NYC

We woke up at 4 am this morning for this trip. The drive wasn't bad at all, a little over 4 hours. It took a while to find the ferry in New Jersey that would take us to New York City. When we got there we just followed the Empire State Building. 

Josh and I decided to go to the 86th floor of the observatory. Josh majors in architecture and its his favorite building. There were so many lines. It was worth it though, the views were amazing. 

We woke up at 4 am this morning for this trip. The drive wasn't bad at all, a little over 4 hours. It took a while to find the ferry in New Jersey that would take us to New York City. When we got there we just followed the Empire State Building. 

Josh and I decided to go to the 86th floor of the observatory. Josh majors in architecture and its his favorite building. There were so many lines. It was worth it though, the views were amazing. 

This bird was perched up on the 86th floor with us! He seemed very people friendly and we figured out why when we saw some tourists feeding bread to other birds up there. 

After that we ate at the first reasonably-priced, reasonably-clean looking place to eat that we could find.. a random pizzeria. Then we took the subway to around where the Statue of Liberty ferries are. The lines were bad there too but not as bad. It was HOT out. We were dying of heat out there. We got on the ferry and when we pulled up to the statue I was so thrown off. This is stupid, but I used to always envision it as small, like slightly taller than a person. Like the Man at the Wheel statue. It is massive.

Do you see those tiny dots at the bottom? Those are people!

I felt satisfied with the good views of the statue from the boat and asked Josh if he wanted to just stay on the boat and go to Ellis Island since we didn't have tickets to go on the monument or crown or anything. He wanted to go on the island. I literally said "I hope it rains" because it was so hot and humid.. and not even 30 seconds later it started down pouring. Everyone freaked out and the people who were at the statue ran for the nearest shops, the ones who were just getting off our ferry were huddled under the loading/unlocking dock's roof. I hate Josh.. lol.. he somehow got me to go out in the pouring rain. I put my camera and wallet in plastic bags. 

We got soaked. Completely drenched. It was fun watching everyone evade the rain. It felt so good to have the rain cool us off but it had that wet dog feeling after. :/ I really was thankful to get back and take that shower. The statue was really cool close up too, I'm glad we went out and saw it. 

I think I fell asleep between Liberty Island and Ellis Island. Ellis Island was cool too. It had luggage the immigrants used back in the day and all these stats and individual stories. There was a huge empty room on the second floor where immigrants waited to get on the island. I can't word it right, but I was entertained at waiting in lines with people from all different countries (we might have been the only Americans on the ferry!)... and then going to Ellis Island. 

After that we wanted to check out Ground Zero.

There wasn't much to see, its a big pile of construction. We ended up at the World Financial Center which seemed like an extremely cool place to work. Then we finally met up with Evynne and her friend Christy and went to this cafe. It had really good food and really good vibes. 

By the time Josh and I walked back to the ferry we were exhausted. He was sweet and got the car from deep in the parking lot while I stood around outside. I have no idea how we are pulling off a day in D.C. tomorrow. It is midnight. 

(More pictures here.)