The Big Apple (day four)

Today was our last whole day of touristy opportunities in the great Big Apple. Mom and I decide to visit several historical places that can be found within the city. I figured I might as well mix some education in with my fun…seeing as how I had nothing better to do.

We began the day on Staten Island, where we made the journey to some park of which the name has escaped my memory. I think it was something like Battery Park. There were several monuments there….but I really never stopped to look at them. It’s kind of off topic…but I saw a really big bird wandering through the park. I would swear that it was a turkey, but I have no idea why a turkey would have been there. Mom took my picture with it…just because it was odd.

We went into this building to buy ferry tickets to Liberty Island. There were a few park rangers there, and they had three squirrels running around them like crazy. The squirrels would crawl up their legs, and then just sit on the shoulders of the rangers. It was so amazing. One of the furry critters came right up to me and put its front paws on my foot. I guess that it was looking for food or something. Mom took plenty of pictures of these little guys.

In order to get inside the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty [everything from there up is blocked off], you must first go through two security checkpoints. These consists of about 1.5 hours standing in line total. You have to go through two metal detectors, two x-ray machines, and a ‘puffer’. I had never seen a puffer before…but it is basically this big machine that you walk into. It blows giant air puffs at your entire body. It can detect harmful chemicals…like explosives and junk. I know, because I asked the security guy.

The museum at Liberty Island was pretty cool. I took a picture standing right next to an exact replica of the statue’s face. The museum basically just described how the statue was built and stuff. As far as the actual statue goes, it really wasn’t that amazing to me. Big copper thing. Really tall. I’ve seen better.

I’m not dissing the statue, because I know that it represents so many wonderful things about America. It is truly an inspirational American artifact, but the plain and simple truth is that it is quite boring. You climb stairs, and then look out at the skyline. You can see New York and New Jersey skyscrapers. That’s really about it.

We ate lunch at an outside patio. There were all types of various sea birds there that I could never think to identify. They basically attacked any spare crumb of food that they could see. These birds were so brave that they would actually LAND ON the table at which you were sitting, and then STARE at you…just WAITING for you to die, so that they could eat your lunch, and then have your carcass for dessert.

At one point about halfway through the meal, Mom got up to make a phone call. She called me over to help her, so I left our lunch on the table. I turned around less than three seconds later, and my ENTIRE meal had literally flown away. The stupid birds were covering out table, and my food was gone. I shooed them away immediately, and soon found that the only remnants were a handful of my mom’s fries. I was very sad.

After we left Liberty Island, we took the ferry to Ellis Island. I had never heard anything about the place, other than its name, until today. Ellis Island is where all of the immigrants went whenever they first arrived in New York. It was just a honkin’ big building filled with hundreds upon hundreds of pictures of immigrants and things concerning their lives at the island. All of the pictures had captions beside them, and there were a few good quotes written on plaques on the walls.

That’s really about all that was there. I’m sure that this would have been way more interesting to me if I had learned some more background of the place before I visited it. I just couldn’t get into the groove of reading caption after caption after caption. I guess I’m just not a very good history buff.

Our next stop was Ground Zero. The memorial is still in the construction phase, so there was not much for us to do there. A fence surrounded the place, and there were a few signs describing what had happened there as a temporary display for tourists to look at. Through the chain fence, you could see the area that the Twin Towers used to be located. It looked like a disaster zone, even though there was no wreckage left. Apparently, a memorial museum is supposed to open this spring, but it was not open yet for the public to see.

We then decided to head for the Empire State Building. It cost $16 per person to go to the top, so we decided to just go into the ground floor, simply so we could claim that we had ‘been’ there. I considered buying a toy gorilla, but then thought better of it. We took several pictures, and then left. All I can say about the building is that it is tall. Really, really tall.

Ummmm…then it was to Grand Central Station. We saw Michael Jordan’s restaurant, which was kinda cool. It was too expensive to eat there, so we just ate a really big pretzel from the fast food places. We shopped in a few of the stores…and I even bought a book. I haven’t decided if it is for me or Gary yet. LOL. I think that I’ll give it to him, but then state that he has to share it with me. I don’t know if that is considered being an Indian giver or not, but I don’t care.

By then, it was time to head back to the hotel. I worked on packing for the trip home tomorrow, and then took a shower.

Well, it’s time for the end of yet another well-documented day in the life of me.