The Big Apple

September 16 – 18, 2014

Florida New York isn’t necessarily a destination point for us but we figured since we were this close to New York City we should probably adventure into the city one day. We found an RV Park in Florida NY that provides tours direct from the RV Park.

I don’t know about you but driving a dully pick-up truck into a city like New York isn’t on our bucket list so we let the bus driver do the driving and Al our tour guide do the talking. We walked quite a bit on the tour and were able to take in some of the most popular sites.

Al Our Tour Guide

Time Square, Wall Street, and Ground Zero were places we took time to see and take pictures. The crowds were one thing, but the sites were pretty cool. We also appreciated Al’s history lesson concerning George Washington being inaugurated here and then going to church at St. Paul’s after the ceremony. He also told us how Wall Street was named. Do you know? Okay I’ll tell you. Wall Street was named after a wall (wood fence) was constructed down the middle of the street to help separate livestock from the steps of buildings. The end of the street was an arriving point for trade from ships and the business community just didn’t appreciate walking through cow pies every day! 

 

Advertising in a Big Way 

 

 

 Just a Few People   

 Time Square Straight Ahead

Getting Close to Going to the Top 

Guess Where?

History at the End of Wall Street

George Washington's Statue at Place of Inauguration

Al Engaging with NYPD

St. Paul’s church is also the place that housed many of the volunteers and other emergency response personnel who came to help with 9/11. They have done a great job with providing visitors a snapshot in time from both 9/11 and George Washington days.

 

Forged From Destruction

Remembering In The Church

George Washington's Pew

 

Walking from Wall Street to the 9/11 Memorial Park and Museum took us by the fire department with its own memorial along the street. The North and South Reflecting Pools are well done and provide every visitor with a place to remember what happened.

Survived

Remembering the Fallen

Freedom Tower

Reflecting  

Eloquent

Our next spot on the tour took us to Liberty Park in New Jersey. This is the location where the immigrants would come after arriving on Ellis Island to get railed to other parts of the country. It is also where we caught the ferry to Ellis Island.

 

Liberty State Park

The National Park Service has done a great job with the museum and you can do research here to see if your ancestors came through here.

Manhattan

 Arriving at Ellis Island

   

 

 

 

From Ellis Island we headed to the Statue of Liberty. The height of the statue is 151’1” and the height from the ground to the torch is 305’1”. In order to complete construction of the pedestal some funds were needed so Emma Lazarus wrote a poem called “The New Colossus” in 1883. This poem is where “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free…..” came from that we often here.

 

 

The seven points on her crown represent the seven seas and seven continents. I am pretty sure we learned this years ago in school but I am glad Al told us again!



 

Overall we enjoyed the day in the city and you never know we may go back and take in a show. We did manage to play a round of golf before we were heading out of New York. The course had beautiful views and in a few weeks will be even more spectacular from the foliage changing colors. We won’t talk about our game.

A Course with Awesome Views

I Think We Made the Putt!

 

Next stop for us is Pennsylvania so don’t go too far!