Statue of Liberty

One of the things I've never done is the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island tour. We booked tickets for a day when the weather was supposed to be a bit warmer and joined the airport style security line to board the boat.

30-40 mins before getting on the boat!

Of course it was barely 12 degrees but the sunshine and staring upwards meant a little forehead sunburn the next morning!

Mysterious army chinooks accompanying two helicopters

The short boat ride is cool. You get a good view of Manhattan and Ellis Island and obviously the statue gets larger the closer you get. I've only really seen it from so far away.

The boats went to Ellis Island every 20 mins so you were free to wander the small island and spend some time there. Although the small food court reminded me of a crowded American High School cafeteria what with all the visiting tour groups so we gave that a miss.

We only had the tickets up to the mid level pedestal as the newly reopened crown tickets are sold out until late May. But the best view is supposed to be form there anyway.

Empire State building compared to the new 1WTC

How bout deez nutz?

Small Anne & Murd

The small museum in the base was actually really interesting with how it was constructed and shipped over from France. They had a few letters from immigrants written mainly on the 100 year birthday saying how it was the first thing they saw entering the harbour area with all its references to freedom etc.

We did a 30 min guided tour of Ellis Island. Some interesting stuff and you had to use your imagination to picture the lines of immigrants and what they had to go through on arrival to this new country, hoping they would pass the medicals and tests.

There wasn't too much else to see as Hurricane Sandy wiped out all their proper building climate control so they had to move most of their exhibits out.

After nearly 5 hours of on the go time we just passed through the Wall Street area then headed back into Brooklyn for some excellent BBQ food.

Mmmm, smokey