Landing on Ellis Island

I did not sleep very well last night for worrying about the camera problem, but I got up this morning and managed to download some photos. My sister said she could either come with us today or tomorrow, and we decided on today, although she didn't sleep very well either, and went in to work at 0-dark 30 to fix something that was wrong on the internet about her work.

My grandson made sandwiches for us all, and we put the lunch and the water bottles in his backpack along with all his camera equipment. I was carrying the cane with the seat.

Train station in Princeton

We got to the train station about 0930 and I bought a ticket for a child (grandson - $4.75), but the machine absolutely refused to give me two senior tickets for my sister and myself. Then my sister got there and it gave HER the tickets.

Going to NYC - my sister on the platform

There was no printed information at the kiosk at the station as to what was a child, but we found out when we looked at the printed schedule information that a child was 11 and under. Oops.

We got on the train (another train ride for my grandson), and my sister handed the conductor the tickets all together in a group and he punched them all without any comment.

10:37 Time on a digital clock from the train

After we were half way there, we realized that we had no maps for NYC, nor any of the printouts that my sister had made last night.

marshes

So she called my BIL who works in NYC, and he told her to take the #1 subway to Battery Park and get the boat to the Statue of Liberty from there.

mural in station

subway

So we did that. My sister bought a 10 ride ticket for herself, and I got a single trip ($2.00 each) for my grandson and myself, and after many inquiries, we found the right train and the right track and counting to be sure that we were in the first five cars, we got on.

Sign in the train prohibiting walking between cars - New York City

(Because at Battery Park, only people in the first five cars can exit-there is no walking between cars on the subway). We walked across Battery Park

Shrine of St. Elizabeth Ann Bayley Seton

World War II Memorial

John Ericsson Statue

My sister and grandson

to where the boats were, and I sat down on a bench and took some photos

Ellis Island Visitor Center from Battery Park

Ferry from Battery Park

Ferry approaching Battery Park

while my sister went into Fort Clinton to get the tickets. (Even though both of us were sleep deprived, she's still faster on her feet than I am - being younger and thinner).

Fare board

Fort Clinton

View from the boat

Then we had to go through security. We had to take off belts and watches (although not shoes or jewelry), and all the cameras and coats and pocketbooks had to go through the scanner. We took a seat beside a window on the second deck where we would get a breeze and could also take pictures through the open window. . We are on our way back to New Jersey by boat-Both Liberty Island and Ellis Island are on the New Jersey side.

Ferry in front of NY skyscrapers

My grandson bought us a soft pretzel

soft pretzel

I took pictures of the

Staten Island Ferry

(which since it is free, I had some idea that I might take that). I went down to use the bathroom just before we docked,

Signs on the boat and people getting off

and then had to fight my way back upstream (against the people getting off at the Statue of Liberty) to get back to my seat The boat went to the Statue first, but I was really more interested in Ellis Island since we did not have tickets to go up, even as far as we were allowed, and I think the statue is more visible from the boat anyway. And looked at the hordes waiting to get ON our boat to go to Ellis Island

Liberty Island crowds waiting to get on the ferry

Crowds waiting for the ferry

and said to myself "No Way". So we didn't get off, but just continued on to Ellis Island. We did take lots of pictures

Statue of Liberty

From lower Manhattan - Statue of Liberty National Monument

Grandson's photo of the Statue of Liberty National Monument

Lady Liberty's torch

Ellis Island from the ferry

Private Vehicles Prohibited

Ellis Island Center

We got off at Ellis Island and picked up the audio tour tapes which my sister had bought as part of the tickets, but they weren't really a big help. I don't like the audio tours - I have a tendency to want to fast forward through them. My grandson was busy talking to us, and my sister couldn't make hers work

My sister not listening to the earphones

We saw the film that the National Park Service made about immigration

film about Ellis Island

Movie at Ellis Island Visitor's Center

photo of NYC as an immigrant would have seen it - New York City

American Family Immigration History Center

Then we went to the American Family Immigration History Center to do a search on the immigrant ancestors of my daughter-in-law. She considered herself to be Irish although when I looked at her eight great grandparents, only one was Irish.

Sign on American Family Immigration Center

My sister stood in line for the tickets. We were primarily looking for Patrick Corcoran, born about 1877 in the Irish Free State, but other possibilities were Sebastian Zirngibl b 1840 in Germany, Frank Xavier Eiter b. Aug 1859 in Bavaria or Joseph Charles (probably not his original name) born about 1842 in Lithuania. We didn't have any success looking for Eiter or Corcoran, but we did find two possibilities for Zirngibl

Name of Passenger Residence Arrived Age on Arrival
1. Alois Zirngibl ... 1908 24
2. Georg Zirngibl Kareth, Germany 1912 23

and we printed one of them (I think Alois) out. One was free - you paid for others after that We did not have much success with Eiter or Corcoran until this morning, when I went back to the site and researched, I got 254 Corcoran's. A lot of them were James, Michael, Patrick and William.

Posters at the History Center

Ship posters

My back was sore, and I was beginning to have trouble walking, so we got a wheelchair and my grandson pushed me around. He had a very fast and somewhat jerky style. My sister OTOH tended to push slowly but not be aware of where the chair was exactly and tended to run me into things

My sister pushing the wheelchair

We went to the gift shop and my grandson bought some more film (he was out). He found that the digital camera had gotten turned on in the backpack and it had run the batteries (AAA) down. This was a good dry run for him with the cameras while we can still fix things. The photos with the date stamp in yellow are his photos.

Grandson buying batteries and postcards

Then we went up the elevator to the second floor,

Graphic about immigration

Ship model

Immigration trails

Luggage display

and after we'd finished there my sister and I went back down the elevator and my grandson went up to the third floor without us.

Third floor

Grandson with statue of Annie

MY sister and I by the statue of Annie -the 1st immigrant

Then we got back on the ferry and went back to New York City

New York

After we got back to NYC on the ferry, I was really too tired by that time to walk back to the subway station and anyway I don't think my grandson liked the subway particularly. We knew that we would (by this time - it was about 4 pm) be in rush hour and we thought it would be better to do something else in Manhattan - possibly eat dinner. We asked my grandson what else he wanted to see (giving several suggestions) but he apparently knew nothing whatever about NYC. So we got a cab and told him to take us to Times Square, which was the suggestion that he picked. The cab took us up the east side past Ground Zero. I think the last time I visited NYC was in 1970 when I was pregnant with my grandson's father, and I had never seen the World Trade Center, so it was not something in my personal visual memory that I missed.

Construction zone World Trade Center

He dropped us off in front of the Marriott on Broadway at about 5 ($21.50 cab fare plus tip). My sister had the thought that we might eat in the revolving restaurant. Dining room and bathrooms on the 47th floor, buffet on the 48th floor.

Escalator to The View

So we asked. Dinner would be $47.50 each and was a fixed price menu. We could go up to the Buffet though for just $20.75 each or a minimum of a drink ($14.50 each unless it was non-alcoholic which were only $10) or dessert and cheese for $16.50. You have to go up the escalator to get to the elevator that is the only one that goes to the 48th floor. It has glass sides and goes up through the middle of the hotel.

Lobby from the elevator

I didn't think my grandson would be happy with just cheese and dessert, so we got the buffet. He and I also ordered drinks (non-alcoholic). His was a chocolate and orange and mine was just orange.

Drinks menu

My grandson's drink

But his turned out to have coconut in it (at least that's what I tasted) and gave him a reaction, so we just switched drinks.

A section of the Buffet

desserts

The napkins had the exploded view of the buildings that one was seeing and the waitress was very good about pointing them out.

Napkin at The View

The bill was $112+ for the three of us.

From Inside a Restaurant

View from The View

Chrysler building

The big purple W

Across someone else's table

Before we left, we went to the bathroom (on the floor below and you have to have an escort in the elevator) Then I hobbled down to Times Square where I took some pictures of the billboards.

Time's Square

Times square

Times Square

Hard Rock

Sightseeing bus in Times Square

I think my grandson thought it was cool. We got another cab to Penn Station - my sister paid this one - about $6.00

brick building

NY Parking sign

7th Ave

Penn Station

I got the two seniors tickets with no problem, but it would not process my card for my grandson's ticket (and since we knew the age cutoff this time we were actually going to get him an adult ticket which was $2 more than the two senior tickets)

Train ticket

My sister said to go down to track 2 and wait for her, but I got the wrong track 2 (for Amtrak instead of the NJ train system). We eventually got on the correct train,

and it was almost standing room only. I got a seat and so did my sister, but my grandson had to stand.

Train home

Eventually he got a seat. When we got to Princeton Junction it was about 8:30 and my sister went to get the car where she had parked it at her husband's business lot. She said to go across the tracks of the shuttle train and wait in the parking lot. I was going to go where she had dropped us off before, but my grandson said we should be going the other way, but I asked a man, and my grandson was right. It was about 8:20 pm, and just as we were going to cross the tracks a train came and the crossing gates went down.

Train coming

train station

We were home about 9