We awoke and set out for Liberty State Park, New Jersey. Although Mapquest's directions were a bit skewed, we managed to find it without too much difficulty. The park adjoins a small harbor in addition to the main landings used for tours to Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty.
Ellis Island was the first stop - a massive set of buildings, only some of which have been turned into a museum. We were informed that 12 million people - mostly Eastern Europeans - passed through this entry point from the last decade of the 19th century to the middle of the 1920's. Over 100 million US citizens trace their roots to someone who came through during this immigration period.
The museums include items that people brought with them, clothing that has been donated, and firsthand accounts by people who remember passing through Ellis Island. Tons to see and hear.
We reboarded and went next to the Statue of Liberty. Though we couldn't go all the way to the crown, we could go up to the top of the statue pedestal. There were a few lines for security - I can only imagine what it must be like during the summer crush of visitors. We were scanned for weapons both before we embarked on the tour from Liberty Park, as well as before entering the Statue pedestal.
We climbed 156 steps up to the top of the pedestal - and the kids climbed them as well, which was great! The view was impressive, to say the least. The kids really enjoyed seeing the Statue of Liberty, and have since talked about wanting to go back and see it again. Perhaps in another five to ten years!
We were pooped when we got back to the van and found our way back to the neighborhood of our hotel. The last adventure was finding a place for dinner. We drove around for probably 30 minutes without seeing anything that looked like the kids would like it or like it might be safe. I'm sure there are better parts to these two towns - but we didn't find them that night!
We finally ended up at a place called Europa, which advertised Portugese and Spanish cuisine. It was a nice end to a very enjoyable but long day!
Beautiful pics!
ReplyDeleteThe kids will remember this trip forever I am sure, especially the statue of Liberty! How cool!
I sure hope they do - I know we will!
ReplyDeleteI thought I had already commented! ha
ReplyDeletewell, I have never been to NY or most of these other places you guys have gone to. So, I feel like I am visiting along with you!
You should look into having this blog printed. Not sure of the cost, but it would be a great album to look at from time to time with the kids and Gena!
We use an online photo service called Winkflash (http://winkflash.com). It's a great service that lets you upload and share images with family and friends. It has less hype than flickr, which is probably why we like it.
ReplyDeleteAnyways, one of the things you can do is print a photo book. We do this every year for our respective parents - we include photos from the entire year. It's a great gift, it's reasonably priced (as near as I can tell), and the net result is a nice hard-bound photo album.
We'll do something like that for all of this - at least the photos if not the blog entries themselves. We know the kids will love looking back on these photos as they get older!