"We're baaack! And we're taking your women!..."

Today is our last full day in NYC, I'm sorry to say. So we decided to get up early and head out. The first stop was Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty. As a tourist, you just gotta do this right? Well, even Sam hadn't done this and she lives in the Empire State (not the building, the state). So, we hailed a cab and done the downtown day!

This picture shows a statue to remember the New York Merchant Mariners and the 'Lady' can be seen way in the distance. We boarded the boat from just around the corner and we took the short hop to Liberty Island to start with.

We learnt about why the statue was given to America, basically, those pesky French gave it to the Americans as a 'middle finger' to the British. It was to celebrate their independence but seeing as the french didn't like us brits very much at the time, it was very much a gift for two purposes. They even sat it atop an eight pointed star fort, complete with murder holes. The fort was to protect NY in case the British returned, well guess what.... we're back! Mind you, that huge stone fort is a little over kill for just little old me.
We got some great shots of the NY city skyline..

It looks wonderful in Autumn, you can see the shore through the branches of the trees.

Ah yes, that's me, in my jaunty new hat.

The Lady, the skyline and the boat, as we left for Ellis Island.
Ellis island is where they processed millions of immigrants coming to start their new lives in America.  I found myself thinking about how a country is formed, in relation to it's people. How America was formed on Immigrants and migration of people and this occurred fairly recently, whereas, my own country was formed on war, invasion and occupation.  You have to go back a long way in European history to reach the point where England's people migrated there. I just found that fascinating to think about.
While I was thinking about this, I decided, I'm emigrating to America!!! That's it, I'm staying here folks....

The trouble was, my name WASN'T on the list, so, I'm not getting in! Not only that but to rub salt into the wound...

I was imprisoned for 'insinuating a family member was a primate'! Can you believe it? I know right? Some weird laws in this country. So needless to say, I'm not allowed to stay.
After my release from Ellis Island, we went to find Memorial Park.

They are now rebuilding the area around ground zero with some beautiful new buildings. The American 'can do' attitude is amazing. I know its been over 10 years since the event, but it seems like these new buildings are being put up as a defiance, a symbol that no matter what you do to these people they will come back stronger and harder.

I believe that memorial park is meant to be a place to remember those that lost their lives on that day, be they members of the public or the brave emergency service workers that done whatever it took to rescue people. I believe it is also meant for anyone to come to and be reminded of the spirit of the civilized world, remember how one should treat others. The list of meaning for this park, to me, is endless. I also believe it to be a place where, workers of the area can come on lunch times for some quiet reflection.
However, when we arrived at the park, there were barriers, security and police, not a huge amount but enough to make me wonder what was occurring.   It's still an active building site so some must of been there to guide trucks and deliveries into the site. We got closer to the entrance finding hoarding all around the site, you can not see inside unless you go inside. That raised a brow. We joined the back and were told, that we needed to have tickets, we get those online apparently. This made me angry because basically the powers that be have taken a disaster, a catastrophe then patented it, packaged it and are now 'selling' tickets for it. I don't think an event was happening, not at that moment but they turned this sensitive location into a theme park almost.  I was disgusted and refused to stay there a moment longer, so we moved along.
We saw Trinity church next and I was surprised. A spire of a church back home is generally the tallest point around, a church should dominate the skyline so people have a point to know where to go to pray. I'm not religious, obviously but the spire of Trinity church is just dwarfed by the surrounding buildings. I'm sure at some stage in New York's history, the spire was the tallest point around but as the city grew, the spire... shrank. It reminds me a lot of the town churches we have dotted about back home.

We hailed a cab and moved onto the Brooklyn Bridge. I am a big fan of bridges and this is one impressive river crossing!

After this, we were meeting Nina again. This time she was bringing her son into NY to visit us. So we met her at Grand central and made our way to Bryant Park to see the ice-skating. We had dumplings, crepes and hot chocolate. I also played top trumps with the excitable Ryan, who had never seen this game I grew up with playing and is still very much a common game in England. For those who dont know what it is, here is a link to the official website...
 Top Trumps
Basically its a simplified version of Pokemon cards. But comes in a variety of topics from sharks, to dinos, racing cards to building machinery. 
Ryan is one awesome Kid and Nina is a great mother. Im totally going to miss you two. We managed to see the Rockafella tree as well this time! Fully lit but we completed our tree quest!

We had to leave Nina and Ryan to catch a taxi as it was getting late for the poor little dude and Sam and I were tired as well but physically tired.  I ached and was sore, I had taken more pills today than I had taken in a long time. We eventually got back to the hotel and although our minds wanted to go out our bodies were clearly saying "NO!"


We leave NY tomorrow and I'll be sorry to leave. I have had an awesome time and it's been amazing, especially to meet friends from the internet... hugs and kisses to Nina and the little dude.