It looks as if Shakespeare in the Park is off — there is no Tuesday performance … Jyotii mis-read and didn’t research things (there was a Monday performance, for example). That’s okay … we’ll find something else to do. I’ll find something else to do.
Today we walked and walked … rode a ferry … and walked some more. The destinations? Ellis and Liberty islands … Statue of Liberty, oh yeah.
I had low expectations and a plan to just stop by, see things, and be back in Manhattan by noon. But ferries take a while, you have to wait, you have to ride, you have to walk around. Then you take a cool tour with Tommy Smith, the former advertising professor turned park ranger and tour guide. You discover that there are a few entries in the Ellis island computer system that could be Grandpa Krause. You talk with old tourists from Sioux Falls, South Dakota and you people watch a bit.
And then you stand in a security line for ages at the Statue of Liberty. A really long one because some people in line are stupid and can’t follow directions or rules … like “NO FOOD” or “NO DRINK” or “PUT THESE THINGS IN A BIN” … is this country filled with idiots?
Don’t answer that.
We got the GE full-body-chemical-scanner machines with their patented air-puff technology. The woman in front of us in line just wanted to make sure that the machine didn’t weigh her. Half jokingly. We go through and into the museum, which was really informative. The old torch is in the entry. Further up we got a history of the statue and its construction, along with balanced and informative panels and such. Then we got to climb 156 steps to the observation level, and after we came back inside and let our eyes adjust I struck up a conversation with the park ranger on duty, who told us that 9/11 was the final straw regarding the statue itself being open to visitors.
The stairs are too narrow (not anywhere near code) and old and need to be renovated, but also it’s so narrow that it causes claustrophobia problems for a lot of people, and many/most aren’t healthy enough to climb the stairs anyway. Plus there is no elevator that high. The views of Manhattan and N.J. from the islands are stunning.
We returned to Ellis island after the statue so we could watch a short movie and explore the museum there further. The facility was closed in 1954, after opening around 1892. I think my grandfather went through it; I’m not sure about Grandma Krause … it was hard finding anything under her maiden name, and she might have gone through a different facility when she came to the U.S. There was a gallery of pictures/photos from the years when the place was closed, as well as great stuff, “artifacts,” documenting the types of things people brought with them from “the old country.” A two-language (German and Hebrew or German and Yiddish in Hebrew characters) Old Testament from a Russian (Jewish?) family, for example … gorgeously illustrated. The Moravian dresses, the Norwegian instruments and more.
Back on “dry land” we walked around the Financial District and Wall Street, but Jyoti couldn’t find the Ground Zero “memorial site” so we just walked around there and got a bit frustrated. That is, I was frustrated. I could have found it on my own, and I have a better sense of direction than she does. By a long shot, I tell myself. Just the frustration talking. Eventually back north we went, and the advantage of getting on the subway at the first stop is being guaranteed a seat!
I got much more of Kafka on the Shore read and only have about 200 pages to go. It’s likely the best thing I’ve read this year. I got a slice of pizza and then sat at Starbucks for almost an hour … reading and doodling. The latest doodle is pointless and structureless and too monolithic … I need to move on.
