We woke to a foggy day - which is ironic as the last time we went to see the statue we couldn’t see Manhattan through the fog. Thankfully it burned off as we made outlet way there so visibility was much nicer today.
We had a brisk walk from our apartment through the streets of Newport to the Warren Street Pier ready to catch a 1 minute ferry across to the Central Rail docks. Rushed to get there so we didn’t miss our ferry and of course it was 20 minutes late or the next one was ten minutes early - who knows!
Liberty State Park is all part of the National Parks service and the departure point to the island of the Statue of Liberty. It is also where the Central Railroad terminal used to be - which is a glorious old building right on the edge of the Hudson River. It is also directly across the river from where the twin towers once stood and there is a beautiful memorial to the people of New Jersey who lost their lives in the 9-11 terrorist attack. Two long walls direct the eye to the place where the towers once stood in the NY skyline, with a title of Empty Sky. The names of every NJ resident who perished is engraved on the walls. There is also a piece of the debris at the beginning of the memorial to remind us of the outcome of the attacks.
We caught the Lady Liberty Ferry first to Ellis Island (where we didn’t get off) and then to Liberty Island where we enjoyed an audio guide telling about not just the history of the statue but a bit about the Manhattan skyline and busy New York Harbour.
Having been before, I knew to book our climb to the crown tickets 3 months ago so was lucky to snag them again this trip. The three of us made our way up the spiral staircase (190 odd steps from memory) to peer through the viewing windows on the crown for a view across the harbour.. unfortunately Brendon’s fear of heights kicked in and he didn’t make it to the top, but Hayden got there and was pretty impressed with the view. I was pretty impressed with him for his efforts as he has a height phobia too.
So here’s today’s rant. People take far too many photos at these places and they take far too much time setting up the entire shot. One family held up the flow of traffic on the pedestal for about three minutes as they swapped places, changed angles and then just when they moved to the next corner, did it all over again. Don’t even get me started on the chick at the crown who constantly flicked her hair over her shoulder onto me as we stood looking out the windows. These people will only have photos and no actual memory of the event. Hair woman didn’t even look out the windows - she just posed in front of them and kept checking her phone for the best angles. FFS - look around you and try to be more self-aware and considerate of all around you.
None of us was particularly interested in Ellis Island exploration (I find it hard to get excited about their history of immigration given their current political administration), so we decided to skip that tour and caught the ferry back to Battery Park and hop the subway into Times Square.
Now it was pretty cool to see the reaction of my boys as we came out of the tube stop and walked the one block to the Square. Times Square is so well billboarded electronically that, as in Hayden’s words - “you don’t need to have your headlights on to drive through there at night” and he is spot on. Times Square glows even on the darkest New York night. It is a thriving hub of scum and villainy...sorry I got lost there for a second. It is a hub of commercialism and humanity. After a very late lunch at The Olive Garden (which was delicious and well priced), We navigated down to Madison Square Garden where we tried unsuccessfully to snag tickets to tomorrow’s Knicks game. Yep, there is a basketball game on on Christmas Day!
Sadly, said tickets were US$269 so after a bit of fast checking on the official resell sight we got them for substantially less (but still have to sell a kidney to pay for them). So the Boyd’s are off to the basketball tomorrow.
With nothing else planned we walked to the Bryant Park Christmas markets (busy!) and then to the Rockefeller Centre (even busier) to check out how a tree should be done (I’m talking to you Brisbane City Council) - a 65 foot real tree decorated with thousands of lights. Not a plastic bough in sight!
Found our way to the Path train back to NJ and bought cannolis at Carlos’ Bakery in Hoboken before a cool walk home to our apartment.
A busy eventful day. Looking forward to Christmas Day tomorrow and hopefully catching up with friends.
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