We got into NYC last night on Jet Blue and reached our hotel at about 10 p.m. We had a quick dinner in the bar, watched the game, I checked email and went to bed at midnight.
We signed up for an 8-hour tour of New York City last night, and we left the hotel after 10 a.m. on our adventure. The stops included:
* The United Nations building - through security, visitor center, pictures outside.
* Rockefeller Plaza - inside, outside, Today show building, skating rink, etc.
* Empire State Building - up to the 86th floor observation deck, gift shop, etc.
* Water Street Gourmet deli - got lunch at 3 pm.
* Battery Park ferry - caught ferry boat to Liberty Island, ate lunch.
* Statue of Liberty - pictures, gift shop, feed seagull. Can't go up in statue.
* Ground Zero - I was surprised by how small the footprint is. And how everything around the site is open for business.
* Chinatown - lots of open-air booths - fruit, vegetables, seafood, jewelry, souvenirs, etc.
* Clogged expressways - took an hour to get from Chinatown to Elmhurst. Arrgghh. We got back at 7 p.m. - a 10 hour day.
The latter gave me the chance to talk genealogy with the ladies from Nova Scotia across the aisle. They were surprised that I knew where Cape Breton was... one of my CVGS colleagues has ancestry there! I told them about my Norway research and trip to Voss in 1999. Then the traffic jam broke and we had to stop.
Some pictures - here is your humble correspondent with a friend at the Empire State Building.
Here is the Statue of Liberty from the boat with the south end of Manhattan in the background. I have a similar picture from 1998 with the World Trade Center in the mix.
The wireless connection at the hotel is crappy, I can't read my email using cox web mail tonight - they never load. Bloglines has been slow but manageable, and blogger worked pretty well (no graphics). I downloaded today's pictures to the laptop and experimented to see how long it would take to upload two of them - not too bad. I'll do more during the week.
I don't know what I'll do tomorrow - go to Ellis Island (by myself, Linda is exhausted and can't climb subway stairs); go to the New York Public Library; walk around Calvary Cemetery in Queens looking for Annie Moore. I hope that Calvary is not the cemetery we saw from the expressway that extends for about a mile on both sides of the road.
4 comments:
For all of us not (yet) in NYC, I recommend the Bowery boys podacst. They tell about different aspects of the city, often with historical background. http://theboweryboys.blogspot.com/
Randy - when I saw the Statue of Liberty (mid 60s) the skyline was similar - as the WTC had not been built yet. Our boat ride took us around the statue, we didn't get to stop on the Island. Have a great time & good luck finding Annie!
Welcome to New York! I have only been to NYC three times so I can't offer you any tips, except take Linda on a carriage ride in Central Park!
You are going to love the NYPL Genealogy section - it is wonderful!
I think that Calvary IS pretty big...I just got to Greenwood for the first time in August when visiting my family in NYC and even though I knew it was big, the sheer size of it was very startling! It took 4 of us nearly an hour to find my gg grandmother, and that's with a map and knowing the lot number.
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