NY, part 5 (9-11 memorial, Brooklyn Bridge, Grand Central Terminal, etc)

After Ellis Island, we continued our walking tour. We passed the statue of the girl facing the bull, Federal Hall, NYSE, and stopped at Trinity church to listen to a choir singing.












Everywhere we went, Lorane was always really careful to avoid all of the grates.


We ate lunch at the Shake Shack for the first time.






We walked through this beautiful mall.












Then we spent a few quiet minutes at the 9-11 memorial. This was a beautiful, special place.


















We thought this was cool—the modern glass building next to that beautiful brick building.


We walked to and across the Brooklyn Bridge.

Chalonn graffitied the bridge. 

We took the subway to Grand Central Terminal.












We grabbed more NY pizza for dinner and ate it in our hotel lobby before heading back to Lorane's house on the train.


Goodbye, New York! I really did love spending time in that city. I think (if we didn't have 5 kids) I would love to live there for awhile. And if I can’t live there, I will just have to go back and visit. I feel like we saw a lot in two days, yet we just skimmed the surface. There is so much more to experience in that city. I hope it’s not too long before we make it back!

NY, part 4 (the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island)

We had our first adventure with the New York subway system on Saturday morning. We were super careful to plan out our route and understand what we were doing only to have our plan thwarted by a closed subway line. So began episode two of “pretend we’re on amazing race.” Thankfully, we ran into another couple who was also going to the Statue of Liberty, but who had the sense to stay calm and figure out an alternate route and who was willing to help us out.

We made it to check in and take our ferry over just fine.

We arrived on the island and began our tour of lady liberty. 

 

We began our spirally ascent to the crown. 

We made the twisty descent back down.

We took the ferry to Ellis Island and spent a few minutes looking around at the exhibits and reading those powerful stories of coming to America. 

This is beautiful:

It was a wonderful experience to see the Statue of Liberty up close, to explore the Ellis island museum, and to reflect and have conversations with these ladies about hope, liberty, immigration, work, sacrifice, privilege, humanity, and compassion.