the education of henry

Day 14: New York City, Ellis Island, the Statue of Liberty

2023-09-27

This morning we started out in Connecticut - and traffic was crazy. More orderly than Boston, but so many cars! I spent my morning drive listening to Stuart Maclean tell stories from The Vinyl Cafe. It's been my favorite thing to listen to on the trip.

Miles and mile and miles of cars....

We finally got back to New York after a couple hours of stop and go driving.

Coming up on New York City.

Driving by Central Park.

Never thought we'd be driving through here....

Cutting through the park.

Driving by Madison Ave.

I can't believe we are in New York City.

On FDR Drive, looking at bridges.

That's the Brooklyn Bridge.

One World Trade Center - the Freedom Tower.

A little closer. We also saw the 9-11 memorials, but just from the car - there was obviously no place to park.

In the Holland Tunnel.

Now we're in New Jersey.

NYC skyline from Liberty State Park.

The 9-11 memorial in New Jersey.

Another shot of the skyline.

Walking through the old train station to get our tickets.

On the ferry to Ellis Island.

So many exhibits to look at.

It's an impressive building.

Onward to Lady Liberty!

On Liberty Island!

What the statute looks like on the inside.

The view from the pedestal.

Dad and I went up to the crown! The stairs were spiral and very narrow. 165 steps.

The steps - one set going up, and one down, on the same central axis.

Taking a break on the climb.

Ignore the lights - this is looking at the face of the statue from the inside.

The Crown!

The city seems farther away from up here.

You can feel the statue move with the wind ....

You can see some of the arm and the bottom of the torch out this window.

Another shot of the stairs.

Time to go back down.

Asking a few more questions.

Some of the inside structure.

These bolts hold the statue on the platform.

The cornerstone for the pedestal.

This is the original torch.

Back on the ferry.

The front of the train station we walk through earlier.

One last look.

Then we hit the road again. We must have timed things right, because heading west out of Jersey City was easy. Lots of cars, but we were moving almost the whole time. We saw an official welcome sign, and then we were on a 12-lane road for quite a while.

Another state to add to our collection. Fun fact: I've been in 6 states in the last 36 hours (MA, RI, CT, NY, NJ, PA).

Hard to get a picture of something so big, but this highway is an impressive feat of engineering.

Last exit for the day.

We finished in Horsham, PA today. Before we checked into the hotel we made a stop for groceries. The hotel we have for the next three nights has a tiny kitchen, so we are going to take advantage of that.

Today was another amazing day - New York City, Central Park, ferry rides, Ellis Island, seeing Lady Liberty, climbing up to the crown.... It was great! Thanks again to Mom for planning all of these adventures, running the GPS, and otherwise taking care of me and Dad.

And that was today's adventure! Come back to see what happens next!