Roam With Me -- NYC from Ellis Island to Ground Zero to Broadway-- June 9, 2017

What a day we had! Our morning began with a ferry ride from Liberty Island to Ellis Island and to the Statue of Liberty.

While both of these places were wonderful, since we were still with our large group, we actually spent far more time waiting in lines for the ferry rides (and the bathrooms!) than we did seeing and appreciating the sites.

When you are part of a group tour, sticking to a schedule is the most important thing. Because of that, we literally were given 10 minutes to see the Statue of Liberty, so that meant that all we could do was hustle over to the front side of it, take a bunch of photos and hustle back.

If you ever get the chance to visit, take as long as you can to really savor the place. We discussed perhaps revisiting it when we were on our own for the next five days, but we ended up seeing so many other places, that we just didn't have time for a repeat visit, but if I get back to NYC, I will definitely make the time to spend a while on both Ellis Island and on all sides (and inside) of the Statue of Liberty. 

We rode another ferry across to Manhattan and got off at Battery Park. From there we walked up Wall Street to take a gander at the famous bull statue. Ha! Good luck with that. There were so many people crowded around it that the best I could do was simply raise my phone above people's heads, aim it in the direction of the bull and snap a photo of whatever I could.

I did this mostly to show just how many people truly were crowded around it and that I wasn't exaggerating in the least. 

At this point, we were a little worried that this was how all of NYC was going to be! Fortunately, though, we soon learned that while it is a busy and populated city, this crazy scene around the bull was not the norm for other areas of Manhattan. Thank goodness! I think my son thought I was crazy for planning to stay another five days in that madness.

From there we walked to Zuccoti Park and partook of a lunch from the various food vendors selling everything imaginable all around the square. While a bit pricey, the food was delicious -- we'd been just a little wary after our horrible experience with food truck vendors in Washington D.C. Thankfully, the vendors in Zuccoti Park were phenomenal.

We were given a good hour to sit and rest which we did, but we also strolled around the area and saw the brass statue of a businessman that survived the events of 9/11 and has become memorialized in a famous photo of it covered in ash. We also stepped into a massive Eataly store straight across the street from there. 

Once we were back with the group we walked down to the Ground Zero memorial park and museum. We spent some time walking around each of the infinity pools that now exist where the two towers once stood.

These have the names of all the victims etched into them. It is a somber yet life-affirming place. 

We went into the museum. You can take photos in much of it, but there is one main exhibit where photography is not allowed, as it should not be. The memorabilia collected there has to be seen in person to appreciate it, and even then, you can hardly wrap your head around the tragic events that unfolded right where you are now standing. I shed quite a few tears while I was in that exhibit, and even these 16 years later, I have a hard time believing that all those people were killed so horribly in such a short amount of time.

After we left the museum, we walked over to the nearest subway station and boarded our first NYC subway ride! We were on at a fairly busy time of day, but we still managed to get all 43 members of our group into one car!

Once we got off at 49th street and started up the stairs, my students got their first glimpse of a homeless person sleeping in the stairwell. Frankly, we were all a little surprised to see him there because the stairway was narrow and poorly lit. Afterwards, during our extra five days, we rode the subway a few times, but we never encountered another homeless person sleeping on the steps in any of the stations. 

Our supper was at the Buffalo Wild Wings in Times Square where many of the group also had to change into their Broadway Theater attire before the show. We watched "Charlie and The Chocolate Factory," and we all loved it.

What great effects they managed for that show. I was enthralled the whole time, and even my 23 year old son was so impressed by the show that he put on his glasses to better see everything. 

The way they managed the Oompa Loompas was especially neat. The actors were dressed in all black with their faces made up and inserted into what were essentially large puppets that they manipulated with their hands by moving the Oompa Loompas' arms and legs into positions. They were able to create the illusion that the Oompa Loompas were walking, dancing, working, etc. It was really amazing and very mesmerizing to watch. 

Just a few days after this show, the Tony Awards took place a couple blocks away from our hotel, and we saw the main actor of "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory," Christian Borle, on TV. It was kind of surreal having just watched him on stage, knowing he was mere blocks away from us, yet watching him on TV in our hotel room.

After the show, we wandered around Times Square for a while. It's a crazy uber-lit up place, that's for sure.

It looked like the middle of the day, yet it was almost midnight! We ended up spending quite a lot of time in and around Times Square over the following days because our hotel was only a few blocks away, so we took our leave of the group and checked into our hotel. 

The best was yet to come! I'll tell you all about it in my next posts.