More Sightseeing

Monday was a busy day with lots scheduled.  We started off by going down to the Statue of Liberty.  I made one of the smartest decisions and bought tickets early, it literally saved us hours of waiting in line.      I loved the Statue of Liberty.

Here we are standing in our short line.  Yea!

I still remembering going when I was a kid.  It is one of the vivid memories I have.  

The Statue is under construction so you aren't allowed inside of it, but they do have a fabulous earphone guided tour.  I learned a lot about the Statue that I hadn't know before.

 What a cutie, I could just squeeze him.

I love the beauty of the Statue.  I love the view of the Statue out in the water all by herself.  Standing with her arm high in the air, holding up the torch for all to see.

I love the view from the island of all the skyscrapers.  The two buildings under construction in the photo below are the new trade center buildings.

What a gorgeous skyline.  I love cities, especially this one.

 She almost seems like a real lady to me.  I just want to thank her for all the hours she has stood there giving people hope and symbolizing freedom.  

I love this picture of her through the trees.

After we left the Statue of Liberty we were on to Ellis Island.  My great grandfather passed through Ellis Island.  It was a little emotional thinking of all the thousands of people that entered Ellis Island and saw the Statue of Liberty with so much hope for this new country and sadness for all that they left behind, family, friends, culture, language, home.  No matter how much they wanted to come, it must have been very hard too.  They left family and friends that they would never see or talk to again.  It gets me emotional just thinking about it again.  I also think about where I could have been had my great grandfather not come when he did.  He grew up in former Leipzig, part of the former East Germany.

The kids weren't as interested in Ellis Island as I was, that is ok, I am sure I wasn't that interested when I was their ages either.

 Grace looking out at the Statue of Liberty.  I would like to think she was pondering on the freedoms of this country and not on when we were leaving or when she could eat.

This was Joshua's favorite part of the day.  This green monster speed boat in the river.  Made his day.
 

 After   making our way back to City we stopped to watch the street performers.  They are not what they used to be.  They really pressure you for money, and not just a dollar bill.  They also don't give you much as far as a performance.  Most of it was build-up and collecting money.  Very disappointed.  I had told the kids how much fun it would be to see the street performers.  Next time keep walking, don't waste your time or money.

As we headed to the 9-11 Memorial we stopped for some street food.  Can't visit New York without eating a hotdog on the street, well actually I can, but the rest couldn't.

 The 9-11 Memorial was beautiful and quite majestic.  The waterfall is made of thousands of little streams of water that make one beautiful waterfall.  The boys were stressing me out because they were done by this point and Josh was running around being crazy.  I didn't feel like it was the place to let him  go crazy so I finally took the boys out after I was afraid he was going to start climbing the survival tree.

 New twin towers.  I am not sure of the new name of the buildings.

 This is the Survivor Tree.  It was on the grounds of the World Trade Center and was only a stump after the attacks.  They replanted it and nursed it back to health.  It is now a beautiful, vibrant tree.  This is the one I was afraid Josh was going to start climbing.    Definitely time to go.  Hard to believe that Hannah  was the only one alive when that dreadful day took place.  I remember it so vividly.  It stuck so close since we had only moved from the city a year before and we were living two hours away in Connecticut at the time.

 

It was a fun day that we fit a lot into, although not as much as I would have liked.  We did pass Trinity Church, but I figured the kids wouldn't be interested enough to walk the few blocks to Wall Street.  I also would have liked to walk the Brooklyn Bridge but we just didn't have enough time since we had to get up to the Bronx for the Yankee's game!