New York, New York

We left Maine behind, rolled down the east coast through New Hampshire and spent an overnight on the outskirts of Boston. The decision to make the stop in Boston was related to comment that we received on our blog. This was from a home school family in Boston that is planning an adventure similar to ours. They had some questions about how we did things and what challenges we faced as we acclimated to RV life.



Several emails were exchanged, but the easiest way to describe RV life is to see it. Carl and Barbra offered to take us to dinner after they had a chance to look at how we had the RV set up, what things we had learned and our routine for the traveling home school. We got together in the early evening and we were all at ease right away. As we toured the RV, we talked about the many things we learned, what worked and what did not. Our boys and their daughter seemed to hit it off. The guys love to show off their room and stuff and I think she was better able to visualize herself in this lifestyle.



Carl and Barbra generously treated us to a wonderful Italian dinner at a great restaurant near the campground. It turns out that Carl spent many years working in New York City and he was gracious to give us advise on places to go and things to do in the city. We had a great evening together and felt we had found some new friends.


From Boston, we scooted across Connecticut into New York and on to the little village of Florida, about 60 miles upstate from New York City. Our main reason for choosing this campground was that they provide a van tour into the city. Monday morning found us loading the van and before long we were looking at the Big Apple through the window from the New Jersey side of the river. We unloaded at the terminal where we could board a ferry.

Just a few minutes later we were on board a ferry looking back at the classic looking old terminal and embarking to Ellis Island.

Pulling into the docks at Ellis Island, we could see the Statue of Liberty in the distance.

The boys pose by the sign in front of the wonderfully restored immigration center.

Linda captures the guys looking at one of the displays at the museum. We could have spent much more time at this facility enjoying the rich history, but we wanted to spend the greatest part of our time exploring the Statue of Liberty.

Re-boarding the ferry, in short order we were watching the statue through the window.

It was a beautiful day, but there was enough morning chill and with the breeze off the water that we were happy to watch from the inside seating.

Cory is a fan of big cities, he is all smiles as we exit the ferry and see the one of the biggest spread out before us, just across the Hudson River.

There she is, such a glorious symbol. Familiar as it is from movies and pictures, it is so different to view it up close. It is big and impressive, it evokes emotion and pride that you only feel from this direct contact.

Now the way to Cory's heart as it nears lunch time is through food. We were pleasantly surprised by the concessions. They had a good cheese burger at a decent price that disappeared pretty quick.

We were fortunate that the timing worked out for us to go on a ranger led tour around the statue. The ranger gave us a great history and memorable tidbits of information that was a wonderful enhancement to our visit to the statue.

The ferry brought us back to the New Jersey shore where we got back into the van and motored through the Holland Tunnel and into the city. The density is astounding, every available square foot behind the curb of the street is occupied by people stacked into towering buildings and you watch as they scurry in or spill out onto the sidewalks. As we drove around in the canyons of the city, our guide told us where we were, what buildings we were seeing or the history behind the area we were in.

We even found where the "bull market" has been hiding, but I can't say we were able to talk him into coming out again.

We spent some time walking around "Ground Zero" and reliving some of that terrible time. This moving memorial to the firefighters is located on the wall of the fire station around the corner from the twin towers. All of the firefighters in this station were lost on 9-11.

There are photos of all of the firefighters lost and families bring flowers and remembrances on birthdays and anniversaries.

It is good to see the work is in progress to rebuild towers and finish the memorial. A large part of defeating these miserable terrorists is to move forward and refuse to allow them to alter our progress.

We saw a poster for the USS New York that has part of its hull formed from steel salvaged from ground zero. A proud and fitting tribute.

St. Paul's chapel sits across the street from the site of the Twin Towers. Buildings all around were destroyed, but amazingly this church was untouched. It became a place of rest for the many workers engaged in the recovery. It stands now as a memorial to that effort.

In the courtyard of the church is a bell sent to the city from London, England. This bell was made at the same foundry that forged the Liberty Bell and Big Ben. The bell is rung every 9-11 and was rung for the subway bombings in London.

The bell swings over a map of Ground Zero.

Around the corner was a T-beam found amongst the rubble from the towers. Upon its discovery, it became a gathering place for those seeking comfort. When it became a hindrance to the recovery work, it was moved from the site to this wall of St. Peter's where it has continued to serve as both a reminder and a source of comfort for those that seek it out.

This message was at the base of the cross.

Word has it that a couple of groups do not want the cross preserved at the memorial. It is our hope that those groups will not succeed in denying the cross a proper place amongst the elements preserving the history of that terrible day.

We were interested that Con. Ed. produces and sells steam as well as electricity. This allows the buildings to heat without having individual boilers. Also, the steam lines running through the streets providing deicing in the winter.

We caught a glimpse of the Brooklyn Bridge.

This was either 5th Avenue or Park Avenue - we saw both.

Rockefeller Center was easy to recognize from all those morning news shows!

The taxis pushing and shoving their way down busy and crowded streets was just what we imagined New York to be.

Theaters were all over. On Broadway and off Broadway. This was also a good place for Dad to score the obligatory hot dog from a street vendor (and it was good too).

Times Square and the theater area was huge for Cory. With his love of acting and fondness for big cities, this is as good as it gets.

After our trip to Hershey PA, we could identify the Hershey building right away.

There is where the ball will drop. (Will Dick Clark make another year?)

Junior's was our stop for New York cheese cake and a jumbo cup of coffee and it was as good as we imagined. This was a sweet way to wrap up the day's visit to the Big Apple. Of course, there is so much more to see and do that will have to wait for another time for our family. We'll be back!