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rebeccmeisterI'm not going to post all of the numerous photos I took of our expedition to see Ye Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island, but I can't resist posting a healthy number of them, now that I have a bit of breathing room.
The destinations were popular, even in February. I think we wound up spending equal amounts of time waiting in line as actually ogling the sights. We were fortunate to have a bright, sunny day.
The organization of the stairs inside the Statue of Liberty was fun. One staircase for going up, another for coming back down. Lots of signs to tell you exactly how many steps you'd climbed so far, and how many remained. They motivated my mother to think about working to improve her cardiovascular fitness.
Apparently you have to plan months ahead if you want to go all the way up into the statue's crown. It's easier to get tickets to climb up to the pedestal, which offers some fairly good views anyway.
Even if you can't climb all the way up, you can still get some fun upskirt photos of the interior scaffolding and even more stairs:
While taking her mask off to get a selfie, my mom knocked her hat off of her head and off of the pedestal, down to the ground below:
It's the small red and white blob in the lower center portion of this photo:
While we were up there, I enjoyed this view:
Her hat was still there when we climbed back down! I would recommend a hat with a chin strap, except she was already dealing with a lot of straps, what with trying to stay masked up and everything among the crowds.
I was aiming for nose-picking, but perhaps it's more appropriate that it looks more like I am attempting to prop up Lady Liberty's chin, given all the everything.
On the pier waiting for the next ferry leg, to Ellis Island, it appears that hundreds and hundreds of bored people have amused themselves by throwing coins into this metal trough. There is a LOT of money in that trough. The seagull is unimpressed.
My biggest takeaway from visiting Ellis Island was coming to appreciate the transition in American immigration policy, away from a system where people were evaluated and decisions were made after arrival on American shores, and towards the embassy structure and country-based immigration quota system that is still very much in use today. I can appreciate that it's just too hard to process most people after arrival, especially for those horrible and desperate cases where people were deemed unworthy of entry (ugh!). The dormitory conditions on Ellis were spartan, although they probably didn't seem too bad to passengers arriving by ship, who were in them because they were retaining some small flame of hope for permission to enter.
I kind of think it's a good thing that going to see a place designed around people waiting in long lines, involves having to wait in some long lines.
There's a lot that could be said about the Statue's poem, and about the Statue itself. A point of agreement might be: some big ideals, poorly and imperfectly realized by some very human humanity.
The destinations were popular, even in February. I think we wound up spending equal amounts of time waiting in line as actually ogling the sights. We were fortunate to have a bright, sunny day.
The organization of the stairs inside the Statue of Liberty was fun. One staircase for going up, another for coming back down. Lots of signs to tell you exactly how many steps you'd climbed so far, and how many remained. They motivated my mother to think about working to improve her cardiovascular fitness.
Apparently you have to plan months ahead if you want to go all the way up into the statue's crown. It's easier to get tickets to climb up to the pedestal, which offers some fairly good views anyway.
Even if you can't climb all the way up, you can still get some fun upskirt photos of the interior scaffolding and even more stairs:
While taking her mask off to get a selfie, my mom knocked her hat off of her head and off of the pedestal, down to the ground below:
It's the small red and white blob in the lower center portion of this photo:
While we were up there, I enjoyed this view:
Her hat was still there when we climbed back down! I would recommend a hat with a chin strap, except she was already dealing with a lot of straps, what with trying to stay masked up and everything among the crowds.
I was aiming for nose-picking, but perhaps it's more appropriate that it looks more like I am attempting to prop up Lady Liberty's chin, given all the everything.
On the pier waiting for the next ferry leg, to Ellis Island, it appears that hundreds and hundreds of bored people have amused themselves by throwing coins into this metal trough. There is a LOT of money in that trough. The seagull is unimpressed.
My biggest takeaway from visiting Ellis Island was coming to appreciate the transition in American immigration policy, away from a system where people were evaluated and decisions were made after arrival on American shores, and towards the embassy structure and country-based immigration quota system that is still very much in use today. I can appreciate that it's just too hard to process most people after arrival, especially for those horrible and desperate cases where people were deemed unworthy of entry (ugh!). The dormitory conditions on Ellis were spartan, although they probably didn't seem too bad to passengers arriving by ship, who were in them because they were retaining some small flame of hope for permission to enter.
I kind of think it's a good thing that going to see a place designed around people waiting in long lines, involves having to wait in some long lines.
There's a lot that could be said about the Statue's poem, and about the Statue itself. A point of agreement might be: some big ideals, poorly and imperfectly realized by some very human humanity.
no subject
Date: 2023-02-28 02:56 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2023-02-28 03:35 pm (UTC)I find the tops of mountains and the edge of the Grand Canyon MUCH more terrifying. :^D
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Date: 2023-02-28 03:43 pm (UTC)In Sicily, I climbed to the top of a spiral staircase in one of the old cathedrals. It was only 250 or so feet high, and the view was spectacular. But the ascent was nightmarish for me. I had to clear my mind and recite poetry: About suffering, they were never wrong, the Old Masters.... 😀)
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Date: 2023-02-28 03:14 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2023-02-28 03:32 pm (UTC)