Highlander’s Twisted Easter 08 Tour Day 2

[highlander447]

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Cast of Today’s Performance: Liberty Island, Ellis Island, Shopping, Knicks v’s Grizzlies
Me- Steve (Planner, Provider, Easily Pleased)
DW-Jacquie (Does what she’s told when it suits)
DD-Stephanie (Princesses grow up, be warned)
DS- Danny (Here’s hoping he grows up)

Early rise for me today up at 4am, so made coffee, checked email and typed up my notes from day before, I watch some TV on my laptop. DD rises around 6:45, the rest soon follow, the plan for today is Liberty Island and Ellis Island, I have the 9am time slot reserved and subway directions all planned out thanks to Hop Stop (which by the way is very good as its very accurate), I head down to the subway while the gang get dressed, the subway is literally 2 min walk, I purchase 4 1 day fun passes from vending machine at $7.50 each, when I get back to room gang are ready to leave.
Picture of the Cast before going down subway

DW and Danny have problems swiping their passes to get through turnstile, but after some words of encouragement like “are you thick”, “how stupid are you both” and “I’m going myself” they get through, thanks to the numpties we have to wait a whole 5 mins for the next train (schedules people), using the subway for the first time was very easy, I think it helped that our subway 49th St is very small and simple, all the subways though are well signed and it’d be impossible to seriously get lost, the subway car is pretty empty so we all get a seat and we arrive at our stop in 20 mins thereabouts, we exit and head for Battery Park after a few minutes of searching we find it, now it is cold but no worse than back home, but down here at the sea its freezing the wind is seriously strong and even a brass monkey would be in dire need, but I still muster the troops for some pics in the park, (I mean by god we’re Scot’s its bloody T-Shirt weather)

As you can see obviously we’re not really Scottish , we head for the ferry with E-tickets in hand and its busy, a security guard though sends us to ticket office queue despite me querying as they are E-ticket and bought to avoid queuing, and yes you guessed it once at front of ticket office queue (15mins), I’m told to head straight to security line as I have my tickets , the security line is huge, the standby line is huge and its only 8:15am, 40 mins later we are boarding our ferry, after being subjected to airline type security, belt, jackets etc all removed, x-ray, metal detectors, they take guarding the lady very seriously here, in fact more seriously than the airports as we found out later, the journey to the island was about 15 mins and another 15 mins to dock think the wind was causing a few problems.
Some pics on way to island

Once of the ferry, we head on into the island, first stop was the audio tour as I had pre-paid this, but the guy their advised me to head to the monument first for entry and after that to return for the tour, tickets to get inside the monument are limited and free but as I had pre-booked etc we had these included in our admission as well, now even at the space shuttle launch a couple of years ago security was not this tight, to get into the monument you join a line (like being at Disney but no fast passes here), to get in a line, then you go through security, x-ray, detector, belt, jackets, shoes etc and the machine that analyzes for explosives, then your in all in it took about 40 mins ( not too bad and it was only 9:30am), inside the monument there are exhibits of the drawing’s, models used to help create and build the lady, also facts about the reason why France gifted the statue and how America thought about it all very interesting and not really boring
Some pics inside monument



We then climbed the stairs to the observation deck, now they do have a lift (use it)
Although the stairs are not many its very steep and not being the most athletic of types it was a struggle and a rest was partaken by me and DW (who has an illness that affects her breathing and she had a mini panic attack half way up due to breathlessness, still every cloud has a silver lining as I used her for my excuse to rest, therefore keeping my manly pride firmly in place), once on the deck you do have a beautiful clear view of the skyline
Pics from deck

The walk down was much easier (Duh), by now it was around 11am so food was needed as we had skipped breakfast, so we headed for the food court 2 cheeseburger and fries, 1 veggie burger and fries,1 hot dog and fries, 3 sodas, 1 hot chocolate =$39, not exactly the regime of healthy eating but it did the job required, next stop where else shopping I mean we had been here for over 2 hours and DD hadn’t bought anything yet and that was soon remedied, so souvenirs and clothing purchased we then did the audio tour of the island, this consists of being given a head set and a hand control, you follow the path around the monument stopping at various statues etc and keying in the number displayed at the spot and you get a narrative through your head phones of why this is here, pretty good and learning as you walk
Random pics on island

[highlander447]

After the audio tour we hand our head sets over and head for the ferry to Ellis Island, now as we all know nearly everyone complains about the South American school kid groups in Orlando, well here in NYC it American high school teachers that are the problem, rather than organising there groups then joining the queue they send a few in that head to front then the teachers herd all their kids to the front totally ignoring the queue and basically teaching their kids total lack of respect for other’s, we have to wait for next ferry thanks to this tactic, luckily its only a 25 min wait but there’s no shelter and the wind is still there (brrr), once at Ellis Island we hand in our voucher for the audio tour, now Ellis Island is very interesting as well but it’s very museum oriented and we spend a couple of hours here, but to see it all you’d need to spend at least half a day, also as we had no personal interest in it as we had no family that came over (that we know of) there was no incentive to immerse ourselves in it
Some pics


We get ferry back to land, the stalls plus performers are now all in full swing at the park despite the cold

We start walking as I want to take the gang to Century 21; on the way we do visit the WTC as it’s opposite the store, no pics here just a sober moment of reality.
We then head into the store and its manic in here, the guys department is the only place sanity reigns, clothes are bought bargains are had and we head on up to Canal Street on the way we find a store selling scarves, gloves etc 99 cents each plus other stuff kids want, on Canal street you have all the street vendors etc selling basically any knock off gear you want , also 6 I love New York T’s for $10, tat bought, I remember the guide’s all going on about canal jean co so look at our map and we head there on the way we stop at various store’s eventually we get there now this is quite a distance we’ve walked much to DS disgust, but I had assured then this store was worth it, unfortunately yes you guessed it its closed down, but all is not lost as I spy a liquor store across street so check out prices for later and I’m impressed 1.75ltr of Absolut $25, we get subway back to Times Square where I want to exchange the vouchers I bought over the net for the top of the rock, this took about 15 mins as there where 3 staff but only 1 serving, back to hotel we dropped bags, and got refreshed for our evening out to The Garden.
We get the subway to 34th street and come out at Macy’s ask a police officer where Garden is and he directs us nice and easy, we decide to have a Chinese from an express place opp the Garden, this is just a café type place help yourself and get it weighed total cost $32 for 4 with juices as well, after hunger pangs are gone we head over to The Garden where I collect our tix for Circus and the basketball games, tonight’s game is NY Knicks vs. the Memphis Grizzlies, it was a great night out but the Knicks have been playing rubbish this season and to be honest the Grizzlies where great to watch and they won 120 to 106, a few celebrities at the match Kim Cattrall (sex in the city) and John Malkovich



After the game we wander the gift stores and get Macy’s pic, subway back home,

back in apartment by 11pm, family hit the sack we are all very tired and by midnight all sound asleep

[Guest]

Cool On day I hope to go

[littletrev]

Another good day.

[Jools]

Steve! does Jacquie know you've put that photo of her at the mental testing place You are so naughty

you don't look like hardy Scots with those coats on

[Michelle]

Oh it looks chilly

Fab day.

[purple myra]

you certainly crammed a lot in today. great pictures

[jeanwales]

Wow amazing day - loving it and can't wait to go myself xx

[jandlsmum]

what a great day

[floridamo]

Great report and photo's