Day 34
Tuesday, June 28th
After our disastrous evening the night before, we still couldn't afford to sleep in. We had tickets for a 9am tour of the Statue of Liberty. We needed to drive to Liberty State Park to catch the ferry, and not knowing how much time it would take, we left the hotel at 7:45. Breakfast in the car!! We pulled into the parking lot about 8:20 and shoved cereal in our faces (more of those disposable bowls, spoons and ice-chest cold milk) and speed walked to the dock. The staff certainly didn't seem too worried that we had a 9am ticket time, especially considering we still needed to board the ferry that would take us to Liberty Island. Found out later that the actual time on our ticket didn't really matter.....just that we had the ticket. For families with lots of kids, rushing to be on time, that is just plain mean!
The kids were pretty excited and anxious to see Lady Liberty up close. It's such a symbol of our country and our freedoms that we, as parents, were very happy to provide them the opportunity to see her.. In any given day, the park allows only 240 people to ascend into Liberty's crown....and we were 7 of those for the day!
Once we arrived, we had to go get our 'front of the line' pink bracelets...pretty much a pass to move on past those waiting to tour the pedestal portion only. We crammed all our bags into lockers-talk about a chaotic scene! The only thing we were allowed to take with us was our camera! Through security and voila! We arrived at the base of the 313 stairs we had to walk up to get to the crown. There was no complaining either, the whole way up....a true miracle!!
Looking up the Statue towards the crown......lots of inner workings!
Almost there!
looking down into the spiral stairwell from the top of the crown-
Our first glimpse of the crown!
I have to say, that one of the best things about digital photography and a really good camera.....taking pictures of signs you don't have time to read (because you are traveling with too many children who have no desire to READ those signs) so you can read them later!! Bill is always thinking ahead!
The crown itself is big enough for about 8 adults to gather around the windows and it was very warm. There was a park ranger stuffed into a corner, available to answer any questions and I felt bad for him in the sweltering heat! He was kind enough to take a family photo of us-
I love this one Bill took-
a small persons perspective....
Look mom, my head almost fits through the crown!
The park rangers told us we would be allowed to stay up there as long as we liked but to be mindful of other groups coming up after us. Well, they piggy backed the groups so close together that we were probably only up there about 8 minutes. Bill stayed behind a bit longer to take some more pictures. After making the descent back down, we learned SO much from the museum. In the entry area-
I could post 50 pictures alone from all the informative exhibits! The first thing we saw walking into the museum portion was this replica of her face-
Also on display were molds they used when building the statue....it is mind blowing how they made such an intricate statue with nothing more than wood and metal and very simple tools. Truly an incredible feat that we, as Americans, are so blessed to have been gifted with.
The inner workings/skeleton of Lady Liberty-
A bronze replica of her foot-with a sign that says 'please touch' just so you know they weren't being some of THOSE type of kids! They are wearing headphones because we thought getting them the audio tour would help them be more interested, more engaged. Mmmm, well, it kind of worked. It kept them occupied long enough for ME to actually learn something!!
As we exited the bottom of the pedestal, we found ourselves behind her, a side most don't get to see!
We were so lucky to see the Statue of Liberty in clear sunshine! By the time we were ready to leave to head to Ellis Island, the hazy clouds had moved in. It created the kind of light where opening your eyes for a picture was a real challenge!
The Statue tour and museum took us longer than we had anticipated and we still had to make it over to Ellis Island......we joined the mob of people waiting to catch the ferry over-
Now, while Ellis Island is very interesting to adults, it can be somewhat boring to smaller children, even WITH the audio guide. Luke was among those that found it boring.....
lots and lots of info....another place we want to go back and visit...maybe without kids! reading and listening and learning without whining in the background is a beautiful thing!
We stayed as long as we could, basically until the place shut down, and then headed back to the ferry dock. This time there were far fewer people since we were taking the Jersey ferry, not the NYC ferry. Although we saw so much of the statue on this day, there was stillmore to admire as we pulled away from her-
We wheeled and walked our worn out kids to the van and made a plan to end the evening with dinner in Hoboken and a stop at Carlos Bakery....Cake Boss, the one and only! That will get a post all its own though.
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