NYC: World Trade Center Site, our afternoon, & The Lion King

After visiting the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island, we spent some time walking around Battery Park. We saw this sculpture, The Sphere, which is damaged on the left side in this photo.

The statue was damaged in the attack on the World Trade Center. The plaque in front of "The Sphere" says: For three decades, this scuplture stood in the plaza of the World Trade Center. Entitled "The Sphere", it was conceived by artist Fritz Koenig as a symbol of world peace. It was damaged during the tragic events of September 11, 2001, but endures as an icon of hope and the indestructible spirit of this country. The Sphere was placed here March 11, 2002 as a temporary memorial to all who lost their lives in the terroist attacks at the World Trade Center.

This eternal flame (not shown in photo) was ignited here on September 11, 2002, in honor of all those who were lost. Their spirit and sacrifice will never be forgotten."

We didn't stop, but as we rode in a cab both to and from Battery Park, we passed the tragic site of the World Trade Center. Basically, you can see a lot of workers and equipment in this area.

They have a fence built around the site and most of it is covered by a blue tarp. (By the way, I was impressed that my camera took these photos while the cab was moving!)

I'd never seen one of these tv screens in a cab before. You could adjust it different ways, but in this photo you can see a map on the left (with a green dot showing where you are located) and a TV showing news & commercials on the right.

Friday afternoon, Alex and I went walking around near our hotel. We stopped at this nut stand and bought some nuts. I love how the have food carts everywhere. The smells are delicious and we really enjoyed these nuts.

Just a few blocks from our hotel was Rockefeller Center. (Alex is holding the small bag of nuts - great deal at only $2.50! The food carts have very reasonably priced foods.)

The ice skating rink at Rockefeller Center is 'sunken' in this spot. At the time, the ice was being cleared.

Our next stop was the American Girl place. Alex recently had her 9th birthday (wow!) and most of our family gave her money to spend in NYC. She took the money and bought... a new AG doll! She bought a "just like me" doll she's been wanting for several years. This is her 3rd doll - the other 2 are historical dolls.

There was a crowd in front of this store - they were watching these live manequins! They had contacts in their eyes that made them look very strange and one of the men had fangs. Very spooky on this night before Halloween!

Friday night, we went to see The Lion King! (It was wonderful.) Alex decided we should pose as lions.

This Broaday theatre overlooks Times Square. We spent about 15 minutes just watching the activity on the streets below.

After the show, Alex's feet were sore (like I said, we walked a LOT on this trip - and this night she was wearing new shoes), so Daddy got us a bike taxi to ride back to the hotel in! (This is my attempt at a self-portrait and I love how it turned out! The 3 of us were squished in this bike taxi, but it was a comfortable ride.)

And, here's our bike taxi driver. There's another bike taxi right in front of us. They actually line up in front of the theaters when the shows get out - just hoping to get some business. We were really thankful for this ride, and it was a neat experience. I did feel guilty just setting there, though, while this guy worked hard pedalling us around!

Next up: Central Park

NYC: Statue of Liberty & Ellis Island

On Friday, we took a ferry ride out to see the State of Liberty and Ellis Island. This is a photo looking back towards NYC. On the right, you can see Brooklyn Bridge.

Here's a photo of Alex and me in front of the Statue of Liberty. You have to buy tickets quite a bit in advance to go inside of the statue, and we decided we didn't want to do that. I really didn't want to be stuck to a "schedule." Anyway, we really enjoyed walking around Liberty Island.

The ferry ride out to the island was pretty nice. They really pack you on! I believe I heard them say there were 400 people on board at one point... and they were still loading more people! It was also a shock when I realized I wasn't hearing ANY English being spoken! I quietly listened, and it was true... we were hearing many different languages, but not any English! (Later, we did hear a few people speaking English.)

 When we planned our trip, we didn't realize we were going to NYC the same weekend as the NYC marathon! During our trip, we kept seeing people from all over the world... many in matching jackets like this one from France. Even in our hotel, we'd see the runners getting ready to go run in the mornings.

When you're done seeing the Statue of Liberty, you get back on the ferry and you can get off on Ellis Island. Ellis Island is where they processed immigrants for many years.

This is a photo of the Registry Room on Ellis Island. This is what a sign said: Nearly every day, for over two decades (1900-1924), the Registry Room was filled with new arrivals waiting to be inspected and registered by Immigration Service officers. On many days, over 5,000 people would file through the space. For most immigrants, this great hall epitomized Ellis Island. Here they encountered the complex demands of the immigration laws and an American bureaucracy that could either grant or withhold permission to land in the United States.

 

Besides the Registry Room, you can tour the rest of the building which is set up like a museum. One of the most interesting things I saw was a room filled with beds. Most people didn't spend the night at Ellis Island. They timed the last boat of the day so that they could process everyone and have them off the island by night. But, those who were being held over sometimes did spend the night. (There were also hospitals on the island.) Anyway, in this room, they had "bunk beds" (on chains) that could be let down from the ceiling. They were 4 beds high!!! Then, during the day, the beds could be raised so they could use the room for processing, etc. (I'd given my husband the camera at the time so I didn't get a photo.)

Because this island was the place where immigrants could either start a new life or be sent home with crushed dreams, it was called the "Island of Hope, Island of Tears." On the island, we watched the above 30 minute movie that told more about Ellis Island.

Leaving Ellis Island.

And, here's a photo from when we got back. This is in Battery Park, which is where you get on the ferry. If you can see, there are 4 men (why not women???) dressed up as the Statue of Liberty! You can pay to pose with them and have your photo taken! (No, we didn't get our photo taken.) We also saw one of these "statues" on Broadway.

Next up: site of the World Trade Center and The Lion King

How We Prepared for NYC

I try to prepare for our vacations by reading information about places we might see and visit. I should have posted this a long time ago, but here are some of the resources we used while getting ready for NYC:

• From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E. L. Konigsburg - Alex read this on her own. My mistake was in not reading it, too, so we could have found some of the places mentioned in the Met. I could have even set up a scavenger hunt - there is probably one online.
• You Can't Take a Balloon Into the Metropolitan Museum by Weitzman - We LOVED this book! It is a wordless book and we "read" it several times while taking turns adding the narration.
• the Adventures of Amelia the Pigeon website - We went through the story on this site a few years ago and Alex did this on her own this year. It is a cute story and gives background on places like Central Park & Battery Park.
• You Wouldn't Want to be a Worker on the Statue of Liberty by John Malam - about the Statue of Liberty, of course!
• Johanes Vermeer (Getting to Know the World's Greatest Artists) by Venezia - to prepare us for the special exhibit of Vermeer at the Met.
• Chasing Vermeer by Blue Balliett - also for the special exhibit.
• The Day That Was Different: September 11, 2001 - When America Was Attacked by Terrorists by Carole Marsh - for the site of the World Trade Center.

I'm busy planning for a trip or two this spring. I'll let you know soon where we're going!

The Netherlands

We've been studying about the Netherlands since Daddy will be going there next week. Here is a photo of the windmill we made. It is from 3D Canon Papercraft. You can actually blow on the vanes and they will spin.


Movie:

• Hans Brinker or the Silver Skates (Disney) - a wonderful movie that also shows the windmills, danger of the dikes, etc.

Non-fiction Books:

• Welcome to the Netherlands by Reynolds & Ngcheong-Lum - read a few parts, but we mainly looked at the pictures & read the captions
• Rembrandt (Getting to Know the World's Greatest Artists) by Venezia - we like this series - funny & informative
• The Netherlands (A True Book) by Heinrichs - we enjoy this series
• Boxes for Katje by Fleming - very good book - true story about the author's mother sending care packages to a Dutch family after WWII
• Look What Came From The Netherlands by Kevin Davis - pretty good series; this series is a good place to learn about the inventions, food, etc. from a country

Fiction books:

• Hana in the Time of the Tulips by Noyes - very sweet story - it also has Rembrandt visiting little Hana
• The Cow Who Fell in the Canal by Krasilovsky - cute
• The Hole in the Dike retold by Green, pictures by Eric Carle - retells the story in classic Carle illustrations
• Katje the Windmill Cat by Woelfle - nice, true story about a cat & a baby who survived the flooding of South Holland
• The Great Tulip Trade (Step Into Reading) by Brust - our favorite book for this study - tells about the tulip mania of 1637 in a fiction story
• The Boy Who Held Back the Sea retold by Hort

Cheese tasting:

• We tasted Gouda & Edom cheese. Alexandra had never tried either. She liked the Edom a little bit better, but didn't care much for either one. I was familiar with Gouda, but found I liked Edom better.