Hey! We made it!
Finally, we are in the Big Apple. As our journey is finally afoot, we decided to go to Ellis Island to fully get the “Coming to New York” experience.
Here is a quick exert of this morning
“So are you going to need the film camera today Kobee?”
“Yea, I need it to take some shots of the city on the platform of the Statue.”
Time passes
“How does the film load again Kobee? I want to try out this color film”
“Oh, just make sure it’s tucked in”
Camera closes and film is loaded
“Just remember I need to use my own film later. I can’t use color for my project.”
“uh oh…”
The day started out with a great walk to grab some breakfast at a hole in the wall style pastry shop. With 100% honesty, I can say that they had the absolute best hot chocolate I have ever had. It came in huge cups with real chocolate. It was thick and not so hot as to burn your tongue. I also got some type of ham sandwich that was extremely thin sliced ham, and mozzarella cheese that combined to be a great meal.
After breakfast, we took the plunge into city life and called up an Uber. We were all stressing out because our family has terrible luck when it comes to travel. The app gave us many questions at first, and we were almost certain that we were going to miss our driver completely. In the end, it worked out and David did a great job getting us to our location.
We arrived a bit early to the boat pickup location, so we took some photos of the skyline and surrounding areas. I had to stop for a while to charge my camera, because without that hour of charging I would have been up a creek.
The boat took us over to Ellis Island where we had a great time walking through the museum. There was a great audio tour that discussed the life of immigration and how individuals coming into the country visited this island to gain access to the nation. The system was designed to both give the best means of acceptance to the country the times could have provided, as well as doing the best it could have to protect the citizens from infectious diseases.
After almost getting on the wrong boat, we traveled over to Liberty Island to check out the Statue of Liberty. At this point, I wasn’t too tired. Then again, I hadn’t gone up the stairs yet. After about 150 stairs, we made it to the platform of the Statue. Sadly, we couldn’t make it to the top of the crown. It seems like it is sold out for the next whole year. Despite this, we were able to get some great pictures, and Dad got recruited by at least 5 families to take their pictures. Mom, John and I were just doing our best not to freeze.
After one last boat ride back to shore, we took a trip to Chilly’s. We had some good food, even though there was a bit of confusion in the kitchen. We are back in the hotel room with some groceries to eat for breakfast.
Overall, I really enjoyed today. I am excited to see what all this week has to offer.
Kobee Vance 