Well after our log entry on Sunday 7th Ocober we went to ground zero, the statue of liberty, ellis island and statten island.
Ground zero was a rather strange place to go as it is now a building site and you can't actually see anything there because of the high fences. It was very sobering, but the stalls selling tacky gifts and the tourists pushing there cameras through the fences to get a picture made it feel a bit of a strange place to go.
After this we joined the endless queue to go to liberty island. We were security screened for the 20th time in three days!!!!! and loaded on to a boat that was absolutely rammed full. The Australian lady sitting next to us said it reminded her of some kind of refuge boat!!!! Which was a good description.
Again it was very very hot and we had a lovely walk around the island, although were too late for tickets to go up in the statue.
We then loaded on to the next boat to ellis island and had a look round the museum. For those who don't know ellis island was where all immigrants to USA went and is now an old building with lots of information about how they assessed whether immigrants could stay. There was an interesting test for those who were illiterate and how they tested whether a person had a good enough mental capacity. Needless to say I had no trouble, but the same could not be said for Tony (only joking, ha ha). Tony has said that I am not to be horrible to him when writing this, but as it is usually me updating this it is hard to resist!
The best part of the trip to Ellis Island was when we both got an ice cream and sat on the grass outside. My ice cream was melting faster than I could eat it and was running down my fingers so I took the top off of it and put it on the grass. With that about 30 HUGE seagulls came swooping down to steal the ice cream. I legged it but tony just sat there in amongst the birds shaking his head at my stupidity. It was a very funny moment and I am sure one of many to come!!!
Once we were back to Manhatten we decided to take a ride on the statten island ferry as it is free and you get a great view of New York on the return journey. We got off the boat at statten island for about half an hour and walked along the shore. It was just getting dark and there is a memorial to all those from statten island who died at the world trade centre. This is the best memorial I have seen so far as it featured a silloute of the faces with there details and it faces out to sea towards NY. It really showed the human side of what happened and was worth the trip.
When we returned to NY it was dark and the lights of manhatten were just as I had imagined and a bit surreal to be seeing the view that I have seen on the TV for so long.
New York has been everything we expected and more.
After three exhausting days it was off to Atlantic City - but that is a new story.