The Great Statue, The Great Walk

We wanted to show Jan as much as we could. New York is full of stuff to see and do and so we had planned on getting an early start and taking him to see the Statue of Liberty. It had been a few years since I had been and I learned a few things. First, when you are traveling with 2 kids, you don't always get the early start you are trying to get. Second, it is better to pre-purchase tickets to see Lady Liberty online so you can get in line and get to the island faster. Third, always bring a hat when you are in New York in winter.We decided to buy an all day pass on the Subway and get to Battery Park that way. It was fun because it is a cultural thing that Jan could experience and the first time the girls had been on a New York City Subway. Lorne named the train Ray-J to entertain Jasmine and it turned out to be a very funny joke all day.It was windy and chilly by the water in battery park and I didn't have a winter hat for Ava - in fact, I don't own one for infants. Jan lent Ava his hat and she looked mighty cute in it with her pink little nose. I bought a hat from a street vendor and Jas looked cute in the hat I had brought her from home.After waiting in line for an hour and a half, and going through security and waiting another half an hour after that, we finally got on the ferry toward Liberty Island. Jasmine had fun looking out of the window and watching the Statue of Liberty get closer and closer.I love the view of New York City from Liberty Island. It is probably the best place to get a good picture of the city. It really was the perfect place to place Lady Liberty.After getting some great pics with the statue and walking around for a while, we sat down, had a snack and fed Ava and forged on. We got back on the ferry and stopped at Ellis Island. I thought this especially fitting because of my ancestry and the fact that I am married to a foreigner and that we were touristing with another foreigner.
Lorne found a 3 D graph that showed immigrant populations during different decades and so he pointed to here he is in the graph. Also, we saw this great big screen where you could type in the name a country and they told you how many immigrants are living here right now from that country and what states they are living in. It is very interesting to see how it breaks down depending on the country. We naturally looked up Australia and Uruguay. You can click on the picture to see it bigger and get a good sense of the numbers.We also watched an interesting film where they talked about what it was like for immigrants that came into the United States and had to stop on Ellis Island before being allowed in. I can't imagine having to go though all the testing and waiting to find out if they would let you get on a boat to go to NYC.There is a great view of the statue from Ellis Island and I can imagine the immigrants feeling like it was the gateway to freedom and a new life.We rode the ferry back to Battery Park and by this time it was starting to get dark. We decided to walk for a while and took Jan past the Wall Street Bull, The New York Stock Exchange, The first Capital Building of the United States and Ground Zero. I hadn't been to Ground Zero since a few months after 9-11 and it was neat to see what they plan on doing with the space. The memorial looks neat and gave me great pause for thought. We talked a lot about that day and where we were and how we felt and Jan got a good sense of what things were like here at that time.We went back to the hotel and freshened up for dinner and then ate at Maxie's Deli. After dinner, we continued our walking tour of NYC by going over to Radio City Music Hall, where Jasmine encountered Santa and was very excited to see him for the first time in the season.I love how New York is decorated for Christmas and I was hoping it would all be out so Jan could see it too. They had some things out but they weren't done decorating while we were there so it was a bit sad that they weren't completed but we did still see a lot of Christmas there.We walked to Rockefeller Center and watched the ice skating and then over to Saks Fifth Avenue to see the window displays. They were really neat and Jasmine loved watching the windows and listening to the story as she walked from window to window.They even had a light and music show with lighted snowflakes on the building that went off every 15 minutes. It was really cool to stand there and watch.We walked up Fifth Avenue all the way to The Plaza Hotel and Central Park. Jasmine was a trooper and I couldn't believe that she made it all the way. It was a lot for a little girl to walk. We rode the Subway back to the hotel and Jasmine and Ava were both exhausted so Lorne carried Ava and Jan carried Jasmine. It was really a great day in the city.