New York- Lady Liberty and Ellis Island

Monday morning we decided that we should at least check out Lady Liberty, since after all we were in NYC. Not noticing the fine print warning to arrive early in our tour book, we arrived at Battery Park around noon. "Oh look!" I squealed, "there must be something exciting going on," as I montioned to the hundreds of people lined up. It slowly dawned on me, to my utter dismay, that the "excitement" was the line for the ferry and to my horror it sank in that if I was to see her, I too would have to stand among the thousands waiting. 4hrs, 2 hot dogs, 8 rounds of the theme song from Gilligan's Island, and 1EMT call later... we finally were able to board.

As we jetted across the open sea, for the "eternal" 10 minute ride to the Statue, I noticed there was a haze of reds, blues, yellows, and browns at her base. Now although I know NY is a seasonal state, there was no way that there were that many trees with changing leaves. Nope, thousands more were waiting for my much sought after seat... one that I valiantly pressed on for. There was no way that I was about to give that up, so we waved good-bye to her as we continued on to Ellis Island.

By the time we arrived to Ellis Island, Marco was feeling seasick and tired of all the crowds and people. His couraged waned when he the saw the numbers pressing toward us, elbowing and pushing for just one small, hard, blue chair to rest their weary, touristy bottoms on. With much coaxing and the promise of a beer, he agreed to get off the ferry and view yet another museum.

I won't go into detail about the island, you can read about it in Island of Hope by Martin Sandler. However, it was pretty amazing to actually walk the halls and see the remmants of the past left behind.

Side photo: Currencies to be exchanged for US dollars upon arrival.