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Our last day in NYC was a trip to the Statue of Liberty. I was really excited to see this even though I know it is basically a tourist trap and I have enough of that with Walt Disney World. But my grandparents were some of the huddled masses that came over and saw Lady Liberty and I just loved feeling like I was seeing history.
This trip took much longer than I would have liked with most of the day just waiting in line for ferries and entrance to the statue. After Liberty Island we headed over to Ellis Island which was completely refurbished a few years back. They have a great museum with lots of old pictures of immigrants. The museum also shows the history of the island and it was interesting to note that the island was abandoned and the buildings in disrepair as recently as the 80’s.
We returned by ferry to Manhattan with the dilemma of how to get rid of the bikes before we got on the subway in rush hour traffic. We had speculated throughout our trip on what we would do with them…give them to charity, a helpful local kid, sell them…who knows. While we were trying to decide a man opened a nice little box and said “wanna buy a Rolex”? I said “no, wanna buy a bicycle?” And just like that one of our bikes was gone. The second bike went to another vendor selling t-shirts. He seemed like a good kid and I was glad I could help him out a bit. We sold these bikes cheap since we really just wanted to get rid of them and had already saved a lot of money by buying bikes over renting them for the week anyway. Of course, being the sentimental people we are, we just had to take goodbye pictures with our bikes before we sold them.
Without bikes I felt a bit like a kryptonite infected superman. All of a sudden we were moving at mere mortal speeds. We walked to the New York Stock Exchange – where most of my fortune was lost. Then we walked to the former location of the twin towers just days before the 9-11 anniversary. The day was so pretty and peaceful that it was hard for me to even imagine that day 8 years ago. It was a very sad moment for me. I felt bad for all the families forever affected by that horrible event. The one bright spot was thinking of all the friendly New Yorkers I’d met during my vacation and the many people I saw enjoying the Brooklyn Bridge and other city landmarks. I’m sure many of the people lost that day loved their city and will be happy that it is still prospering and a safe and happy place to be.
Cat “Farewell my Northern Friends” Cathy
This trip took much longer than I would have liked with most of the day just waiting in line for ferries and entrance to the statue. After Liberty Island we headed over to Ellis Island which was completely refurbished a few years back. They have a great museum with lots of old pictures of immigrants. The museum also shows the history of the island and it was interesting to note that the island was abandoned and the buildings in disrepair as recently as the 80’s.
We returned by ferry to Manhattan with the dilemma of how to get rid of the bikes before we got on the subway in rush hour traffic. We had speculated throughout our trip on what we would do with them…give them to charity, a helpful local kid, sell them…who knows. While we were trying to decide a man opened a nice little box and said “wanna buy a Rolex”? I said “no, wanna buy a bicycle?” And just like that one of our bikes was gone. The second bike went to another vendor selling t-shirts. He seemed like a good kid and I was glad I could help him out a bit. We sold these bikes cheap since we really just wanted to get rid of them and had already saved a lot of money by buying bikes over renting them for the week anyway. Of course, being the sentimental people we are, we just had to take goodbye pictures with our bikes before we sold them.
Without bikes I felt a bit like a kryptonite infected superman. All of a sudden we were moving at mere mortal speeds. We walked to the New York Stock Exchange – where most of my fortune was lost. Then we walked to the former location of the twin towers just days before the 9-11 anniversary. The day was so pretty and peaceful that it was hard for me to even imagine that day 8 years ago. It was a very sad moment for me. I felt bad for all the families forever affected by that horrible event. The one bright spot was thinking of all the friendly New Yorkers I’d met during my vacation and the many people I saw enjoying the Brooklyn Bridge and other city landmarks. I’m sure many of the people lost that day loved their city and will be happy that it is still prospering and a safe and happy place to be.
Cat “Farewell my Northern Friends” Cathy
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