Almost to New York

Sunday 29 Nov 2009

Warrenville, NJ

It was a beautiful sunny day all day. It was also almost 60°. Really nice. We left our little abode around 10 am after only a cup of tea, no coffee. We decided to drive to New York to visit Ground Zero and then see the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. We instead drove straight to Liberty Park. It is the largest grassy park in the area. It is still in New Jersey and runs along the backside (across the water) of Liberty Island, Ellis Island, and the Train Station. The three are called the Liberty Trilogy. We walked and walked and walked. It was a really pretty walkway with lanterns all along it. People were walking, and riding bikes and fishing along the way. We had an amazing view of Manhattan as well as Brooklyn and Staten Island.

As we were walking it looked as if there were a bridge over to Ellis Island. When we got there it was actually a guarded road. I guess for supplies or something. Anyway, we were not allowed to walk across it. So we continued walking.

We finally made it to the ferry terminal and there we bought tickets to ride the ferry to Ellis Island and then Liberty Island. We were hoping we could also ride it over to Manhattan, which we could have, but there are no rides back on Sunday.

It was wonderful going over to Ellis Island. The Registry building is now a restored museum. It has various rooms set up with displays and information about the process the immigrants went through. On the island are also infectious disease quarantine and hospital wards. We first found the wall with all the names. They are all in alphabetical order. Naturally we had to look for family names. First I found a series of Fultons, the Dixons, then we looked for Williamson and then looked for names of friends. It was pretty amazing.

From there we went by ferry to Liberty Island. We still wanted to go to New York and it was starting to get late, so we did not get off the ferry at Liberty Island. They only allow a certain number of people to go up into her crown and they had already met their quota. It was so thrilling just to be close to her and especially to see her from the Harbor. We sat on the ferry staring at her and reading about her on our iPhones.

We rode the ferry back to the Ferry terminal at Liberty National Park. We walked all the way back to the truck. It was exhausting for my knees.

We got in the truck and headed for the Holland Tunnel to New York. We wanted to drive over somewhere near Ground Zero, check it out and then get something to eat. Unfortunately the traffic was horrendous. We were bumper to bumper for at least 30 min just approaching the tunnel. We finally decided to bail and did so at the last exit before the actual tunnel. We headed back to our Rig.

We drove easily back to Warrenville which is really a pretty little place. It has two of the largest flags I have ever seen. They are also decorating it for Christmas. They have toy soldiers lined up all over the place. We found a little Country Restaurant that had several Early Bird Specials to choose from. The food was very good. It included soup, salad, entrée, and dessert. We were full after the soup and salad, so we brought most of the entrée home. There was a grocery store next door so we popped in there for a few items we needed then came home.

We fed YumYum and then wandered over to the Elks Lodge. We decided we’d have a drink and play pool, then come back. It turned out that Rob (who was hot) was challenged by several of the regulars so we stayed awhile. It was fun. We came home, ate one of our Canoles from Mikes in Boston, watched TV and went to bed. Our goal is to leave at 7 am tomorrow. It is a 6 hour drive to Virginia.