Today was our day to visit Liberty and Ellis Islands. I'm sitting up after 12am to complete this post and on a Friday night, the song by Frank Sinatra rings true, this city "never sleeps" I can hear all kinds of people outside on the side street, sirens, motorcycles etc. Thats what makes this town unique and wonderful all in the same. I love to "visit" here, none of us can take long periods here, especially like Gail says if we have to walk up all those dang stairs every day :)
We didn't get started until 10am because "David was blogging". I sent Gail and Bob down to the corner store to get Gail her SO (see day 1) because she is going through withdrawals or something, while I finished up the blog from 3 days ago. Who's idea was this blogging thing anyhow.. oh yeah.. it was mine, i'll keep my mouth shut :)
I got done and Jean and I headed down to meet them as they were picking up our tickets to get to the island. It wasn't decided how we were going to get to the Battery Park, but I was thinking the fastest way, via the subway and remembered I had left my subway card up in the apt. Yep you guessed it, up the 3 dreaded flights of stairs to get the card and back down to find out that we're taking the tour bus because we still had another whole day we could use its services, even with the multiple stops along the way. We definitely got our money's worth out of those tickets. We hope on the bus and endured the 1st half of the tour with our guide Jose, who did an okay job to get a $2.oo tip when we got off at Ground Zero. We checked out the St. Pauls Chapel that served as the command post for emergency workers and a place for them to rest after their shifts. The memorials and information inside the church were very imformative and touching. I even met a guy who lost a friend during 9-11 and we had a moment to talk as he was obviously overwhelmed with emotions. The new Freedom Tower construction is underway and once completed will rise to a height of 1776 feet and will be the tallest structure in New York. These New Yorkers are very resourceful and resilent.
With tickets in hand we began our 40 minute wait in line in Battery Park. We got to the screening building which is "airport type" screening (no guns, knives, mace, liquid containers, etc - you get the picture). Well Bob has his trusty commemorative BSA Swiss Army knife in his pocket. He was given option to take it outside and do what he wanted with it and he could get his place back in line or just turn it over to the US Park Service "forever" He chose the latter(what a man).. So, being poor as Bob and Gail are.. We are startings a fund to replace Bob's BSA Swiss Army knife.. so when you see him, put a penny in his palm and we should have him able to buy that knife in no time at all.
We got to Liberty Island to see "Our Lady of Liberty" This was a trip highlight too. Lots and lots of photos, pretty amazing sight. We even took time to ask other people who where taking pics, if we they wanted us to use their cameras to take pics of their entire group, family or couple. As you can see, with her in the background, it makes for a pretty wonderful picture.
We next wen to Ellis Island. I may or may not have had relative(s) who immigrated through Ellis Island from Hungary or the Netherlands. We heard a pretty boring speech about Ellis Island by a Park Ranger and then we watched an equally boring moving about the immigrants and where they came from and their experience at Ellis Island. Truthfully, the sitting down and relaxing for a few minutes put us in LaLa land. Jean says she didn't sleep, but Gail said she had to nudge Bob to keep him from snoring. I just kinda dozed in and out. I did get some good information to search ships records and try to find information about my grandfather and others. Pretty intersting stuff.
We made it back to Manhattan and caught a tour bus for the 2nd portion of the downtown loop and we got off at 54th St and 7th Ave..... World Famous Carnagie Deli. We have been here before and knew and tried to warn Bob and Gail about the food portions. And before I go any further, those of you from Gails Cafe... you won't be getting these portion sizes anytime soon.When I say big, I mean BIG portions and equally Big prices to match.
I had a beef brisket sandwich on rye (no side items) and I ordered a separate order of fries to share with Jean (sharing is not allowed unless you pass a $3.00 service fee, we didn't get charged luckily-Gail couldn't believe it), Jean had a monster BLT, I think there was a whole slab of bacon and a head of lettuce on that thing. Gail had an enormous plate filling Ruben, which she only ate about 1/4 of and Bob and a corned beef and pastrami sandwich with swiss cheese on rye, equally BIG. Jean did the best out of all of us except for a few strips of bacon to bring home with my 1/2 uneaten sandwich. Bob put his 1/3 sandwich with Gails almost complete Ruben to go. This deli has so many rules that they hide them throughout the menu. Tomatos are extra $1.00, cheese is extra $1.00 and the kicker is "cash only" no credit or debit cards. It was good food, no doubt, but also an equally interesting eating experience. Not bragging but our bill came to just under $100 and 2 of us had water to drink, amazing huh? That was our extravagance for the trip.. now back to Wendy's and McDonalds.
After dinner we caught the tour bus the 5 blocks down to 49th St at the top of Times Square. I wanted to check out the M&M's Store.. they have coconut and chocolate M&M's now... and I wanted to try them out.. Pretty good I must say- got a few to munch on while I blog :))
We actually got back to the apt before 9pm and had a chance to talk for a bit and the grandmothers got a chance to call their grandbabies whom they miss terribly. Some changes to our itinerary may come as early as tomorrow, I'll keep you posted... Until then- Take Care Always.. ~Grampy Dave.... Over and Out~
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