Day four

April 25, 2011:




I woke up about 20 minutes before my alarm this morning. It gave me a chance to gather myself before the boys and Dave woke up. We had to hit the ground running this morning. It’s the only morning all week that we actually have a schedule to keep. We have a ferry to catch at 11am in Liberty State Park in New Jersey. We are touring Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty today. I am beyond excited. When we started planning this vacation, I told everyone that Lady Liberty was the one thing I wanted to see. Today we are going to make that happen. David is very excited about this too. It’s the only landmark he knew anything about before coming here. He’s been looking at pictures of the statue for weeks and talking about the pointy star (crown) on her head. I can’t wait to see his face when he sees her in person.

We are leaving the house at 8am to make our 11am ferry in Liberty State Park (Jersey City, New Jersey). The boys and I will be ready in plenty of time, but I worry about the hubs. He’s been a bit sluggish and slow in the morning this week. We need to kick it into gear this morning!

We got to the ferry in plenty of time for a bathroom break, security and picture taking. We actually got to jump on the 10:30am ferry and start our day a bit early. So far, so good. We didn’t wait in line anywhere. We’ve just walked through. Parking was even a breeze. I think the weather had something to do with that. The forecast said high of 79 degrees and sunny, but it’s a cold, windy and hazy 68. It wasn’t great sightseeing weather and being right on the water, the ferry ride was brutal.

We got our freezing tushes off the ferry and into Ellis Island as fast as we could. Just inside the door, David had a major meltdown that threatened to ruin our morning. He didn’t want to be in the stroller, but he didn’t want to hold our hand while walking (on the flip side, Max slept through every minute of Ellis Island). We finally got him calmed a bit and went on our way. He wasn’t happy by any means, but he wasn’t screaming and causing a scene anymore. Life with children…oh so fun. We spent an hour touring the main building (exciting to me, boring to everyone else) before grabbing lunch in the Ellis Island Café.

After lunch we hopped back on the ferry (much warmer and more enjoyable this time) and headed for the Statue. Mom and Dad stayed on a lower level with the boys and the stroller while David and I went to the top deck to get good pictures. And what pictures they turned out to be! What a view!

After we got to the base of the Statue, we decided Dad would stay down with Max and the stroller (he’s been multiple times before and didn’t mind sitting it out) so we didn’t have to store it in a locker. David, David, Mom and I got through security in about 5-10 minutes and headed to the pedestal. We stopped just inside the door to see the original torch on display then toured the museum before heading up. Little David climbed every one of the 156 stairs between the museum and the top of the pedestal by himself. What a stud. We took our time looking around the top of the pedestal then made our way down taking pictures all the way. This is so cool. Definitely my favorite day so far. Once we left the secured area we found Dad and Max again and looked at the Liberty Bike and went to the gift shop. By the time we got there, David had fallen asleep in the stroller. 156 stairs is a lot for a little guy! We got our souvenirs then got back on the ferry to go back to New Jersey. We made the 1 ½ hour trek back to the house.

David’s Aunt Jen had lasagna going in the oven when we got there. We had about 40 minutes until dinner so the men played with the little boys while Mom and I went to Wal-Mart. The next day’s forecast is looking HOT and sunny so we wanted shorts for ourselves (everyone else had bought some at the outlets on Saturday) and some sunscreen. Today ended up pretty warm and even through the clouds we got burnt. We don’t want to take any chances tomorrow.

Dinner and chatting with Aunt Jen was fabulous, but we couldn’t wait to get the boys in bed and collapse ourselves. We are getting pretty tired at the end of every day now. Vacation is exhausting!