Total Tourism Day

Have I told you how hot it is here? Well it is hot, really hot, humid hot, hot I have never experienced before and yet we are having a great time. Thursday we started by going to the suggested Dizzy's Deli for breakfast near by. Norm orders "Mary's Oatmeal with Pistachios and Strawberries". Oatmeal and it is mid morning and it is hot! But we both agreed it was very good. 

We caught the subway to downtown Manhattan. If you are lucky the train cars are air conditioned, we were lucky. We walked by the new Oculus, the World Trade Centre Transportation Hub. It was designed by Santiago Calatrava. He describes it as resembling a bird being released from a child's hand. It is interesting to say the least. Wow!

We walked over to the National 9/11 Memorial. The reflecting pools are set in the footprint of the original twin towers.  All the names of the victims are commemorated around the sides of the pools. On each person's birthday a white rose is placed by their name. It is amazing how emotional the place is. 

Full steam ahead for the complete day of being a tourist. We walked to the ferry terminal to catch the Statue Cruise lines. We are off to Liberty and Ellis Islands. 

First stop, the Statue of Liberty. Yellow Bunny was definitely impressed.

Me less so when Norm insisted on this photo. 

Next Ellis Island. On both islands they have decided that placing a cutout of a dog that rotates in the wind, will scare away the birds. We did not find this too successful. 

You will note those are Canadian geese. Sorry about that. 

Ellis Island was really informative. Learned about the thousands of immigrants that arrived in the US around the turn of the century. 150 different nationalities and around 170 different languages. Many arrived by ship and what did they display this information with but postcards, hundreds of them. 

One touching detail of the museum was from an interview with an Italian who remembered women tieing balls of wool to the pier in Naples, then unfurling them as the ship moved away, leaving the strands floating on the air until they vanished in the distance.

Part of the information at this National Park was about the restoration of the building. From 1892-1954 it was used for immigration and a hospital. But the building was left to decay after it closed in 1954. In 1986 work began to restore it it to the appearance of 1918-1924. 

Off to meet Richard for a wild night on THE RIDE. We caught the subway in rush hour and the train filled up even more. Did I tell you hot it is here? 

The Ride is an interactive bus tour where we sit sideways on the bus and watch the people on the sidewalk go by and learn some interesting facts about New York. Mostly the two young emcees entertain us with jokes, singing, quiz questions and silly facts. As the bus travels along we wave wildly to people walking by, some wave back others very confused. Did you know that there are only 8 and half million people here but 58 million visitors come each year! The ride is about an hour and a bit and during the Ride we were entertained from the sidewalk as the bus stopped at lights, by a rapper, businessman dancing, sax player and singer, ballet performance at Columbus Circle and probably more....

Jackie one of the emcees sang, danced and performed the entire tour. She was quite entertaining. 

Off the bus into Time Square. There are mascots, Statues of Liberty, naked women with their breasts painted and you name it, it is there. Yellow Bunny joined in and if you note her ears just managed to block out one of those painted ladies...

Late night, time for home. And it is still hot.