New York: Part 1

While in New York, Erik and I stayed with his friend Bryan, who is a painter living in Brooklyn. He met Bryan through his friend, Jon who also went to New York with us. We spent a total of 4 days in New York and were able to see and do many exciting things. Here is part 1. Sorry it's so long; it was a very busy day.

Our first day consisted of the southern tip of Manhattan. We started off by taking a ferry ride to the Statue of Liberty and then on to Ellis Island. We really lucked out with the weather because it was supposed to rain the entire time, but we had mostly clouds and a few bursts of hot, humid sunshine. I wore boots thinking I'd be cold on the ferry. Big mistake. I was so sweaty as we stood in the two hour long line to take the ferry over to Liberty Island. It was worth it though. The statue was beautiful and we got some great shots of the New York skyline.

About an hour later, we got to Ellis Island. Between 1892 and 1954 over 12 million immigrants entered the United States through Ellis Island. My grandparents came through Ellis Island when they immigrated to America and it was really interesting to hear and read about what their experience must have been like. One of the things I was most fascinated about was looking at the passenger manifests and individual passport documents that were displayed. Their handwriting was immaculate! Every letter was perfectly written and I'm sure they were under a lot of stress and time constraints. It was beautiful.

Next on our agenda was a little bit of walking. First, we stopped at the "charging bull" by Wall Street. An Italian artist spent about $360,000 to create the sculpture in 1987. In an act of "guerrilla art", he trucked it to lower Manhattan, installed it beneath a 60-foot Christmas tree in the middle of Broad Street as a Christmas gift to the people of New York. The police seized the sculpture later the next day and placed it at an impound lot. The public outcry led the parks and recreation department to install it in the plaza at Bowling Green shortly after.

As we continued to walk through the city, we passed the New York Stock Exchange where Erik and Jon stopped to talk to a few NYPD officers who were on duty patrolling the area fully armed with machinery and canines. They told us that since 9/11, officers are always there because they anticipate future terrorist attacks on the Exchange. Hopefully that will never happen, but it's comforting to know that they are prepared for the worst.

Next was Trinity Church (where parts of National Treasure were filmed) and Ground Zero. At Ground Zero, we spoke to a man on security who described a little bit about what they were planning to build and how high the original towers were. He pointed to a nearby building and said the previous buildings were 2 1/2 times that height. I couldn't believe it! Below is a picture of the pit where they are in the beginning stages of building new towers. The tallest one, named the Freedom Tower will be a symbolic 1776 feet tall marking the year of the Declaration of Independence signing. Very cool!

(Rendition of Freedom Tower & Surrounding Towers)

After Ground Zero, we headed to Little Italy for some yummy dinner. We ate at a restaurant called Cafe Napoli and after some good food and great conversation, we were ready to get back to Bryan's and climb into bed. We were very tired. Stay tuned for part 2.