New York - Day 3
The Trio took our first rush-hour Subway ride. I have a feeling it was not your ordinary experience because after the first stop, I was able to claim a seat and by the 2nd the other two were able to join me until the train ended at Battery Park. We rushed to the ferry and just barely made it on the 9:00 am boat to the Statue of Liberty. It's a short ride over and once we got fairly close I stepped out onto the deck and took a few pictures of the Lady.
It was an absolutely freezing day with rain hovering in the air, but we spent about 20 minutes walking around the island taking pictures of the statue from different angles before heading through security once more (we had to go through on the docks too) to go up inside the monument. There's a small museum inside and we were allowed to climb up to the Observation Deck of the statue. You can't really see the statue from there, but there were some good views of Manhattan, New Jersey and Ellis Island. You could also see up to the top of her head and those stairs looked crazy. I was kind of glad they didn't let people up them anymore because just looking at them made me exhausted.
The next stop on the ferry tour was Ellis Island so while we waited for a boat, we grabbed some lunch at the restaurant on the Statue of Liberty grounds. The food was okay, but they had the most uncomfortable seating/tables ever. If my feet hadn't been hurting from walking around the past two days I would have just stood.
My great-grandparents on my mother's side did come through Ellis Island. One set from Hungary and one set from Lithuania. I could not remember my great-grandmother's surname, but I did look up my great-grandfather Michael Santa. He arrived from Hungary in 1905. Matt was nice enough to use some of his time in the registry office after he finished looking up his relatives who came in from Russia. It was starting to drizzle, so we cut our time short on Ellis Island in favor of heading back to Manhattan to see Ground Zero.
The space where the Twin Towers stood is massive. It's all blocked off due to the new construction going on, but there is a view from an elevated walkway where you can see the new beams going up and all the activity happening there. The first time I ever visited New York was in June 2004 and it still felt too soon to go see the area. Now I wish we had. It's great seeing the area, and city, moving on but I missed my chance to really pay my respects.
After a frustrating 20 minutes in the Subway trying to find the line we needed, we made our way through Chinatown and into Little Italy for lunch. We ended up at Il Cortile where I had truly fabulous gnocchi stuffed with chicken, spinach and mascarpone cheese with a vodka sauce. Total heaven.
We were really close to a dessert place that Matt wanted to check out called Rice to Riches. It was like a gelato store, but with all different flavors of rice pudding. We settled on two types and took it back to Cynthia's to get ready for dinner. (Yes, we ate right before more food.)
By the time we left for Morimoto it was truly raining. It had been raining ever since we stepped off the ferry that morning, but this was just ridiculous with the wind. Our pants were completely soaked by the time we got to the restaurant. I had never been so happy to be wearing black slacks. Angela and Matt were like kids in a candy store and went to town ordering. Cynthia went for a more conservative approach and got the duck trio while I had the Angry Chicken.
Cynthia and I cut out a bit early so we could make it to the Dramatists Guild Fund Benefit that was happening at the Hudson Theatre just off Times Square. It was a line up of artists pulled in by various writers who performed a 3-5 minute piece. The stars we got to see was truly astounding. This is by no means a full listing, but here are some of the artists we saw that night: Idina Menzel (Defying Gravity - Wicked), Angela Lansbury & James Earl Jones (Driving Miss Daisy), Nathan Lane, B.D. Wong (5-minute reenactment of M. Butterfly), David Hyde Pierce, Brian Stokes Mitchell (Ragtime), and Bernadette Peters (Into the Woods). Seriously the best $35 I think I've ever spent. Our seats were perfect. I can't believe more people didn't hear about it. It was truly a taste of Broadway by all the greats.
Next up: more food, Letterman, and Broadway