Our long Saturday was followed up by a long Sunday, starting with a 9:00 a.m. reservation for the ferry to visit the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. Amanda and I visited both when we were in New York City in July 2015, but it was the first visit to the landmarks for Cassy, Noah, Emmie, and Eilidh.
While everyone was getting ready, I made the 14-block round-trip to the Doughnut Plant for a box of doughnuts to share. I ultimately went a little heavy on cream-filled, buying strawberry and cream, blueberry and cream, manhattan cream, chocolate hazelnut, and creme brulee; Amanda, Noah, and Emmie resisted fillings so were stuck sharing the cinnamon sugar and blueberry cake doughnuts.
Unfortunately, I didn’t capture any photos of the actual doughnuts.
We made good time to the subway station to take the 1 line to the South Ferry station, realizing upon arrival we’d forgotten the sunscreen. Amanda, Cassy, and the kids boarded the subway; I returned to the hotel room, grabbed the sunscreen, and hopped in a taxi to the station. My driver took a very direct route, as opposed to our trip the night before, and aggressively drove me to the station so I was there in time to meet the rest of our group.
Waiting at the 28th Street subway station, prior to my sunscreen run.
Statue of Liberty
When Amanda and I visited the Statue of Liberty, we were able to climb to the pedestal level but purchased tickets too late for a chance to walk higher, to the crown. I had planned for everyone except me and Eilidh to make the 377-step climb to the crown but had misread the minimum requirement as 4 years old, and not 4 feet tall, so Emmie wasn’t able to get the full experience.
We made it onto the ferry pretty quickly and overall had no problems initially getting to the island. With Emmie ineligible to visit the crown and Eilidh in need of a new outfit after throwing up on the subway, we decided to change plans a bit: I would take Emmie and Eilidh back to Manhattan for lunch and clothes, while Amanda, Cassy, and Noah were climbing to the crown and visiting Ellis Island.
Of course, before the girls and I left, we took a few photos:
Amanda reports they were glad to now claim the experience of “climbing to the crown of the Statue of Liberty,” the reward for the 377 steps was underwhelming. The crown area was hot and dirty, and views of Manhattan were underwhelming due to clouded windows. After the climb, they took took the ferry to Ellis Island for lunch and exploration before meeting us in Manhattan.
A look at the 146-step spiral staircase, rebuilt in the early 2000s, to reach the top of the crown.
Noah was tired of the stairs’ redundancy and wanted to turn around at this point in the climb.
Cassy and Noah on the Statue of Liberty pedestal after climbing up and down to the crown.
Inside the main building on Ellis Island.
Brian, Emmie, and Eilidh Explore Manhattan
Emmie had her heart set on a pretzel for lunch after seeing them on display at the ferry concession stands, but she was swayed by my proposal for a return trip to Shake Shack where she could again have the “best cheeseburger ever.” The girls enjoyed the taxi ride and lunch before we grabbed matching outfits and bought some sweet treats at the cute Sugarfina candy store.
A taxi selfie. Eilidh was especially excited!
Eilidh loved riding on the subway!
We reconvened a few minutes before 2:00 and jumped back on the subway to return to the hotel to pack our bag and relax until our 4:00 late checkout time. We wrapped up a few minutes before the deadline and dropped our bags with the concierge before returning to the subway for two final stops: Van Leeuwen Artisan Ice Cream and the 9/11 Memorial.
Noah watches for trains at the 28th Street subway station.
The temperature had climbed to nearly 90 degrees in New York, and we clearly weren’t the only people interested in ice cream. While the line was out the door, it moved quickly. Cassy went with a root beer float, while Amanda and Emmie chose a scoop of salted caramel. I’ve enjoyed Van Leeuwen ice cream from pints previously in New York, but Amanda labeled it “not as good as Jeni’s,” while Cassy and Emmie both preferred their ice cream from the night before.
Noah opted for a water while the rest of us chose ice cream.
After a little miscommunication between Amanda and me, we all ended up taking yet another subway for a brief visit to the 9/11 memorial. In an attempt to save some time and effort, I changed our evening transportation plans from train to taxi, giving us enough time to see the memorial and make our way back to the hotel to retrieve our bags.
Subway ride is added to the list of places Eilidh has been fed.
Since I hadn’t called for an advance reservation, the hotel concierge was unable to line up a vehicle large enough to get us to the airport; options were going to the street and hoping for a large cab to drive by or using the Uber app; I chose the latter, and within a few minutes, we had an SUV ready to take us to the Newark Airport.
The SUV ride was extremely comfortable, and I enjoyed the conversation with the driver. Noah and Emmie were especially talkative during the drive, naming numerous foods they wanted to eat. Emmie gave her goodbyes to New York including our friends we’d visited the night before.
We arrived at the airport with plenty of time, and check-in and security lines were painless. However, once we reached our gates, we found our section of gates to have incredibly lackluster food options, certainly the worst at any major airport I’ve experienced; we ended up spending over $50 on four meat-and-cheese sandwiches, chips, and drinks.
The plane was a bit late to board, but our night ended okay as the pilot promised an on-time arrival to Iceland.