Day 15 - The Statue of Liberty!

Thursday, June 14, 2018
Posted From: Black Bear Campground - Florida, NY
Miles driven: 145
Total miles: 2176

We bought tickets to the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty a couple months ago. Going all the way to the crown requires a level of advanced planning that just didn’t happen on this trip.

Research indicated the closer you are towards the middle of the week when you attend the better. We are going to be the the NYC area Thursday through Saturday, so we booked Thursday. However, we have spent the last several days in Washington DC, so we were a little bit citied-out. Last night, we discussed abandoning our tickets and staying in the area around the campground which was quite interesting on its own.

But this morning we woke up refreshed and decided to drive into New Jersey to see this unique statue. We bought tickets on the New Jersey side (instead of the Manhattan side) because we were told it is easy enough to drive to the Liberty State Park and find parking.

We left the campground around 10:30 am to avoid traffic as much as one can. Besides slow traffic as we neared the park on the New Jersey turnpike, the drive was smooth and parking was easy. Took about and hour and twenty minutes. And we only sped through one toll gate. Oops. The joke the rest of the day was the warrant out for our arrest. Matt agreed to take the fall because he looks WAY better in orange.

The visitor center is in a beautiful old brick building that was once a major train station. The train station was in disrepair, but you could get a sense of how major this station likely was to the area.

Inside the building which is now the Ellis Island/Statue of Liberty visitor center.

Outside the building

The view of New York City was really good. It was a clear and beautiful day.

From the New Jersey side, the boat stops at Ellis Island first. We didn’t spend as much time here as we would have liked. Matt said he could have spent an entire day here. We walked around the three floors of exhibits. Some were quite fascinating such as the exhibit that showed images of how the property had fallen into disrepair between the 1950’s when it closed and was abandoned to the 1980’s when a photographer went to the island to document the aging buildings. The government then decided to restore the property and open it to the public.

The kids walked around and completed the Jr Ranger program and received their Ellis Island/Statue of Liberty badges (combined badge).

We were able to go to the top of the podium which is right under her feet in the picture below.

Caleb's first reaction: I thought it would be bigger. Like as tall as a skyscraper.

It isn’t.

The original torch is behind us in the picture below. It was removed for various reasons such as the water that would get inside and cause damage.

Caleb was fascinated with the true to size replicas of the face and toes.

Matt could not resist pinching her head.

Oh Caleb. Your faces.

Standing on top of the podium:

This machine made solid copper Statue of Liberty coins while you watch.

This giant cruise ship sat at the port authority for a few hours and then was brought into the harbor. But it didn’t stop. It just turned around and left.

Let’s talk about the trip home...

We knew traffic would be a factor because we were leaving at 5:00 pm. So we just decided to start Google maps and let it find the shortcuts, until...we took a wrong exit. And like magic we drove around a whole bunch of traffic and met back up with the freeway we were supposed to be on. We are experts kids. Don’t try this at home.

Don’t pick this time to travel through the New Jersey/ New York City area

On the bright side: Grace somehow managed to achieve 10,000 steps while we were driving on the Jersey Turnpike. That may indicate to you how rough the road was.

We did finally make it home, but not before Google rerouted us right through the MetLife Stadium parking lot. There were only a couple other cars doing this, and we were pretty sure this wasn’t a normal thing to do. But we missed a LOT of snail pace traffic and probably got home much sooner, so thanks Google!

And then there is this guy who forgot to bring his clean clothes with him to the shower, so he ran across the campground in a towel (probably giggling). We could hear people at neighboring sites laughing. I told Matt that he should not forget his clean clothes when he goes to shower...I don’t think he would get the same response.