We spent a very long Saturday in the city. It was a bit different than our usual Saturdays! We had tickets for the Statue of Liberty at 11:00 a.m., so we had to leave on the 8:30 train this morning. Since Saturdays are not work days, we were not crammed in on the train. We got to Grand Central with time to get Starbucks and muffins before hitting the subway. We did have to cram ourselves in to the subway car downtown, but off we went. Serena likes to stand up on the train. She thinks it is cool when there are not enough seats. Luckily we did already have our tickets because our security line was shorter. This first run through was standard airport security. Later, when we had to go through security again to go into the pedestal, we had to stand in an air puffer thing.It checks for explosives, and we were all clear, but they did confiscate my package of crackers in my bag. I felt like a criminal! It freaked Serena out. It was pretty cool to go out to Liberty Island and be in the statue. We walked up 275 steps so we could go out at the top of the pedestal. The steps almost killed me. The kids were troopers and ran off and left me! They are opening the crown back up on July 4, but they are only issuing 200 tickets a day. We left there and went to Ellis Island. It was really interesting. I can’t even imagine the feelings the immigrants had when arriving here.
When we finished that part of the day, it was 4:30. We started walking uptown. We went by the Trade Center site…it is very strange to see this huge empty space where there used to be two buildings that dominated the skyline. Keegan has been full of questions about terrorists and what happened, etc.. Just as I was fixing to make a deal on a “genuine” Coach purse, it started to rain and the little man had to cover up his merchandise! We ran in to St. Paul’s chapel to get out of the rain. This is the chapel that is closest to the Trade Center site, and George Washington worshiped there after he was sworn in as president. We finally found Chinatown, after a nice side trip through the center of government for the city. There are some beautiful buildings there. Chinatown smelled like China, and Serena walked down the street holding her nose. The real thing would probably send her over the edge. We were caught in a downpour before we could explore much further. We looked a bit like drowned tourists before we finally found the subway station. Who knew that the trains would be full at 7 p.m. on a Saturday night. We were cramming onto one train to Grand Central, and Keegan and Coley had already gotten on. I pushed Serena on and the door started to close on me. I think the lady behind me pushed me in. It was interesting! We grabbed very quick pizza at the station and got on the train to come home.
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