New York City Adventure Final Blog

Day 5

Well, it’s no longer raining, just a constant drizzle. We had planned walking Brooklyn Bridge today, but the weather has dictated a different course. We checked out some indoor options, and decided to tour SNL Expedition.

It was a little overpriced, but quite fun and interesting (and dry…).

You actually become a part of how the show as it’s created from the tossing out of ideas on Monday to the final taping on Saturday.

It was so much fun seeing clips from past shows, costumes, and memorabilia (brought back memories from the past – SNL began in 1975)…. Chevy, John, Chris, Dan, Gilda, Bill, Mike, Adam, Tina…so many common names…

After exiting the exhibition and heading towards 34th, we came upon a parade – a Korean parade.

One of my goals was to see and visit Macy’s on 34th – the store featured in my favourite Christmas movie – Miracle on 34th Street. The store is impressive; one of the world’s largest at 2.2 million sq ft (loved riding the wooden escalators…).

The drizzle finally ended around dinner time area, so we decided to walk to a BBQ restaurant we had seen featured on Food Network TV – Mighty Quinn’s.

This was an excellent choice. We ordered our food (ribs, broccoli salad, and potato salad) at the counter then found a seat. The food was delicious! Todd said the ribs were the best restaurant ribs he has had…

Day 6

This is football Sunday, and we like to head to a local bar to watch the home team play when travelling, but before that we decided to just walk around the area. And, we came upon another parade – the start of it (does NYC have parades every weekend?). Today was the Polish parade.

Apparently this Polish parade is the largest in North America.

Instead of sticking around to watch the parade, we headed to a local bar to watch Sunday afternoon football (Todd had asked one of the locals at the One World Trade Center the other day where to go and watch the game in Midtown). We went to Lansdowne Road.

It is a great sports bar. The bar was packed, numerous TVs aired various NFL games with the main TV broadcasting the NY Giants game. The crowd was very passionate/animated…

After the game we popped in to another recommended bar – a true dive bar… Rudy’s (think dark room and red vinyl seats taped up with red duct tape…). We struck up a conversation with some couples from Scotland who have visited NYC (and this dive bar) five times…Guess they can’t turn down the free hotdog with every drink !

Day 7 (Final full day)

Hooray! The sun is shining! (Figures, our last full day in NYC and now the forecast is looking great for days…). On the real plus this is the day we pre-booked tickets for the ferry over to Ellis Island and Liberty Island and the weather is great (Would not have been near as good in the rain).

We passed by the Statue of Liberty to go to Ellis Island first because we had a tour scheduled. Prior to the tour we wandered around the main building, walking in the footsteps of millions of immigrants as they began their life in the United States.

From 1892 to 1924, Ellis Island was America’s largest and most active immigration station. Over 12 million immigrants were processed. On average, the inspection process took approximately 3-7 hours.

Here is a photo from the era showing the people lined up to be processed.

=For the vast majority of immigrants, Ellis Island truly was an “Island of Hope” – the first stop on their way to new opportunities and experiences in America. For the rest, it became the “Island of Tears” – a place where families were separated and individuals were denied entry into the United States. Families could become separated if any kind of medical condition was discovered. Then the immigrants would be hospitalized and treated. We took the tour that took us to select areas of the 750-bed Ellis Island Hospital Complex.

We visited the Laundry Building, with much of the original equipment still in place. More than 3,000 pieces of laundry were washed and sanitized here daily.

We passed by the infectious and contagious disease wards.

We entered the autopsy room / morgue.

Throughout the hospital complex an art exhibit, “Unframed –Ellis Island,” by renowned artist JR is on display. The exhibit features life size historic photographs of Ellis Island immigrants installed on the interior walls.

After an interesting 2 hour tour, we boarded the ferry to wander around Liberty Island and the Statue of Liberty.

We had a ticket allowing us access to the Pedestal for 1PM (Crown access needs to be booked months in advance; we got the last pedestal time access available when I booked it a few weeks ago). It was after 2PM, so I didn’t know if we would be able to go up to the pedestal – no problem…we went through security and up the pedestal.