A week in the “Big Apple”…

We drove from the Atlantic City area to Liberty Harbor RV Park in Jersey City and hit NYC full speed ahead. Our first afternoon in the city we negotiated the NJ PATH subway and the NY subway system, went up the Empire State building and had dinner in Times Square.

It was an amazing view of the entire city from the top of The Empire State Building.

The subway and some shots of the electronic billboards of Times Square. So many people, cars, taxi’s, buses, ambulances, police cars… it’s enough to make your head spin out of overstimulation.

Our second day we headed out on a hour long subway ride to the famous Coney Island boardwalk and amusement park area. Sallie had always wanted to ride the infamous “Cyclone” and she was able to score the front car for the ride of her life. On our way home, we went to Rockefeller Center and back to Times Square for another great dinner.

We got to spend some time checking out Grand Central Station. It was so massive, subway, trains, buses and so many people coming and going. There is shopping, dining and enough people watching to fill the day. We were then headed to lunch at Junior’s Cheesecake and the  Broadway production of Kinky Boots. It was so good and cool to be at a show on Broadway.

We spent a couple of days reconnecting with Sallie’s California work partner, Beth, and her husband Philip at their house in Maplewood, NJ, and getting a personally guided bike tour by Beth of Central Park.

Our last day we were able to get tickets to the World Trade Center 9/11 Memorial Museum. It was a profoundly moving 3 hours in the museum. There were probably thousands of attendees and was the quietest experience we’ve ever been apart of. There were actual artifacts from the World Trade Center buildings and area, and an interactive experience that took participants through a chronological timed order of events of the day. It was powerful and took us back to the day, as if we were actually there in the city.

Our last morning we were on the first ferry to the Statue of Liberty & Ellis Island. A couple of days earlier, we were fortunate enough to take a helicopter ride over Governor’s Island, The Statue of Liberty and over the Hudson River views of Manhattan all the way up to Yankee’s Stadium, then back down the river to the financial district. The trip to Ellis Island was an eye opening experience of the hardships the immigrants had to endure once they got off the horrible weeks long journey on over crowded ships. They had to wait in hours/days long lines to be processed, go through medical and sometimes psychiatric/legal exams, husbands and wives separated and processed at different times, children separated from their parents and all not knowing one word of English. Sometimes the immigration officers would deny their entry and send them back home to Europe the next day if they deemed the immigrant “unworthy”… separating families forever. We were so glad to know that our ancestors were worthy and were able to live prosperous and meaningful lives here in the “New World”. We looked up our surnames in the Historical Registers and found our history right there in black and white.

Our helicopter and ferry ride to the Statue of Liberty

2 Comments

  • Candy Francis says:

    Sue and Sally,
    Glad to see your having such a great time on your new adventure. Wishing you many more and nothing but best wishes.

    • Our Hale says:

      Hi Candy & Lila… We are seeing the sights and definitely enjoying ourselves. We are in Montreal Quebec now heading back to the states by the end of August. Hope all is well! Thanks for following our blog.
      Sue & Sallie

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