NYC Day 3: Liberty Cruise

Slept better last night. Mom took the batteries out of her hearing aids and plugged her ears with them. I slept with my earphones in. I could still hear some honking of horns and one siren, but mostly it was subsumed in wind chimes and waves from my noise maker app.

We were up early to meet at 8 for breakfast and the ferry to the Statue of Liberty. We had planned to take the subway but the correct station did not have an elevator for Mom. We spent so much time going from station to station looking for an elevator that we ended up just calling a couple Uber cars. We were supposed to be in the security line at 10 and we made it. Barely.

Kirsten is not injured, just taking advantage of Mom's chair.

The ferry people take one look at the wheelchair and say, “Would you like help?” We have let their experienced personnel guide the chair onto the gangway. It was supposed to rain and/or snow today. I was glad that it was cold enough to snow most of the day, but only light flurries. It’s less sloppy than rain.

 Even with overcast skies the Statue of Liberty is moving. As Jack said, “Every American child should have the experience of coming here.” We had tickets to the pedestal. Supposedly there is an elevator for the disabled, but it was out-of-order. In fact Mom still would have had to climb 26 stairs at the top. I’m not sure why they didn’t tell us that. As it was the first elevator only went to the level of the museum. I took Mom, and the others were to meet us. Except when we couldn’t get any further, I left Mom in the museum and climbed myself—5 stories. 

Wonderful views from the top.

We didn’t do the crown. That would have been 6 more stories and tickets were sold out before we began planning this trip. The museum tells all about the building of the statue, the various designs considered, etc.

Statue-size foot in museum

I didn’t realize tha Mr. Eiffel of the Eiffel Tower designed the inner structure which is very complicated to allow for the raised arm which puts everything out of balance.

The café was standing tables and we were ready to sit, so we headed for Ellis Island and ate there. Another moving experience. I got the free audio for both Mom and me. It includes sound effects and the voices of immigrants recalling their experiences. Mom concluded that in fact none of her ancestors came through Ellis Island. They would have already arrived before immigrant reception was moved there.

Exterior of main reception building

Hall where immigrants were received. Climbing shose steps you see opposite was the first part of the physical exam. 

If you had trouble climbing, you were were pulled out of line for further evaluation. 

We had about 30 minutes back at the hotel before taking off for dinner at a fabulous Greek Kitchen. I saw the octopus on the appetizer menu and had to have it. Much more tender than I expected it to be and very tasty. Mom had a lamb kebab. Of course, she couldn’t finish her salad so I had half and she shared a lump of her very tasty meat. Kirsten and Nan also ordered a couple appetizers to share. One was a flaming cheese with lemon served on pita. Wonderful!

Then we hopped in Ubers and headed for the Stephen Sondheim Theater to see Beautiful: The Carole King Musical. Lots of fun. Nan called it the soundtrack of her life, and I could hear people singing along at times, but I hardly recognized a thing in the first half. There was more that was familiar to me in the second half when she went out on her own, singing her own songs, but even those I could not have sung along. They did have a sing along in the curtain call. Mom didn’t recognize anything either, but it was still lots of fun. Very well done and the sets moved in and out of each other on multiple levels with fascinating precision. Walked back to our hotel through a very busy Times Square--an exciting experience in its own right.