From the Statue of Liberty to Chinatown

Today was a jam-packed day!! It was another hot one, which made it a little unbearable to get around, but we survived.  

Andrew and I started our day at the Today Show with Matt Lauer and Al Roker.

I love the Today Show, so it was nice to see Matt in person. Unfortunately, I didn’t get to shake hands with him, but it was cool just to see him in person. Andrew’s parents even think they saw us on T.V., which was exciting! We DVRed the show, so we’ll have to check when we get home.

Another thing I wanted to do was get coffee at Dean and Deluca’s (I was a big fan of the show Felicity), but we had trouble finding the place. We kept seeing people with the cups and later found out it was just around the corner from where the Today Show is filmed. Of course, we kept walking the other way to find it!!

Our next stop was the ferry to Liberty Island and Ellis Island.

We waited about 40 minutes in a winding line in the hot sun.

When we finally got on the ferry, it was short ride to Liberty Island. It was really cool seeing the Statue of Liberty in person. Sean had downloaded a podcast so we didn’t need to purchase the audio tour. The podcast was short and to the point, which was great.

I wonder how many people use this pose each day

Get crazy!!

After a quick lunch, we took the ferry to Ellis Island, which was a great experience. It’s hard to believe so many people walked through the same rooms we did just to make new lives for themselves. Unfortunately, we also learned about those that were sent back to their countries for a variety of reasons.

Our next stop was Ground Zero, where they are currently working on a memorial.

We walked down Wall Street.

The next thing on the agenda (I told you it was a jam-packed day) was a walk across the Brooklyn Bridge. It was a bit different than what we expected or had seen on T.V. and movies. Part of it was also under construction, which was disappointing.

Instead of stopping halfway across the bridge and walking back, the boys wanted to walk all the way across. Julie and I were promised a place to sit down with air conditioning, but it did not come soon enough.

We were a bit crabby.

It was made better with 2 ciders!

The boys as navigators. The New York Subway system could learn a lot from London's Tube...it took some time to learn this one.

Our last stop for the day was Chinatown for dinner. We chose a restaurant called 426 Shanghai. Julie chose it because it was very busy, which is always a good sign.

Andrew and me with Chinese beer.

We ordered 2 appetizers, 2 entrees, and 2 side dishes. We thought it would be a lot of food, but we actually did a good job of almost finishing it all!! I guess we were hungry from all the walking! We took a quick stop in Little Italy for some gelato and headed home for the night.