This is one of those days that will go down in family history..."remember that miserable day we spent at the Statue of Liberty?" Thankfully, we were able to laugh about it at the time; even the kids were troopers. You have to book your timed entry to the boat well in advance, so we had picked Saturday in case Uncle Bill was able to work out any TV show tapings or studio tours for us. We had been watching the weather all week, and it consistently called for rain on Saturday. We packed for the trip accordingly: light weight pants, rain jackets, umbrellas, hats.
Saturday morning dawned as forecast: dreary and gray. It was only drizzling while we walked a few blocks to EssABagel...which was closed for Yom Kippur. Not an auspicious start to the day. We boarded the subway in near Lexington Avenue; by the time we came back to the surface in Battery Park, it was a steady rain. We walked to find somewhere to pick up a picnic lunch (you know, cause it's a great day for a picnic) and a little more breakfast to supplement our coffee-pot oatmeal.
By the time we got back to the ferry, the puddles had become unavoidable and the rain had picked up intensity. James and I briefly debated calling it off and taking the subway back uptown to a museum; we decided to make a go of it. We already had the tickets so, even if we didn't stay long, we might as well see Lady Liberty. (It was so cloudy and rainy that we couldn't even see her from Manhattan!)
We opted to sit inside on the boat, rather uncharacteristic of our family! But, with views like this, it was easy to be convinced that inside was the place to be.
We convinced the kids to duck out for a few quick pictures as we neared the island.
We convinced the kids to duck out for a few quick pictures as we neared the island.
Our first stop was the information center. I had printed out the junior ranger booklets ahead of time, since the park service lost all of their copies in superstorm Sandy a few years ago. The booklets were nearly impossible to handle in their dampened state, so we were glad when the ranger on duty gave us a 1-page version that she said the kids could work on together.
Since we had pedestal passes, there was a fair amount we could do inside. We tried to time our excursions outside during breaks in the weather. Sometimes it worked, but sometimes what appeared to be a "break" at the back of the statue was an illusion...when we made it around to the front, we got the full force of the sheets of rain and wind whipping off the river.
This is fun, right?
You can just see Freedom Tower peeking out of the clouds in the background...
Rudy, having a moment...he was the only one without a hood on his raincoat and with cotton pants, so it was entirely understandable.
After the boys turned in their paper and received their junior ranger badges, we boarded the ferry to Ellis Island. And, guess what? The rain stopped! I guess Murphy has to make an appearance on every family vacation, right?
We had heard that Ellis Island was really interesting. However, it was too much to ask at this point. James and I have great rain shells...but apparently the seams are past due to be resealed. Our lightweight traveling pants were no match for the torrential downpours that we encountered. Add to that mix the fact that the inside of the building on Ellis Island was air conditioned to near freezing. We made a cursory pass through of the rooms and called it a day.
The rain had at least stopped, so we could actually have our picnic! Brady, with his brand new, too big rain jacket, was the perkiest family member by now. I had donned my family cheerleader hat and was working hard to keep everyone going.
By the time we got back on the boat, we had full bellies and had dried off a bit. We felt a little bit better, but still decided to scrap potential plans for the rest of the day (ground zero, Brooklyn, Brooklyn Bridge) and head back to the hotel for some new clothes and a restart.
After a quick change of clothes, we hustled over to the Intrepid Sea, Air, and Space Museum. We had about 20 minutes to get there before the last entry at 5:00. We knew it would leave us only an hour for the museum, but figured it was worth it since admission was free with our museum pass.
We had enough time to walk through the submarine Growler:
We thought it was pretty cool that the Eurodam was in port, since that was our boat for the 2013 Caribbean cruise.
We only had about 45 minutes to explore the carrier. It was a rather high speed tour, but we had time to check out the planes on deck, the bunks, and still read about some of the boat's history. The ship first saw duty in the Pacific, including several direct Kamikaze hits, and even functioned after it became a museum by serving as the operations base for the investigations and recovery after 9/11.
When we left at 6:00, James and I knew we had to deliver on a promise to find the kids some pizza for dinner. We found a bench to sit and watch the sunset; we read reviews and had a few places in mind in Hells Kitchen.
Both of the highly reviewed places were walk up pizza joints; we were in
the mood to sit and be served in a real restaurant. We ended up at
Uncle Mario's, an Italian place complete with the grouchy old signora as
our waitress. Three pizzas and three beers (two root and one real) later, we were happy campers.
We strolled back to Times Square. Brady wanted to track down some souvenir key chains and were were on the lookout for dessert. Enormous delicious crepes, right in Times Square - score! We even came back...to get those durn key chains that Brady left behind.
With a long drive the next day, it was time to call it a night. Early by our NYC standards...we were back to the room by 10:30.
Somehow, I didn't get any pictures on Sunday. We were up and out to quick-foot it back to EssABagel. We grabbed our bagels to go and hailed a taxi to Penn Station for our 10:11 train back to NJ.
It was definitely not enough time to "do" New York City, but I'm not sure there will ever be enough time. On the list of things we wanted to do but didn't get to? Brooklyn Bridge, Top of the Rock, ground zero. Brady added the wax museum to his list while we were there. We never made it to any of the museums: Tenement, MoMA, Natural History, etc. At least we know we can go back someday!
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