Although we couldn't get tickets to tour the Statue of Liberty proper, we did make a reservation on the ferry that took us to both Liberty Island and Ellis Island.
The security line for the ferry was quite long but the ride itself was fairly short. We stopped first at Liberty Island and walked around near the base of the Statue of Liberty, taking photos and weaving in and out of the crowd. Within 45 minutes, we had pretty much run through the things to do (except, that is, wait in the monstrously long line to get into the actual statue - and this was made up of people with tickets!). So off to the ferry to explore Ellis Island.
Ellis Island was a treat, and if I would heartily recommend spending as much time there as possible. We went on a Ranger Tour and were told all about the architecture of the building and what immigrants had to do to make it into the country (and at that time, it wasn't anything tremendous). Parts of the Ellis Island complex are now rundown and decrepit, which is a terrible thing and an example of our willful disregard of our country's history, but I think there's a plan to renovate these buildings and resuscitate them. I certainly hope that's true.
Our next stop, after the ferry dropped us off, was Chinatown by way of Ground Zero. I've been to New York many times since September 11, but on all those trips I had not gone by Ground Zero, mainly because I considered it to be something greater than a tourist destination, something more than a place full of gawkery. This time, though, we wanted the kids to be there and to see whatever it was there to see, which was, we quickly discovered, construction equipment.
Trucks were beeping, cranes were swinging, and dust was flying, and the only thing that we could really see in detail was the chaos surrounding this fenced off expanse.
Because it was so crowded and busy, we didn't stay long. We hopped a subway (by now, adeptly hopping between the subway and bus) for Chinatown where we met a friend of ours for a late lunch. Colleen had hoped to find some good purse/bag/whatever you call them bargains, but I knew these would only happen in the secret back room knock-off parlors, dark places of the underworld where you can still get a Rolex watch for $25. I was uncomfortable with this, though, and told Colleen we weren't going to buy anything made by child labor, however fancy or expensive it looked. She knew what I meant and was fine with it, but I could sense I just snuffed out a certain flame of excitement, programmed as she was by stories from friends about imitation luxury goods squirreled away in the seedy side of Chinatown.
We met Davide for dinner at a Turkish restaurant, but we were late, mainly because we had to hide under a granite overhang while a torrent of rain blocked our progress. When we finally made it, we were soaked, but that didn't stop us from having a great dinner, dripping or not. Afterward, we took a long stroll, guided by Davide. We passed the United Nations, and for some reason I started quoting the old 1966 Batman movie: "The sum of the angles of that rectangle is too monstrous to contemplate!"
Batman: the inspiration for worldwide diplomacy!
