Jim, Cheri and I spent October 20 in New York City. We drove from Connecticut to a train station in New York which took us into the city. It was about an hour and a half ride and took us into Grand Central Station. It’s a pretty magnificent place. If you want to see a pretty cool video of a Frozen Grand Central, click here.
I thought about this clip as I was in the station and realized just how massively crazy this must have been when it happened.
After lunch in the station, we decided to go check out the possibility of going to the Statue of Liberty. The tours for inside the statue were already sold out, but I personally wasn’t as interested in that anyway. So we bought tickets which would take us to Liberty Island and Ellis Island. Unfortunately we had no idea what we were in for. We walked and walked and walked just to find the end of the line for getting on the boat.
It was more than an hour just to get on the boat. You have to go through a security screening which involves lots of security guys barking out orders over the crowd and isn’t very pleasant. Then you enter a big holding tank where the masses wait for the one tiny little gang plank to get on the boat. I tell ya, I think they are trying to recreate the immigrant experience and doing a really good job of it. The boat was pretty crowded but we got seats inside and it was a pretty short ride.
On Liberty Island we walked the loop around the statue and it was really neat to see up close and in person.
But the line to get back on the boat was horrendous again and we were hesitant about what Ellis Island would be like. When the boat pulled up there was a big line there too. Since we didn’t know of any family to look up, we decided to stay on the boat and skip Ellis Island. Then back on Manhattan Island, we squeezed out of the boat by way of one tiny gang plank again. This time, with the crowd, and the heaters blowing inside and the boat bouncing up and down, Jim was getting seasick or claustrophobic or both. It was pretty miserable. As we finally reached fresh air, one of the guys helping get people off the boat said “Don’t be considerate of the person in front of you, this is New York.” That at least made us laugh.
But I would not recommend this experience. At minimum have reservations. Then you get to skip the huge line. But I think the "huddled masses yearning to breathe free" experience would be the same. Maybe there are private boats available? I don’t know. Ugh!
After that we walked through Central Park and went to FAO Schwartz. Then dinner and the train ride back.
My mountain man!
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