Statue of Liberty

There’s one nice thing about traveling with kids. You get plenty of sleep, and you get going bright and early in the morning. Everyone was in bed by 8 pm the night of the game, and we were heading home by 9 the next morning. Having left so early, we were getting to New York at well on our way home at 11:30. So we decided to take a quick detour off the New Jersey Turnpike to Liberty Park. From there you can see a clear view of the Statue of Liberty, which is something that we’ve been telling Gabrielle about lately. However, Robert and I have a bit of an impulsive streak in us (which could be good or bad) and apparently just seeing it wasn’t enough. Next thing we knew, we were on a ferry going to Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty. It really was very impulsive, but we already had all of our cold weather gear, so it wasn’t too much to pull ourselves together and hop a ride on the ferry. First the ferry took us to Ellis Island, which wasn’t quite so exciting, but we did walk around a little bit.

This is a picture of the building as we were riding away. The picture doesn’t do justice to how pretty it really is. Then we headed to the Statue of Liberty, which is really MUCH bigger than it seems when you start to get close to it.

Since we were already there, we went ahead and stood in line to go inside. Talk about some tight security. We had to wait forever in line, all the while holding these credit card sized cards that could detect explosives on us. We entertained ourselves by buying a couple of souvenirs, like this little torch for the girls. There was no food allowed inside, so that kids were able to get a snack of all that was left in my purse. Finally, we went through what I think was a metal detector except that you had to stand there and they just jet-puffed air on you. Very strange. But in the end worth it because then we got to go inside the museum. That’s a picture of the original torch that she carried.

They’ve since replaced it with a new one. This is an exact copper replica of her foot.

Her toes REALLY are that big! Leila thought they were a blast. She just kept rubbing them and playing with them. We finally had to pull her away. This is the view from inside of her and looking up. The spiral staircase leads all the way up to the top, but they don’t let the public go up there.

When you step outside though, it is SUPER windy. I thought we were going to blow away! And it was freezing too! But when you’re standing right underneath her, you get a sense of just how majestic she is. For those who haven’t been, I would definitely recommend it. It is really, really neat, and now the girls are even more obsessed with the Statue of Liberty.