Nov 14-Ellis Island and The Statue of Liberty

Oh, dear...I've had several complaints that the blog isn't up to date! Sorry about that. By the time we get home at night I'm POOPED! Haven't walked this far since Sue and I did the 1/2 marathon. I'll start with Tuesday the 14th--which wasn't a big walking day, but quite interesting. We got up early (for us) and were all ready to meet the first ferry to Ellis Island at 8:00--unfortunately there isn't a boat until 9:30 at this time of year. Oh, well-we wandered around Liberty Park. Talked to a fellow that was fishing from the pier (yuck, can you imagine how polluted that water is?) about 9/11. He used to deliver packages to the 110th floor but had retired before the attack. He's the first one that we've asked any questions about that day. Very interesting. Finally got the ferry to Ellis. I think most people stop at Ellis for 1/2 hour or so...not Gene, he has to read EVERY sign in the museum. Took so long I thought we wouldn't make the Statue. I'll admit that all the information about the history of the island and about immigration was interesting, but really. The Statue is still beautiful, but I was disappointed that you can't go up inside it anymore. There are guards and security everywhere. I remember taking the girls up the spiral staircase to the crown and wanted to take Gene up. Now you can only get to the top of the pedestal, just below her feet. I'll post a few pictures, and one that Mom sent of the girls pretending to be Ms. Liberty in front of the NYC skyline. Note the WTC buildings in the background and how tall they were. By the time we were ready to leave we realized that we had forgotten to get the National Park stamp (we are collecting stamps in a National Park book) at Ellis Island. By then they weren't letting anyone off onto the island because it was closing time. We had to talk the deckhands into letting us jump off, run and get the stamp...got it, and managed to make the LAST boat back to the mainland. We've now got 36 stamps on the trip so far!