Monday in NYC

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Geo: 40.7528, -73.9853

We had to be at Battery Park for our 9am Ticket time by 8:30 so we were up early. Grabbed breakfast in the hotel and then took a train to Battery Park. Just after we got off the train it started sprinkling.

We went through security and boarded the boat to Liberty Island. Luckily most of the time we were under a covering so we didn't get too wet. Once we got to Liberty Island, the rain had stopped so we were able to walk around and snap a few photos before getting in line to go up to the Platform which is the highest point you can go since 9/11/00 when they stopped letting people up into the crown. It was cold and windy but still no rain. The statue is really cool to see in person!

The girls were hungry for lunch so we grabbed food on the island. While we ate lunch we got to meet and talk to the sculptor of the Statue. His name was Auguste Bartholdi. He told us he had been to Salt Lake City and met with Brigham Young who pledged support to Auguste for the statue. We talked about his design and the statue. It was a fun experience to meet him.

We then got back on the boat and rode over to Ellis Island. We walked around and saw what it was like to have been coming to the United States and what these immigrants went through to become citizens of this great country. It is too bad that many of those people who come to this country now don't have the conviction that these people had or recognize the great honor it is to become a citizen of the US.

By the time we finished looking around Ellis Island it had started raining so we waited inside for the the next boat to arrive then we rode back to the NYC side of the river and off to the Subway.

We got off the train at Times Square and walked to Madame Tussuad's. The girls had a great time and were star struck as usual.

It didn't take us as long as we had expected to go through the museum so we walked back to the hotel for an afternoon break and to decide where we wanted to go to dinner.

We finally decided to go to Little Italy and have dinner so we walked to the subway and took the train to Chinatown and then a short walk (still in the rain) to Mulberry Street where we decided to eat at Casa Bella. The food was good. We were the only patrons in the restaurant which was an odd experience.

Then back to the subway in the rain, and back to the hotel to get to bed early as we are all BEAT.

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Comments

[ricflack]

Re: Lunch with the sculptor He is an actor portraying the sculptor. He is part of the experience of Liberty Island and was ignored by most. He speaks about the statue and the design and everything in the present tense so he doesn't even
know that it is 2009.