Sweet Land of Liberty

June 6, 2011
Day #25
New York City

Great weather again...can't believe we haven't gotten rained out once on this trip!   Temperatures were in the 70's with low humidity.  Who could ask for more?  Well, maybe a few less miles between us and the city...

We waited for the rush hour to be over and were surprise to find much lighter traffic than on Sunday.  We did a re-play of the  previous day, only parked at a garage a little closer to Times Square.



On the GW going in to the city.  The tag reads, *OH VEY* which is exactly how I felt.

 Looked around Times Square for a bit, then took a subway to Grand Central Station.  I haven't been there since I was a child and it still amazes me.  I must have looked like a real dork looking up at the ceiling.  Years of restoration has this landmark looking perhaps better than new.   If you are ever in New York, do not miss it!

It was already past noon, so we decided to eat lunch before we took the subway over to Ellis Island.  The trip is combined with the Statue of Liberty.  We finally set foot on Liberty Island again, both of us haven't been there since we were kids.  For me, it was during the NY World's Fair...I am sooooo dating myself there!

Since we were in Grand Central Station anyway we just did a 'fly-by' of all the places around the perimeter and chose Juniors for a sandwich.  I had a heart attack on wheat...actually a sandwich I'd not heard of before, an egg salad BLT.  Like eating two sandwiches at once!  It was good.  Thank you Lipitor!

Down into the catacombs we went.  We decided to replace my week Metro Pass would be foolish, so I've been buying single ride passes for $2.50.   We rode to the Battery Park area, near the World Trade Center...in fact you probably remember it from that. 

The line for the ferry to the islands was quite long, we waited for about 45 minutes in the scorching sun.  However, I was told that it is usually much longer.  The post 9/11 search and metal detector pass through took a bit more time, some of the ladies from India seem to wear a great deal of jewelry and metal adornments and they hold up the entire line until they can clear.  Soon we were on our way to the islands and the cool breeze on the boat was much appreciated.



Looking back toward Battery Park...sure looks different with the Towers gone



We walked around Liberty Island and took some photos, but we really were more interested in seeing Ellis Island.  Lady Liberty is awesome, no matter how many times you see it, she still takes your breath away. 

I remember when I was very small and asking my mother what the Statue of Liberty was.  She told me...well as much as I could understand at that age, about it.  But the thing that I really remembered was that she mentioned that my father had cried when his troop ship had sailed back into NY Harbor on his way back from India in World War II.  My father cry?  Whatever could be so special about this statue that it could make my father cry?  I decided then and there that it must be a very, very special thing.

And it is.

The next stop, after waiting in another long line in the sun...was Ellis Island.  Hard to imagine the mixed feelings those immigrants must have had.  Try to imagine leaving everything you have ever known and with only a trunk or even just a bed roll, taking a miserable voyage to a place you have never been.  The photos on the walls of people from all over the world are sobering.  We certainly were lucky to be born here and at this time in history.

It was already rush hour so we got back on the subway.  Well I tried...Jim passed through before me again and I didn't time my 'single ride pass' right.  You need to swipe and keep walking fast through the turnstiles.  If you stop for half a second to read the panel to see if it says 'go', you are timed out and your pass is invalid.  Again Jim is yelling at me from the other side of the gate.  This is getting old.  Back to the kiosk I go and feed a few more dollars back into it to get another pass.  By now I was getting paranoid about how I am going to time my swipe/walk and I'm almost in tears.  I swear if I got 'invalidated' again I was going to walk over to the nearest cab stand and be DAMNED what it cost!  Luckily, that didn't happen.

Back to Grand Central Station to pick up some cheeses to take home.  And seeing that we were already there....hmmm, maybe we could stop back by Junior's and have a coffee, and wouldn't a piece of their famous strawberry cheesecake go great with that coffee?  We didn't have room earlier, and it would be a shame to be in NYC and not have cheesecake, wouldn't it?

When in Rome....

When we got back to Times Square we discovered that there were easily 10 million people there.  It smelled much better than it usually did.  Seems there was a 'Taste of NYC' or something like that going on and hundreds of restaurants were cooking on the square.  There were tickets being sold so you could go have a taste here and a taste there.  Too bad we were full! Jim was in a hurry to get home, grabbed me by the arm and all but ran with me through the square to get back to the garage..

.  Don't remember much it's all a blur..

Heading west on the GW...leaving the city.  We'll be back someday.

Tomorrow, we leave Florida NY and will travel to central Massachusetts, near Springfield.