Ellis Island

Last full day of sightseeing before traveling home tomorrow! We woke early, of course, checked out of our hotel and then drove to the New Jersey ferry for the ride to Ellis Island. We used our GPS and came in a different way from everyone else, BUT several ended up following US to the parking lot as they got turned around and took wrong turns. After paying and parking, we walked to the station. Above is the inside of it UNLESS it is the inside of Ellis Island buiding instead....I can't remember!  Below are two views of New York City before boarding the ferry. I asked someone on the ferry where the twin towers would have been....she was a local and thought it was in a place where it seemed like something was missing. Does that make sense? When you looked at the skyline, you could kind of imagine where she meant, but now I can't see it. It was sad to remember that day and imagine others who might have been traveling on the ferry and to know they saw the destruction and were so close. Today, was a similar day to that day in September, beautiful blue skies and cool temperatures. Hard to imagine such tragedy on such a day as that...or this.

I think the twin towers would have been directly behind their heads.....you can tell it was a bit windy, but this was the best spot for enjoying the ride. 

Once inside you could see the statue from Ellis Island although I should have attempted to frame it better!

Outside before boarding the ferry to the statue. The museum about immigration was very interesting and quite informative.



These sideways pictures are driving me crazy! This one was too cute NOT to include!



We didn't get to go all the way to the crown, but only to the pedestal. There were replicas of her feet  and the torch inside though and a history of her.

We zoomed to the top and zoomed around the base, taking lots of pictures, trying to make the next ferry.

Standing in line for the next ferry with my own little Statue of Liberty.

The ferry took us directly back to the parking lot (without stopping at Ellis Island again), we departed ahead of many although not everyone, I think. We decided to stop for dinner on the way to our hotel. Our choices: Panera Bread, Cracker Barrel or Chick-Fil-A one more time. We decided to stop in the Cracker Barrel to look around their gift shop and look at their menu. We had eaten there many times when the girls were growing up and when we lived in the south, but they didn't remember it much. We ended up eating there and having chicken fried chicken and veggies...something sorely lacking from our vacation diet!  I promised the girls sweet iced tea from Chick-Fil-A on our way to our hotel. HOWEVER, we realized as we pulled out of the parking lot that Chick-Fil-A was closed because it was Sunday. Isn't it cool that they close on Sundays?  We drove to our next and last hotel. Hurrah! Home tomorrow. We spent the evening repacking our clothes and souvenirs, almost breaking a zipper. Our carry ons were heavier as were our checked luggage. We were able to put our Phantom posters as well as Katie's stick bag in someone else's less heavy bags. Whew, I was just glad to have got it all back in. We had all ready sent home a box with papers from all of our sightseeing and band uniforms to lighten the load. I am glad we did that or we would have been faced with bags over the allowable weight. It was good to know we were going home, but before that, one more tour in the morning to the Trenton Barracks and Washington's Deleware Crossing.  My head hit the pillow in another exhausted, but happy state.
Ellie~