Continuing with our journey we started day two by taking a cab from our hotel down to Battery Park on the southern end of Manhattan where we caught the ferry to Liberty Island.  No tourist trip to NYC would be complete without visiting the Statue of Liberty.  We didn’t have tickets to actually get inside the base of the Statue but I wasn’t disappointed about that since you aren’t allowed to climb into the Statue anyway.

When we were done we hopped back on the ferry which then takes you to Ellis Island.  When we got off the boat a park ranger was just starting a tour so hooked up with him as he walked us through the same path that newly arrived immigrants would have gone through.  In going through Ellis Island the typical amount of time it took from arrival through complete process was only a couple of hours.  After five years of process just to get a temporary residence card it’s hard to believe that the entire process only used to take a couple of hours.

From Ellis Island the ferry dropped us back off at Battery Park where we walked up to through the financial district to the site of the World Trade Center.  Just knowing the events that took place there and standing outside the site is a moving experience.   As for a memorial nothing has been done but they do have displays with all the names of people who died, a timeline of the events from that day, and stories from some of the rescuers who were there that day.

From the WTC site we headed up into Chinatown and then into what’s left of Little Italy.  After eating dinner in Little Italy we took what I would have to say is probably the most frightening cab ride of all time back up town.  Our cabbie was weaving in and out of lanes, between cars, around buses, through almost red lights, and all the while not leaving more then a couple of inches between us and any other car on the road.  The Riders Bill of Rights apparently meant nothing to our driver.  As we were clinging for dear life in the back seat of the car we ironically happened upon an accident involving two cabs.  Our driver quickly dodged through the intersection and around the accident and when we had to stop at the next red light he and another cabbie started discussing what could have possibly gone wrong.  They were completely mystified how this could have happened.  I wanted to suggest that it just might have something to do with the driving but thought better of it.

We were pretty beat but the day was not yet over.  Packing up our paparazzi gear we headed back to the theatre district to see if we could catch a glimpse of Julia Roberts as she was leaving the theatre.  Based on the police crowd control from the previous night we scoped out a sweet spot to get a good view but that night the police decided to abandon any type of crowd control and our sweet spot wasn’t so sweet after all  We did manage to catch just fleeting glimpse of her but not get any pictures but were still counting it, we saw Julia Roberts. Total Celebrity Sightings: 9.

That pretty much wrapped up the trip.  We slept a little later on Sunday morning and when we ventured out of the hotel 6th Ave. completely shut down for a street fair with vendors selling all kinds of stuff.  We got some lunch and headed back to Rockefeller Center where we went up to the 67th floor observation deck and took some scenic pictures of the NYC skyline.

There you have it, NYC in two and half days.  We survived and more importantly Kelly and Wade survived the whole weekend with the kids.