Our daughter, Ann, and my nephew, Ryan Shuman, came to visit yesterday evening. Ryan is working in NY City as a consultant these days, and Ann came to join us in NYC and the start of our cruise up the Hudson River. So we had Ryan and Ann here for dinner on the aft deck.
Then today, we did the tourist thing and took the ferry from our marina to Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty.
Ellis Island was really well done. The main immigration processing center has been completely restored and is filled with photos and artifacts and the stories of it's early 20th century heyday when immigration was open to all that came and 12 million people immigrated to the United States through Elllis Island from the 1890s through the 1920s. After that, immigration control laws were passed by congress. There was also a film depicting the hardships endured by those millions to cross the ocean and gain access to the land of the free.
This is the main "registration hall" that was filled with chairs and benches where as many as 5,000 immigrants per day sat waiting after their long and usually awful boat trips to America.
Then we went on the ferry to Liberty Island, but we had seen it before so we just enjoyed the views from the water and didn't get off the ferry with the huddled masses yearning to climb the statue.
It's a nice easy walk back from the Liberty Island ferry dock to our boat because our marina is located Liberty Landing State Park, where the ferrys depart for Ellis Island.This evening, we went over to Manhattan and walked to the "Ground Zero" site of the World Trade Centers. I didn't know until today that the plan is to rebuild a large single building equal to size and height of the twin towers. At this point, it's still a hole in the ground, but I'm glad that the building has begun. Then Ann took us to Tribeca Grill, a really nice restaurant, and on the way back to Nonchalance we bought wine and sundries for the boat in some of the little borough shops as we walked to the subway.
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