Today we visited the Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island and then walked to the World Trade Center Site. We started the day with the long drive from Florida, NY through New Jersey to Staten Island. We rode the ferry to Lower Manhattan.
A short walk through Battery Park and to Clinton Castle where we buy our tickets for the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island Ferry. We are much too late in the day to get tickets to go into the Statue of Liberty. People are no longer allowed into the torch any longer, only to her feet.
We joined a ranger for a ranger led walk and talk about the island and the history of the Statue of Liberty. The ranger talk is wonderful; very educational. He seems to be able to talk about any aspect you can imagine about the Statue of Liberty.
We had lunch at the Statue of Liberty Cafe. We were joined at lunch by Frederic Bartholdi (performed by Glenn Stoops). Bartholdi is the artist that created the Statue of Liberty. He has wonderful stories to tell of the entire process.
After lunch, we got back on the Ferry and headed to Ellis Island. Ellis Island has gone through a great deal of restoration. Carla looked up her grandfather, Ettore Pedron, and discovered that he went through Ellis Island in 1913. We need to do more research to get more details.
We found another ranger led tour (these are great!) and walked around the island. The ranger was a teach working during the summer. He had also done some research and found that his grandparents had both come through Ellis Island before they were married. He discussed the history of the island and the process that everyone had to endure before being allowed into the country.
From Ellis Island we returned to Manhattan. We walked several blocks up to the World Trade Center site. On the way we found a monument to the World Trade Center in the form of "The Sphere". The World Trade Center site is now under construction. They are building a new World Trade Center. There are few plaques that describe some of what happened on September 11, 2001.
On our way back to the Ferry Building, we noticed a long line of Police cars with lights on and sirens screaming. It seems to be a procession rather than an emergency. We asked an officer that we were passing about the cars. Each night they start at one end of the island and proceed to the other end of the island, releasing the patrol car of that neighborhood along the way. This lets everyone know that the New York Police are on duty each night.
We dubbed our ferry from Manhattan to the Staten Island as The Sunset Cruise. Our timing was great. Sam was able to get some very nice sunset pictures including this one of Lower Manhattan and one of the Statue of Liberty.
We took lots of picture on this day. Besides the pictures on this page, there is another photo album of other pictures from our tour of The Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island.
Tomorrow we leave New York (or rather Florida) and head to Washington DC (well actually Alexandria, VA).
