The Rat Race Begins - Day 2 (4/2/08)

The first day we were in New York was so relaxing and leisurely for us, that we mistakenly thought the rest of our visit would be like that.... little did we know until this day was over, and we realized how much we had left to see in only two days. We bought a city pass (with 6 different places to visit) and a bus pass with four different loops/tours. It didn't seem like that much, but it kept us busy, busy, busy during the next 3 days.
Anyway, on Wednesday morning, we decided to see the Statue of Liberty. We waited in a long, line at Battery Park for a couple of hours to get on the Ferry. We didn't get to go inside the Statue of Liberty :( -since we didn't purchase the tickets online - I thought we could get the monument pass if we got there in the morning - but sadly the only way to get in is if you purchase the tickets online. It was quite windy and cold that day, so standing in the line for 2+ hours was not that fun -you know how much fun long lines are. The ferry ride was nice. We walked around Liberty Island and looked at Lady Liberty, there was not much to read or do there since we couldn't go into the museum. However, it was still wonderful to see the Statue of Liberty for the first time in person!
Then we got on the ferry and went over to Ellis Island to the Immigration Museum. We had a tour there that was very interesting. She told us what life was like and all about the immigration process that happened on Ellis Island. Only those that were in steerage (below the deck) had to go to Ellis Island to pass all the immigration protocols. All those in first or second class went straight to NYC. Also women & children could not immigrate alone they had to be with a man or have a man meet them (unless they rode first or second class). It was very interesting all the things we learned about immigration. After that we got back on the ferry and rode back to Battery Park.
We thought we would take the water cruise next. We walked over to Pier 17 (on the east side of the island) where we thought the cruise started. It was fun to see the Pier, it looked a lot like San Francisco, but it was the wrong place. They did have Circle Line cruises there, but not the one we needed. Those were across town on the west side of the island. We went to take the subway there, but then Don realized he didn't have his subway pass. So we went back to the apt, got the pass, but by the time we got off our stop on the subway, it was four pm - the time that the last cruise left so couldn't make it, so we decided to see the Empire State Building instead.
We enjoyed the view from the top of the Empire State building. We rode up to the 86th floor. We had an audio guide, which was very interesting to learn about the city and a lot of the buildings there. It was a big competition when they were building the building to see who could build the tallest building. It was amazing how fast they built the Empire State Building - in months! Wow!
We walked out of the Empire State Building at 6pm and thought we catch the night tour bus loop, the first one started at 6pm. We took the subway over to where we thought the bus would be picking us up. Wrong place again. If an address is 7700 Eighth Avenue, in Portland or any other city we have been to, the cross roads would be 77th Street & Eighth Avenue. Not so in New York, the numbered streets do NOT correlate with the addresses. Anyways, the bus stop was on 47th and Eighth, so it took us a while to figure out exactly where it was and we didn't get there until 8pm, just in time for the last loop. The bus loop took us all around Manhattan and Brooklyn. We sat on the top of a double decker bus. It was a very interesting bus tour. We finished the tour around 10pm.
We hadn't had anything to eat that day except for a hot dog from a street vendor. New York hot dogs are suppose to be the best, but the ones we had were just average. We were dropped off in Times Square and we wanted to go to China Town to get some authentic Chinese food. All the restaurants in Times Square were open, so we thought China Town would be open too. China Town is actually in a shadier part of town and most of the restaurants there were closed for the night. We finally found a little one that was open. It was very authentic Chinese food. The waiters spoke little English and most of the people there were Chinese. We had dumplings, noodles, and a rice dish. It was all delicious. Then we tried to see if we could catch the subway back to Ryan & Dana's apt. The subways in China Town were only running North - not south to where we needed to go, So we had to walk back. Luckily there are lots of cops everywhere in New York, so we felt pretty safe. We got back home around midnight. We were exhausted!