One of the things I have never done is go to Ellis Island, and I really wanted to go and for us to take our children. We finally decided to go today, and it was a great trip!
We left our house at 9, which is not too early (I actually think we should have gone a little later in the day, so it wasn't so hot). We made it to the parking lot by 11:40 after stopping once for gas, and then made it for the 12 o'clock ferry. I think we purchased tickets for a specific ferry, but the way it looks, I think they just want you to have a ticket.
Our first stop was Ellis Island. Once you get there, they give you an audio set, which is part of the admission fee, but we all decided that the audio things were hard to hear, tough to maneuver, and that we would rather just do it ourselves. We wandered around there for an hour, and then went to see the movie on the second floor called "Island of Hope, Island of Tears." I highly recommend it--it had all kinds of cool archival photos, and film. Made you feel like you were really there.
Matthew wanted to go...I know because he asked me every 4 minutes..."when are we going to the Statue of Liberty?" It wasn't that he wanted to go to the Statue of Liberty...he just wanted to leave Ellis Island. So, we left, and took the ferry over to Liberty Island to see the Statue of Liberty up close. Apparently you can't get tickets for the actual Statue until November 4th, and so we just walked around the base, took tons of pictures, etc.
This is when we all got hot. It was probably around 92 degrees at 3, and there is no shade, and we were all hot. Which makes me tired and grumpy. Now I wanted to go. And so did the others. We got on a ferry, walked a nice little walk to our car, got on the New Jersey Turnpike, and we were home at 6. It was easy, fast, and a great trip.
One of the things that I have learned is to not make these trips all day events...this makes everyone exhausted, and grumpy. As it turned out, Chris went to a friend's house tonight, Anna met a friend, Timmy went to a friend's house, and Matthew went to see his friend, Davis, who just got back from a week down the shore. So, they all had fun at Ellis Island, but still had fun the rest of the day, so they don't feel like they missed anything fun by doing something with their family.
Here are some photos:
No comments:
Post a Comment
I would love to know what you think!