New York, New Year

On New Year's Eve we had to strike out early because Jess had bought 8am tickets for the Crown of the Statue of Liberty. The whole day ended up being an excellent display of innate timing. Now that we had mastered where to park and how to pay, we made it to the station just in time for the 5:45am train. We had to ride the subway all the way down to Battery Park and we made it in line just before a huge crowd showed up. I was elected to run over to Starbucks on a breakfast mission and made it back just as they were opening the gates. We had to go through a ton of different security both before and after the ferry ride. Jess had pre-bought tickets so we were shown to the front of the line for the air puffer machine and had just been escorted in when one of the machines broke and everyone had to turn around and get in line behind us. The ferry ride was fun even though we couldn't see anything thanks to the snow. It dropped a couple inches on us but let up by the time we left the Statue.Then we had to put everything in a locker except our camera and had to pass a bunch of rangers and flash our wristband but finally we were able to start walking up to the crown!The staircase up

It's 354 steps and we of course were at the front of the pack. I had no idea what to expect inside and it was so tiny! Interesting fact: Gustave Eiffel (sound familiar?) designed the infrastructure of the Statue. I don't think the stairs could fit someone over 200 pounds. It was a straight up narrow spiral but finally we saw the light and came up into the crown. I had to duck because there wasn't a lot of headroom. The windows are about as big as an airplane window. Snow had moved in and we couldn't see too far but we did get to see the torch and her hand from up close.The ranger opened one of the windows so we could take a pic outside. It was amazing! After climbing back down, we wandered around the upper base of the monument. Because we had crown tickets, we were on the upper level above all the crowds so it was just us on the platform. I couldn't take enough pictures because it was just so cool. Jess bought one of those foam crowns and I was the only tourist wearing one on the entire island. We loaded back up on the ferry and headed over to Ellis Island. It was amazing. We took a special tour that took us into the hospitals.

Above: these are the corridors that go between all the buildings. They were used to shuffle the sick patients around so they didn't have to go out in the weatherI had no idea the buildings on Ellis Island were so huge and pretty! Or that there are actually three islands but they were joined by the fill that was excavated when digging the subway system. Our guide mentioned that one day in 1917 over 11,000 people were processed! Surprisingly, it only took about 3-5 hours for a person to be processed. I'd always assumed it took much longer. (Interesting fact: Ellis Island opened to the public in 1990 after 30 years of abandonment). We learned all about the various diseases people had and how the hospital on the island was one of the best in the world. I really enjoyed the tour. They have a great museum with lots of exhibits that really show what people went through. I loved it! After getting back to the mainland we made a quick stop to see "The Bull". I'd always thought it was on Wall St. but he's a bit south of there. I rubbed his balls for good luck (that's what all the other tourists were doing at least). Then some foreign tourist hit my shoulder and grunted apparently indicating that I was in his picture. Well, the bull is on a traffic island and surrounded by people taking pictures and I wasn't about to walk in the street to avoid being in his picture. Jess shoved him in the back and we were on our way. Don't mess with cowgirls!

We got back on the subway and headed uptown to meet one of Jess' friends for lunch. They served coleslaw and pickles with every meal which was odd. Then her friend left and my friend from college Ryan came to meet us. He took us to Union Square, Chelsea and Greenwich Village. It was really nice to walk around a neighborhood and be out of the noise. We saw the Sex and the City house and peed in the Starbuck's that the Sex and the City movie was filmed and saw the Magnolia Bakery (apparently it's famous but it was too busy to get anything). It was really nice to see Ryan in his element and have a knowledgeable guide show us around. It was also neat to see how people lived in the city when there weren't millions of tourists wandering about.We had originally planned to do Times Square for New Year's but after talking to a few people we decided it just wasn't worth it. They make you go through tons of security and then place you in a pen with no food, water, or bathroom and don't allow you to leave for 8 hours. To eat in a restaurant in Times Square is about $300 just for a ticket in plus the cost of food. No thanks. Plus, Jess had a flight out of LaGuardia at 8am and we were west of Newark which meant a 2 hour commute to the airport. We had some coney's at the hotel for dinner and spent a quiet evening packing. I watched Jersey Shore (FIST PUMPING!) and went to bed at 12:05 am. We were up again at 4:00am and it took about $30 and 1hr 15 minutes to get to the airport. I made it home by 11am. I drove through the Pocono's and with the fresh fallen snow it was beautiful. All in all this was an amazing trip and I'm so glad Jess came out and visited me. We met as a bunch of loners out in Colorado and I think we both just assumed that the other had been raised by wolves. Well now she got to meet my family and spent time at the homestead and she has some sort of idea where I come from. Now I have to plan my trip to Florida so I can see where she grew up. Rock on 2010!!