The 'islands' and Katz'......

7:28 am - Tuesday - October 9th - Jersey City, NJ - 68º F, 96% humidity, wind 1 mph out of the south by southwest......cloudy (what else is new, hmmmm?) with a forecast high today of 78º F.  We roll our wheels in 3 hours!

Monday began with heavy, oozy, drippy overcast, and remained so for the entire day.  I wore a hooded jacket, and was thankful I was wearing it until the very end of the day.  One thing on my bucket list for years, and years has been to stand on Liberty Island gazing upon the Statue of Liberty in all her glory.  Now that we are finally here in the Big Apple it was high time we both checked the SOL off our bucket list.  We began our day walking over to Liberty Park from Liberty Harbor RV Park.  The first part of the trail is kind of ratty, but eventually you arrive at a long, narrow lane still covered in cobblestones.  There is a walking/riding/running path which parallels Audrey Zapp Drive, and that is where we walked on the final stretch to Liberty Park.  Liberty Park is one of many locations where you can catch ferries to both Ellis Island and Liberty Island.  It was, in its previous incarnation, a major railroad hub used by immigrants to continue their travels.  About 30% of new immigrants headed for NYC, but the rest took trains to all points of the compass......

........you can just see the main terminal building in the distance as we approach the ferries.....

The Central Railroad of New Jersey terminal building

.....we were trying to make the 10:20 am ferry, and we arrived at the ticket window at 10:15 am......we purchased our senior tickets for $14/person, and then hoofed it over to the soon to be departing ferry, but we had to pass through an airport level security section first.  We were the last ones on the ferry.......

.....on the ferry and on our way to our first stop of the day.....Ellis Island......this immigration facility was used from 1892 to 1954, and was the major point of entry for millions of immigrants from Europe, and other points around the world.

....I must inject a note of reality here......after walking 10-11 miles on Sunday I was not really feeling like doing more walking.  I felt a little 'punk' while we were at Ellis Island, and really just wanted to sit down for 1/2 an hour.....maybe with cup of coffee.....

....and then someone said something about a 30 minute movie (Island of Hope, Island of Tears) in Theater #1 beginning in 10 minutes.....yeah......let's do it!  The movie was actually quite interesting, and moving.....

Click to see the same movie we saw.....you will like it!

.....from there we headed back to the ferry terminal to take the next outbound ferry to Liberty Island.  A side note here......Monday was Columbus Day, and since schools were out half of each ferry we rode was full of school age children, who were lacking in proper supervision, if you get my drift.  On top of that the lines to board each ferry were quite long.....after getting on the ferry we both purchased a cup of coffee, and it was then my day began to turn around.......

.....by the time we landed at Liberty Island it was well after 12 noon, but I was feeling better about the day, and my ability to remain upright for another 6-7 hours......

"Check it off!"

My theory about photography has always been...."If you take enough pictures, you will get a keeper here and there", and it worked well Monday when I accidentally caught this seagull in flight in front of Miss Liberty...

The Liberty Bike....I remember watching this American Choppers episode years ago.....was cool to actually this bike plated in copper left over from the 100 year anniversary of the SOL

....by 1 pm we had finished our coffees, and decided it was time to get on with our day, so we got in the very, very long line for the ferry to Battery Park, NY......

.....we arrived at Battery Park 90 minutes later......a long, long wait....

Battery Park

....then it was time to take our first MTA subway ride......the 'Green Line' has a station right at Battery Park, and our destination was Katz's Deli up on Houston, about 3 miles away.  We rode the subway up to 14th Street where we exited, and walked the last mile to Katz's.....

This is exactly how I felt getting through the crowds, and squeezing into a car for our 2 mile ride up to 14th....

.....by the time we reached Katz's it was after 3 pm, and there was a long line of like minded folks waiting to enter this New York institution.....

.......at last we were granted admission, and entered another line awaiting a table where we would be served.....you can do that, or go straight to the counter, order your food, and then find a table.  I didn't want to do that....I wanted to sit down, and be served.....

......the main motivation for TLE and I to eat at Katz' was because of the Nora Ephron movie, 'When Harry Met Sally', and the famous Meg Ryan scene....

....we were finally seated just after 4 pm.....our server brought us a large plate of dill pickles....perfect!  We both ordered their famous Pastrami on Marble Rye, and a couple of Samuel Adams Oktoberfest brews......

Look at all that pastrami.....enough for two meals1

.....we sat enjoying our pastrami sandwiches for over an hour, and by 5:30 pm it was time we began our 1.1 mile walk back to the WTC, and 'The Path' subway, so we could complete our circular travels......

.....we passed through Chinatown on our 20+ minute walk back to the WTC.....

.....soon we found ourselves descending multiple fights of stairs into the bowels of the WTC to board our final subway ride of the day on 'The Path'......after completing the final 5+ block walk back to Liberty Harbor RV Park, we arrived at the Newell about 6:40 pm totally spent....we had nothing left to give NYC.  We only walked a  little under 7 miles Monday, but that on top of the 10+ on Sunday was the end of a lot of walking over 48 hours.

I turned on the MLB playoff game between my 'Trolley Dodgers' and the Atlanta 'Bravehearts'.....L.A. came from behind to win handily 6-2, which included two more home runs.  We are now headed to the National League Pennant series with the winner going to the World Series!

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