NYC Trip Day 2

Today's temperature was in the low 30's. Monday ended up being dubbed "museum day" as you will soon see why. We started the day at Starbucks and there is seriously a one on every street corner in Manhattan. This morning was our first attempt at taking the subway which is called the "train" by the locals and we arrived at Battery Park without much trouble (although we witnessed argument with racist comments that we thought might turn violent but fortunately did not).

At Battery Park we caught a ferry headed toward the Statue of Liberty! It was freezing!

From the ground to the top of the torch is 305 ft.

France built and gave the Statue to America as a gift representing the friendship between the two countries established during the American Revolution. The statue was built to face Europe in an attempt to "enlighten the world" and served as a friendly "welcome" to immigrants. Our end of the deal was to build the pedestal on which Lady Liberty stands. We went inside the Monument where there is a museum telling how the Statue was made. Can you believe that women were not invited to the dedication ceremony for the Statue of Liberty even though the statues was female and represented liberty?


Tickets to go up to the crown had been sold out since it reopened in July, but we were able to go to the top of the pedestal. Getting to the crown is a chore anyways - no elevator, you would have to climb a million steps so we were not too disappointed.

Then the ferry took us over to Ellis Island where the Immigrants first landed and were checked for contagious diseases. When they got off the ship, they had to leave their luggage and men & women were separated and with thousands of people they didn't know if they would be able to find their family and personal belongings again. We got the audio tour and it was so sad hearing stories of people who had to be deported due to something silly such as a cut received during the journey. However, between 1880 and 1930 over 20 million immigrants came through Ellis Island and they only turned away around 100,000.

Immigration Museum
Big room where the Immigrants were housed while being registered

For many women, marriage was their ticket to America. Recent male immigrants were lonely and could send a letter to be delivered to a random woman in his home country. The woman would meet the man they were supposed to marry as soon as they got off the ship and got married right then and there! Now that's brave!

We then walked over to Ground Zero and peaked through the gate but couldn't really see much. The Ground Zero museum was very interesting and sad of course. It displayed quotes, stories and charred artifacts recovered from the wreckage. One item that stood out was a firefighter's uniform that was ripped and burned and the helmet was melted and warped. You can only imagine what that person must have went through if they uniform was so damaged. The saddest thing that made me cry was an entire wall covered in missing person fliers.

After walking around the financial district we hopped on the subway headed back to Times Square but it was traveling the opposite way we wanted to go and we ended up in Brooklyn! By this time it was dark and I was so exhausted and just wanted to get back to the hotel. Fortunately, a very nice man with a real thick New Yorker accent pointed us in the right direction and said "May God be with you on your journey." Awww! That made my day.
We ended the night at Bella Vita Italian Restaurant which has really really tasty brick oven pizza.