Day 5 - New York City & on to Boston!

 On the way to the ferry we passed Ground Zero...I had never thought about how the buildings were right on the sidewalk & streets....this is what it looked like as we passed from the bus window. Tower 1 is center & 2 is in the right hand corner of the picture.

 We took the ferry to Ellis Island. We stopped to let people off on Liberty Island. We didn't get off because you can only go into Lady Liberty if you have a ticket, which is given in a lottery type of give away. Only a certain number of people are allowed to go up inside per day.

 Melissa & I on the ferry crossing to Ellis Island!

This is the main hall where people were registered and evaluated for consideration on their eligibility to enter the USA. Oh if those walls could talk! We walked from room to room and followed the process. It could be the beginning of a new life in the country of dreams come true or the death of that dream....

 This metal sculpture was inside one of the buildings on 9/11. It used to be a round sphere.

 Here we are on Wall Street. We were surrounded by many famous buildings such as the Stock Exchange!

 The picture above is a panoramic of the 9/11 memorial. Names of the dead are on the edge of the waterfall, on all 4 sides. There is a section of calm water and them it falls very loudly to the next section before it fall again. (There are 2 of these water features which are identical except for the names).  In the center of the pic  is a shiny building which will be the museum. It is unknown when it will open. You can see in the upper right hand side of the pic another tower that has been started. it was a very sobering memorial. I remember most of what was on the tv the day the towers fell and to actually be standing where so many died was pretty tough. I was very emotional.

 I was able to take a very long shot of Melissa & Riley as they stood at the edge of the memorial. I took care of Riley the day of 9/11. Of course she was so young she wouldn't remember any of it first hand.

We got to go to 5th Avenue to go shopping! (Well, mostly window shopping!)  We wandered through Tiffany's They have attendants in their elevators! We unfortunately didn't buy anything there! We also just winidow shopped through the Apple Store. It is huge and underground! We had a great time in FAO Schwartz . Riley & I custom chose a box of crayons! I bought a birthday gift for Riley (she promised to be surprised!) and we bought candy by the pound there too!!!! It was a store you spend days in! I think it was 4 floor & we only saw parts of 2!!! Next we had a 5 hour drive to Boston which took over 7 hours because of an fiery accident that shut the New Jersey Turnpike down both ways. We were very happy to see our hotel that night! Unfortunately is was a short sleep!