the waitress have a nice day. Before we head out, I check my pockets, metropass got it, passes to the ferry and 9/11 got them too, we're good to go. So we head down the street and down the stairs to the 135th train stop, slide our passes thru the gate and grab a seat while we wait on the B express train. Within 10 minutes, the voice over the loud speaker says "Now approaching B express train", so me and Alonzo get up and wait on the train door to open so we can be on our way to our destination.

Away we go, next stop is Battery Park to see the Statue of Liberty, Battery Park is the last train stop in Manhattan before the train heads over to Brooklyn. So after about a 20 min train ride from Uptown we reach our destination, get off the train and head upstairs to Battery Park. It's a lovely spring morning, actually warmer than usual for a early March in New York, but I still have on a cream fleece sweater and Alonzo has on a black YMCMB sweatshirt. It's not spring break for the kids in New York but for pretty much the rest of the country it is spring break so we're expecting a pretty big crowd at Battery Park. Once you get to the street their's Battery Park and the first thing I see is the monument for the Universal Soldier, this monument is a tribute to the soldiers who fought in the Korean War. So we continue on walking thru the park and head thru the Clinton Castle that serves as a visitor center for anyone visiting Battery Park. Once we walk thru their on the other side we see the line for the ferry, the line is pretty long, it snakes around about four times, but a ferry is pier side and it's loading up people at a brisk pace. The weather is great, and you can see the Statue of Liberty from the pier, so we stand in line admiring the sites, sea gulls are flying by entertaining people in line and this street performer, an older guy is playing the flute. he's actually pretty good, while he's playing his melody the line moves along steadily until we get inside the security checkpoint. The usual procedure take off your belt and everything out of your pockets, me and Alonzo go thru the metal detector and into a room to wait for the ferry. As one ferry leaves, ten minutes later another one shows and off loads it's passengers. The guard in the room tells everyone, "Not to worry everyone in this room will get on the ferry". So the door opens and we move in a somewhat organized line to load up on the ferry, next stop Liberty Island.

We head up the stairs and sit on the second deck of the ferry near a window, as Battery Park starts to get smaller, Liberty Island starts to appear a lot closer into our view. I size of the Statue of Liberty is hard to put into the words just how impressive it is seeing it in person. The ferry ride isn't long, maybe 15-20 if that long and we finally pier side and everyone starts to make their way to the first level to get off the ferry. Once the ship is moored, that's tied up for you non sailors :-), they lay out the walkway for us to get on the island, me and my son make our way off the ship and walk towards the back of the island where we have a great view of Manhattan, the skyline is beautiful but not quite the same since 9/11. So we have a seat and soak in the sights, looking at Manhattan and south of Manhattan, you can see the Brooklyn Bridge, all the architecture in New York is so historic. We finally walk around and get at look at Lady Liberty from the front and she is an impressive sight, their are doing construction on the inside of the statue right now so you can only view it from the outside. We talk to one of the park rangers and he tells us construction is ahead of schedule, the inside will be open for her birthday in October and if you want to go all the way to the top, you should get a ticket months in advance. We take a few pic in front of statue and snap some more before we head on to the gift shop, I grab a few souvernoirs for some friends then it's back to the ferry to make our way to Ellis Island.

Luckily their is a ferry awaiting us, with the next stop being Ellis Island, we hop on the ferry and within 5 minutes we're at Ellis Island. So we depart the ferry and make our way into the Ellis Island Museum, it's comprised of three buildings but only one is being used a museum. The inside of the museum is huge, once you walk in their is a display of luggage that immigrants had with them when they came from the old country. We walk down one of the halls and their is a ship manifest with names of people that came on one of the ships to Ellis Island. It's amazing that they still have records like that, Ellis Island was the first step for so many people with the American dream, the immigration process is different now but many people from other countries still have that American dream. Once we're done looking at the manifest we head done another hall and it's the medical hall, it's a display of the medical exams many immigrants went thru before they were allowed into the country, if found to be unhealthy they were sent back to the native country and the dream of a new life is shattered. We spent hours looking at pictures, reading books, just getting an idea of how it felt to be an immigrant entering a strange new world. The most interesting part of our time in Ellis Island was when we entered the gift shop, my son stumbled across a key chain with our last name on it, the key chain had our family crest on it. Who would have known that I had a family crest? Well according the crest, our last name Woods is Irish, my son was so excited, now he wants to go to Ireland to visit the old country, lol. So after my son buys the family crest key chain we head back outside to catch the ferry back to Battery Park and head to the 9/11 museum. We make our way outside and in about 10 minutes a ferry headed to Battery Park shows up, once the riders from Liberty Island get off, we get onboard, we sit on the first deck so we can get off quickly once we get back. All riders aboard and it's time to head back to Battery Park, 15 minutes later we're back in Manhattan and getting off the ship.

The 9/11 Museum is only a short walk from Battery Park, it's only about a 10 minute walk from Battery Park and we're at our destination. Their is a big blue sign giving us directions to the security checkpoint for the museum, so we make our way to the checkpoint. NYPD presence is strong in this area, we follow the groups of people I assume we're all headed in the same direction. I see a few employees of the museum and they scan our passes and we go through the security checkpoint, it's a fairly painless process, go thru a metal detector, tell us have a nice day and we're on our way to the memorial. Their is another line with an older gentlemen who scans our passes once more and we are finally inside the construction area where the two memorials are. A lady is standing behind the man who scans the passes and hands us a pamphlet explaining the layout of the memorial, not quite complete but it shows the future plans of the monument. Right now the memorial is just two fountaind where the Twin Towers stood and names of the victims who died on 9/11. My son was only two when 9/11 happened so he doesnt quite understand how our country changed after that day. I was onboard the USS Constellation on my way back to San Diego during my first deployment, their are certain events in your life that you remember exactly where you were when they happened and 9/11 is one of those days. I stand by the memorial for a moment just to soak it in and read some of names that died, it's a somber experience, because it doesn't feel like it's been over 10 years since it has happened and just think all the security precautions now, the unfortunate sterotyping many Middle Easterns receive unwarranted and some is justified is all because of that one day. We walk over the other memorial and tell my son he was only two when it happen and how I was out to sea. The memorials are beautiful and I think a proper way to remember the many lives that were lost that day.

We've done a lot of sight seeing so it's time to grab a bite to eat, so we decide it's time to grab a burger from Shake Shack. We're too far away from the one in Madison Park but lucky for us their is one located not too far from where we are. We head across West St towards the World Financial Center and walk by the water enjoying cool breeze. We walk about two blocks and we're on Murray St right by St John's University and their's the Shake Shack. We both pretty hungry, the line isnt too long so we go in and order, I order a Shack burger with a chocolate shake and Alonzo orders a cheeseburger with a vanilla shake. Alonzo grabs us a table outside and we sit down waiting on our order, 5 minutes later my buzzer goes off and our order is ready. I go get the tray and bring our food back to the table, the burger is so good, and the cold shake hits the spot. We finish our food but we sit down for about 10 minutes before we make our next move. We've seen all those sights and it's only 4 pm, what to do with the rest of the day? My son is prepared, he has his money so that means he wants to head back to 5th Avenue to buy some stuff. So we walk over two blocks to find a train station, and hope on the D train to Rockefeller center. We go to Nintendo store and my son already knows what he wants, he heads upstairs to get a Donkey Kong t-shirt, next stop Nike town. My son is a basketball sock junkie so we head up the 6th floor and he grabs a few pair of socks. Once he's done buying his socks we leave the store and make our way to the train station. We head downstairs and get on our train, the C express but we get a surprise while we're riding. Their are 4 boys on the train, who decide to entertain us with their breakdancing. They ask one of the riders for some space so they can do their routine, once the music starts these kids begin to dance and they are pretty good. So our ride home is pretty entertaining, we get to our stop 135th stop and we head upstairs. We make our way to the street but before we get back to the apartment we stop by the neighborhood bodega to grab some sandwiches for the night. I get a philly cheese steak and Alonzo has a ham sub, then it's back to the apartment to unwind after a long day in the city. Day 2 was a lot of fun but it's time for a good night's sleep and recharge the battery for Day 3.

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Photos

Battery Park
Universal Soldier

Alonzo with a Manhattan backdrop
Alonzo on Liberty Island

Me and Alonzo
Me and my son in front of the statue

Statue of Liberty
Statue of Liberty in all her glory

Ellis Island
Elllis Island Museum

Luggage in Ellis Island
Luggage Display

Museum
Main Hall in Ellis Island

Alonzo in Ellis Island
Alonzo and a Chinese Immigrant

Freedom Tower
Freedom Tower under construction

9/11 Monument
North Tower

Memorial
Names of the lives lost on 9/11

Second 9/11 Monument
South Tower

Comments

[James]

good times
Man you guys did it big... Personally I would have had a short stack and turkey bacon...you guys covered alot of ground. History, culture and the site seeing is exhaughsting when done right lol.