Photography Fun: Trip to New York City, Day 2, Part 1

June 26, 2015

Our day started early enough, down to breakfast by 7 a.m., to be out in time to get to Battery Park and on the ferry to Liberty Island to go to the Statue of Liberty.

Atrus looking pensively out our hotel room window.

The view from our hotel wasn't much really, but it was high enough up and it provided some decent light. Our room was facing away from the Financial District.

Grandpa looking outside with Atrus, providing an explanation of things when needed.

Our hotel was on Water Street, but it intersected with Wall Street.

I like how helpful the street signs are with numbering. It helps to prevent getting lost.

It's always interesting walking around downtown.

Mom saw some construction and looked in. Then Atrus wanted to look, too.

We saw some interesting things, but I had to be quick about pictures.

No idea really what this is supposed to be, but I thought it was interesting.

We saw some artwork. There are sculptures everywhere.

No idea what this sculpture was supposed to be, but it seemed interesting.

Mom thought I should have a picture of Atrus next to it.

We booked it across and through security, and got on the first ferry of the day. I was annoyed that we blew by all the stuff and I didn't get to stop for pictures. We did come back to the mainland and I got the pictures I wanted.

Helpful directions.

We passed this on our way. I'm not actually sure what it was for, but I kind of liked it anyway.

On our way back through, I caught the information thing that went with it. Wish I would have seen it earlier.

We passed through "airport like security."


Our tickets! We got to keep these.

We made it in time for the first ferry of the day. Quite a few other people had the same idea.

I liked the smoke coming out of the pipe. It was a little stinky, though.

It's an overcast kind of morning. It's supposed to make for better pictures.

A look back at the shore we're leaving.

It was neat to watch Lady Liberty come into view.

There she is!

And we watched Ellis Island go by. We'll get there later.

We passed Ellis Island on the way.

We're getting closer!

Oh, hey look. We're moored.

Off the boat, we were instructed to pick up our audio tours. These were neat. We did have to return them after. Our first stop, though, was the Information Center. Mom was looking to get the stamp for her National Park passport. It's apparently not uncommon for people to forget theirs or something, because they had squares of paper available for stamping. Mom got one for her and Dad's passport, and then one each for Atrus and I.

Maps and Island information inside.

Apparently, I was the only one to follow directions on how to use the audio tour device and I started off with the right audio track. It had us start at flagpole, then turn around to see Lady Liberty. Our tour went to the left around the Statue Entrance.

We didn't have tickets to the pedestal, crown, or torch. Maybe another time.

We walked along the outside of Liberty Island, learning bits and pieces on the way.

A look across to Ellis Island.

About this point in the audio tours with the statues, Dad and I started syncing our audio tour playbacks, starting them at the same time and walking through together. We're such dorks. :-) It was really fun, though. Mom listened in with Atrus on his and wandered about with him, most of the time ahead of us. There was a separate audio thing for kids. I tried to take pictures of everything.

Taking pictures of everything includes taking pictures of information spots like this.

There were four of these statues and they were covered in the audio tour. The first three (Laboulaye, Bartholdi, and Eiffel) were involved in Lady Liberty herself.

See previous picture for what the sign says.

Each of the three men were part of the idea for her, the designing of her, and the making of her.

See the people at the pedestal?

Information about the statue.

Statue of Monsieur Bartholdi.

I learned that Monsieur Eiffel was involved in making the inside of Lady Liberty so she could be light and strong, which would help in getting her here to the U.S. I wonder if this was covered in some of the history classes I took and it just didn't sink in at that point. This is the Eiffel who went on to make the Eiffel Tower building upon what he made happen with Liberty Enlightening The World.

Information sign.

Monsieur Eiffel's statue was of him with the Eiffel Tower.

Statue of Monsieur Eiffel.

So the first three were of making the statue itself. This next one was of getting information of her to the masses, Mr. Pulitzer, of whom the Pulitzer Prize is named for.

Information about the statue.

The statue.

Emma Lazarus's contribution was new information to me. Again, freely available information that I should have known, but didn't. She wrote a poem about the statue that included the now famous words that are on the pedestal of giving us the tired, poor, hungry, etc. I hadn't been aware that came from a poem and was added later.

About the statue.

Statue of Emma Lazarus.

At this point, Dad and I were at the side of Lady Liberty.

The side.

Dad pointed this sign out to me. The bottom part was originally a fort, and the Statue of Liberty was put on top of that on her pedestal.

An eleven point star? That's unusual.

Also on this side were these things. I forget what they're called.

What do you see, Atrus?

At one point near here, Dad pointed out to me that there was a cell phone on the rocks below, where the water was lapping the shore. It looked like someone dropped it. Oops. It definitely doesn't work now. I got a picture of it, didn't do anything with it because it didn't come out well.

A look at the skyline of New York City.

I got a picture of them with New York City behind them.

Dad, Atrus, and Mom with New York City in the background.

There were information signs everywhere. They had important information on them. I've taken after Mom in taking pictures of the signs because this information isn't always available in brochures, and it's better than taking notes.

Another information sign.

A few more looks at Ms. Liberty herself.

Modeled after the Greek Goddess, Libertas.

Dad, Atrus, and Mom in front of the statue. :)

Another information sign.

More information!

So here are a few more of those looking things. Dad noticed the shorty one on the right. Perfect for someone my height!

I'll remember the name for these at some point.

The cruise ships coming from the mainland then going out again were a constant thing. We were told they leave every 15 or 20 minutes. All the ones we saw were packed, and this was no exception. If you were early enough on, you could get the spots you wanted. If not, good luck finding a spot at all.

The one we came over on probably looked like this.

The pictures I took probably aren't that much different or better than many of the other millions of pictures taken here. I wasn't taking pictures for anyone else, though; I was taking them for me and Atrus and the scrapbooks that will result from this. So I'm okay with it.

Had it been clear skies, the sky wouldn't have looked so white.

If the number spots on the right side of the picture weren't visible before, they are in this picture now. The numbers correspond to which audio track to listen to, depending on where you started. The one Dad and I listened to started with the number 200; the one Atrus and Mom listened to started with 400.

Another sign, another picture.

Please, sir, may I have some more information?

After the audio tour, we went to the gift shop - postcards for me. At the Statue of Liberty gift shop, there was a bottle refilling station in there so people wouldn't have to continually buy bottles of water and could instead refill them. Great idea. We used it a lot. We got a small snack and sat down; Atrus got ice cream, the rest of us chose soft pretzels. Not too long after that, we were greeted by an actor portraying Frederic Auguste Bartholdi, the designer of the statue. He said he had time traveled from 1886 and talked to us for a while. It took a bit, but Atrus did warm up and had a great conversation with him, and we did, too. They talked about the symbolism, how she was constructed, where he got the idea for her, etc. The actor had a pretty good French accent and he did a decent job of staying in character. (Note: I looked up the actor after I got back to Enfield, and found out he's been doing this for about 10 years). It was really neat to see Atrus so engaged and pulling out information he had gleaned from the audio tour. I think talking with the designer about it helped him understand it better. I'm hoping it will be a while before Atrus realizes that it was an actor portrayal. I, for one, am not going to tell him, but I will confirm if asked. It was just magical for him, I think. It was so amazing. I got a picture of Atrus with Auguste. :)