Lady Liberty

A little over a week ago, my mom came to visit for a long weekend. We had a wonderful visit, and I will tell you all about that tomorrow, but for now I just wanted to talk about one particular outing we enjoyed while she was in town: the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. Brace yourself for lots o' photos!

Although my mom has been to NYC many times, she had never actually made it over to Lady Liberty and Ellis Island. Eric and I have been several times, but when we mentioned we wanted to take Ellie, my mom was excited at the prospect of joining us. So, we made that our adventure for the Friday of her visit.

As expected, it was a bit of a trek to get out there. There is a reason we don't usually readily offer up a Statue of Liberty trip to visitors - it's a pain in the neck and takes all day if you want to do both Liberty and Ellis Islands. But, we were committed this time. We left after Ellie's morning nap on Friday, took the PATH to World Trade Center, then walked down to Battery Park, where we purchased our (more-expensive-than-I-remembered) tickets for the ferry.

The Sphere in Battery Park (it used to stand at the World Trade Center)

American Merchant Mariners Memorial

The ferry line moved pretty quickly, and although we had just missed a ferry, we didn't have to wait too long before we were on board and ready to leave Manhattan behind. We settled in to a seat in the front of the boat on the right hand side (I don't know boat words - port? starboard?), so we would have the best views of the Statue as the ferry passed Liberty Island.

On the ferry

There she is!

Beautiful view

First stop after arriving at Liberty Island: gift shop. Ellie needed a hat.

It suits her.

(Photo courtesy of my mom!)

As we set out around the island, I borrowed Ellie's crown for a little posing. I'm a pro at that pose, of course. We were actually recreating a picture Eric and I took when we first visited the Statue together, when he was a summer associate here the summer before we were married. So, basically: same girl, same pose, but way more husbands and babies later.

My very best Statue of Liberty impression, circa 2007 (left) and 2012 (right)

We continued to make our way around the island, taking in Lady Liberty from all angles.

I told you - all angles!

Peeking through the trees

And of course, we had to take some family shots.

Playing tourist with my happy Mini Lady Liberty

With my mom

Sightseeing family!

That statue sure is one photogenic lady.

So cool.

We were all getting pretty hungry, so we stopped and ate a picnic lunch along the east side of the island so we could enjoy the view of Manhattan.

My fair city

Ellie was getting super sleepy (read: yelling) by that point, so Eric put her in the carrier in hopes she would fall asleep. Because being held by her Daddy is pure sleepy magic, she was out pretty quickly and slept through the whole ferry ride over to Ellis Island. Farewell, Lady Liberty!

Sleepy girl waiting for the ferry

On the ferry to Ellis Island

Welcome to Ellis Island!

Ellie woke up right as we entered Ellis Island, so we tried to keep a fairly brisk pace. After admiring the luggage in the main entrance, we wandered through a temporary exhibit very briefly before heading upstairs to the Registry Room.

Luggage at the entrance

Registry Room, as it looked in 1918-24. During that time, often as many as 5,000 immigrants would pass through here per day.

My mom reading sample logs of arriving immigrants

Eric and Ellie in the Registry Room

We then walked through the exhibits that take you through the whole process an immigrant would have gone through when arriving at Ellis Island, including legal reviews, medical and mental health evaluations, etc. I really like that exhibit. Unfortunately, Ellie had enough education for one day so she and Eric excused themselves to the great outdoors while my mom and I made our way through.

Examining immigrant graffiti that was preserved from the walls of Ellis Island

Eric and Ellie's view while they waited for us to finish

Reunited outside

By that point we were all beat, so we decided to call it a day and start our journey home. Sweet Ellie had really been so good and so tolerant of a very long, exhausting day - frankly, I was super tired by the time we got home, and I'm not a baby, so I'm not sure how she hung in as well as she did. (Aside from the fact that she's awesome, of course.)

Eric, Ellie and my mom waiting for our final ferry of the day!

I really love that we're able to take Ellie to such incredible places, even though she's still too young to remember it. Ah well, we'll just have to be sure to bring her back again someday!

John's Visit

Boy, I really have fallen off the face of the earth over here, haven't I? This lack of posting is out of character, I know. But our lives have taken a turn for the crazy lately and I just haven't had the time or energy to devote to blogging, which is a bummer, because I like blogging. Such is the life of an adult though, right? I'll try to get my act together and get back into the swing of things ASAP. Next week, for example, is going to be a fun week, but we'll cover that later.

We have still been doing fun things in my absence, of course. For one thing, last weekend Eric's friend John came to visit. John and Eric are old friends from high school, and John was a groomsman in our wedding. Now he lives out in Arizona, so it was nice to have him visit for the weekend. John was our first visitor since we moved to Hoboken, and the boys did all sorts of fun things!

When John got into the city last Friday afternoon, Eric left work early and they hit the town. They met up in Bryant Park, and tried to go into the NY Public Library but John had a suitcase with him and thus was not allowed in. They picked up some pizza at Little Italy Pizza (Eric says it's the best near Grand Central), then walked up to St. Patrick's Cathedral and through Rockefeller Center, then over to Times Square, where they stopped into the M&M Store and Toys 'R Us. They caught a movie in Times Square, then walked back to our old stomping grounds for some BBQ at Daisy May's. They ate their dinner by the Intrepid before grabbing the ferry back to Hoboken. (Yes, you're right - that is an awful lot of walking to do with a suitcase.) That night we hung out at the apartment, playing some Wii and other games, including a 246 Wii bowling effort from Eric and an hour of Mario Kart victories for John.

On Saturday, they did some downtown stuff: ice cream at the Ice Cream Factory in Brooklyn, Brooklyn Bridge, Wall Street, the Bull, Battery Park. 

Pretty (albeit hot) day by the Brooklyn Bridge

John by the Brooklyn Bridge

We always have people take a picture with these silhouettes, and they always pose differently!

The boys on the Bridge

You know what they say: you gotta grab the bull by the...wait, that's not right.

With the Statue of Liberty at Battery Park

As I understand it, the highlight was Battery Park, where John was chased by a turkey for a considerable distance. Now that's just good stuff. (Also, I feel like it says something about New York City that when Eric texted me and said "John just got chased by a turkey in Battery Park," I was unsure if he meant an actual turkey or a person dressed as a turkey, and both seemed equally plausible.)

John being chased by a turkey!

From there they went up to Madison Square Park, where they considered (and decided against) waiting in the Shake Shack line, checked out the Flatiron Building, then made their way home.

Fun with the Flatiron

Fancy hat, John.

The boys came home and got in a solid workout playing Mario and Sonic at the Olympics. We got pizza for dinner and spent the night in playing more video games and watching Michael Clayton. Much needed relaxation after a long day of walking!

On Sunday, Eric and John went out to Citi Field to see the Mets play the Braves. (They finally got their Shake Shack lunch there, too!)

Citi Field

Eric was not pleased with the composition of this shot.

Inside Citi Field

At the game

That night, we stayed in again with more pizza, more video games, Spy Game and a little guitar lesson for Eric.

The next day the boys hung out until Eric had to head into work, then he bid John farewell.  Thanks for coming, John!

Ahoy! Our Halloween 2010

Without further ado, allow me to present to you the official W. Family Halloween photo, featuring Captain Achilles:

That dog just loves to dress up. He's a natural!

But let's back up! Did everyone enjoy their Halloween weekend? We had a great time! Last year we went all out with costumes and hit up the Village Halloween Parade, but this year we were a little more low-key. It was nice, actually.

Our celebration began on Friday night. Last year we had heard that Trinity Church does an "All Hallows' Eve" event, including a happy hour in the cemetery followed by a screening of a silent movie with live organ accompaniment in the cathedral. Last year's movie was The Phantom of the Opera, which would have been incredible to see. But, we missed it last year, so we made plans to check out this event this year. And it was so worth it!

We started with the Haunted Hamilton Happy Hour in the cemetery. They had spooky decorations up, free spiked apple cider, music playing, and creepy characters walking around. We got our cider and spent some time wandering through the cemetery, looking at all the very old headstones, including the grave of Alexander Hamilton (hence, the name of the happy hour). It was spooky and fun!

Eric in the festive Halloween atmosphere

Spooky look up at the church

The cemetery

Alexander Hamilton's grave

Enjoying cider in the cemetery

More happy hour fun

Looking up at the church from the cemetery

After happy hour we went into the church for this year's silent movie, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. I am no movie expert, but Wikipedia tells me that this 1920s German Expressionist film is credited with having introduced the twist ending in cinema, and this movie is often considered one of the greatest horror movies of all time. I had never heard of it, so I enjoyed seeing a new (old) movie - it did have an unexpected twist ending, and the set design seemed to be a precursor to Tim Burton's style. The most incredible part, however, was the organ accompaniment. They set up an organ at the front of the church next to the main movie screen, and Trinity organist Robert Ridgell played along with the show. He did a fabulous job. It was such a cool thing to see, and hear!

The main movie screen at the front of the church, with the organ to the left

Show time!

The organist

VIDEO: A few seconds of the movie with organ accompaniment

The only disappointing part of the evening was knowing how much fun we would have had at this event last year, but we missed it!

After the movie, we continued our awesome night. Now, this part doesn't have anything to do with Halloween, but our night as a whole was such a fun New York evening I just have to clump it all together. The movie finished at 8:30, and at that point we just didn't feel like going home. Since we were downtown anyway, we decided to walk down to Battery Park and check out the Statue of Liberty at night.

As we made our way there, we passed the Bull, which was surprisingly not surrounded by tourists. We took full advantage of the situation and each hopped on for a photo! I have no idea how I got up there (except that I had a lot of help from Eric) and I definitely got off by sliding down his nose, which is not ideal. Eric, however, seamlessly climbed up and hopped down. Impressive!

Bull-riding!

We then made our way down to Battery Park, which was also very deserted except for some fisherman along the water. As we made our way south, we saw a Staten Island Ferry approaching, so we decided to run and catch it so we could take a quick nighttime ride. We made it just in time, and found a seat outside (in the cold!) so we could check out lower Manhattan and the Statue of Liberty all lit up at night. It was beautiful.

The best shot we could get of Lady Liberty at night

Huddled together to stay warm on the ferry!

We ended up getting held up in Staten Island for a half hour before we could ride back, but we were plenty entertained by the many costumed people waiting for the ferry to Manhattan for their Halloween celebrations. Great people watching!

When we got back to Manhattan, we took the subway back to our neck of the woods. On the way home, Eric was hungry, so we decided to finally stop for some street food from the vendor next to our Blockbuster. Weird as it sounds, we've been wanting to do that for months, because every time we pass by there that food cart smells so good. We finally tried it, and it was tasty!

Mmm, street food!

It was just such a cool New Yorky night, because the event we had planned (at Trinity) was fabulous, plus we did so many awesome things just on the spur of the moment after our planned event! I love those nights, when you never know where the city will lead you. There's just no place like New York.

Anyway, back to Halloween. Our celebration continued yesterday on Halloween proper with our annual Pumpkin Carving and Dog Humiliation rituals. Achilles was gifted a pirate costume this year, and in furtherance of the theme, Eric found a great pirate ship design for us to carve into our pumpkin. We did the usual routine: Eric found the design, I printed it, Eric cut the top off the pumpkin, we both scooped the goop, I poked holes in the pumpkin to outline the design, he carved it, and I cleaned up the pumpkin shavings afterwards. Then light, step back, and admire. Eric did a great carving job, as always!

Scooping the goop

Our little family sitting around the table, planning our pumpkin design

Eric carving the pumpkin, and Achilles looking tortured yet festive

Hard at work

Our pirate ship pumpkin!

Halloween decor

As we carved our pumpkin, we also sipped hot spiked apple cider (yuuuummmm) and watched It's The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown. Is that festive or what?

Mmmm, cider!

I love this movie.

When the pumpkin was finished, that meant it was time to get the dog into his costume of the year. Of course, he wasn't just satisfied wearing the pirate costume with only the shirt and hat it came with. No, no. This dog is detail-oriented. He also needed an earring, an eye patch, and a treasure chest filled with loot. We also considered giving him a bottle of rum, but he's only 7 years old, after all!

Captain Achilles with his treasure and pirate ship

I'm sorry, but is he cute or what???

And just to prove that we don't torture him with no reward, Achilles got a Halloween treat after the photo shoot was finished:

Treats for his tricks!

And that was our Halloween! Another fun one for the record books!