Our destination, The Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island Ferry, was quite a process. First, we had to walk all the way there, next we stood in line to buy tickets (yes, I know they are available online, but didn't go that route since we were unsure of how much time we would have). After that, we joined the masses moving toward the building that would take us through airport style security screening. We re-bundled ourselves and joined the lines moving toward the ferry boarding; just missing the prior boat. We then waited for the next ferry to dock, tie up, unload and prepare for loading. As we waited, a man with a large backpack hurdled the barriers separating those in line from the walkway in the park. He was just a few feet away from us. Immediately, a police siren blared as the officer ran forward and several people shouted at the man. He jumped back over the barriers and began to run in the opposite direction of the officer. It was scary for a few moments, while we didn't know what this stranger's intentions were. He appeared, in the end, to be an ignorant tourist and did comply with the officer's questioning. Whew! With all of the completely necessary security measures in New York as of late, it puts people on edge and to have that happen, just as we had passed through the screening, it made me much more alert. By the time we were on the ferry and heading toward the Statue of Liberty Island, we only had about an hour left before we would have to head back to the hotel to catch our ride to the airport. The time constraints required us to make a decision about which attraction we would disembark for. We discussed the options and settled on Ellis Island since we felt we would have more to discover there. So we took some photos and stayed aboard the ferry as they unloaded and reloaded the passengers.
Ellis Island was not exactly what were expecting it to be. Alexa was disappointed that there wasn't more on display relating to the process that immigrants went through on arrival to America. There was some audio and we were able to visit the Great Hall, where a lot of the process happened, but it was mostly empty and difficult to imagine what it was truly like for the people who ended up there after traveling for weeks on ships under horrid conditions. Several parts of the museum were closed and the majority of what we saw was related more to the history of our country. Overall, we were happy that we visited since we were all curious and the kids had learned about it in school. We did use the computer system to find some of the Rudnicki relatives, Walter Rudnicki, Peter's maternal grandfather, in particular. We located his name on the memorial, but didn't have time to visit the actual memorial because we had to get the next ferry back to Battery Park.
As we disembarked, the clouds rolled in and the view on the horizon became ominous. We hustled back to the hotel, through town this time, and arrived in time to meet our car service back to the airport.
What a great trip. We not only had an adventure, we made memories that Jesse and Alexa, as teens, will actually retain and be able to recall throughout their lives. Financially, we should not have gone, the house in Pittsford is still unsold; our burdens are heavy and money is tight. Sometimes, things happen even though our practical minds tell us they should not, and why should we have regrets when the benefits are so clearly written on our children's faces.
