Thursday, July 10, 2008

Statue of Liberty

Sunday, July 6---we awoke after some much needed rest and “hailed” a taxi and away we sped (pun intended--)for Battery Park and the Statue of Liberty….we thought we were getting a pretty early start, but there was already a huge line of people, or a crowd, as Donna calls them, lined up to take the ferry across to Liberty Island! We had to wait for a couple of ferries to make their way, but it didn’t take too long…the crew “encouraged” rapid movements to get as many people as possible on the ferry at a time…and let’s just say that they were the closest we came to seeing a really rude person! Another crewman assured one of the young people waiting in line that it was all part of the rhetoric! LOL But, on a serious note, I wonder how the immigrants of the early part of America felt as they boarded and disembarked on the ships sailing to our country…were the seamen friendly to them? Finally, it was our turn to board, and we set out in a pretty brisk pace for the island…unlike the leisurely cruise to Mt. Vernon….CROWDS, CROWDS, CROWDS…part of it due to the 4th weekend, but I am thinking that it is always busy!! I have seen the Statue of Liberty hundreds of times in movies and in pictures, but gazing up in person was definitely worth all of the security measures we had to go through to get the up-close and personal view….after the normal security to board the boat, there was additional security if you wanted to climb to the observation deck in the base….part of the security involved blowing air all over your body while you were in a booth…very strange..it almost tickled…while we were waiting to enter this part of security Donna spied some other ladies with Fund For Teachers bags!! We caught up with them on the ferry ride from Ellis Island. Rachel and her friends from the Houston, Texas area were very friendly…hope you are learning a lot at your conference in Connecticut…Back to Lady Liberty….while I knew intellectually how tall the statue was going to be, it was even more imposing than I imagined…a great experience that every American should have a least once in his life..an up close view of Lady Liberty (climbing the 157 stairs up to the base and the 157 stairs down---completely worth it!)
You might think that was the end of our day, but we were only halfway finished…we caught the subway for Coney Island to pickup our Atlantic Ocean water to carry to the Pacific....we were a lot more comfortable buying our Metro card than just a week earlier in DC…we were old hat at it now!!! We ate a hot dog at the Nathan’s Hot Dogs, where the World Champion Eating Hot Dog Contest is held every July 4th…don’t think we will be victorious because we just had one each! But they were great with the sauerkraut on top! After that we strolled the boardwalk and collected some water. As we made our way to the subway, we were able to talk to several mounted patrolmen in the area…they were great…surprised we had ridded 80 miles…I don’t think Little John would do very good at that job…there were lots of noises from the boardwalk…one of the horses was pretty skittish as we talked to the patrolman…he said that he is always on horseback, but usually not in Coney Island…After a quick stop at the hotel, we went to do a little window shopping…I loved going into M&M world…we even had the test to see what color of M&M was best for us…mine was light purple and Donna’s was maroon….After shopping we called it a night!

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