The Big Apple: Day Two

Before I start telling the adventures from day two, I have to talk about St. Patricks Cathedral. I totally forgot about it yesterday, so I'm going to redeem myself now. This Cathedral is huge and magnificent and completely more than anything I have ever seen.

They had a ton of little stations where you could give a candle offering. It was so weird for me to see this. I don't know what it was about it, but the whole thing just didn't feel right. Lauren and I were talking while we were in here and we just kept talking about how big and extravagant it is. Too big and too extravagant. It's really amazing how beautiful these buildings are, though.

Now, moving on to day two. We were up, out of the hotel, and on our way to Grand Central by 10:00 A.M. This time, though, when we arrived at Grand Central, we went straight onto the subway. It was so scary!

 You know how you see the little videos about the street performers or the hilarious people that do something crazy thing on the subway? Well, I was hoping and praying so hard that something cool would happen while I was on the subway. My prayers were answered too because these two men got on and started playing their mariachi music. Ashley hurried and got the camera out and tried to snap a picture, but the ride was way too bumpy, so it's kind of blurry.

Where we were going, though, was to Ground Zero. When we got there, we had a little trouble finding it. I don't know how. The entire block of Ground Zero is a construction site and so there were big cranes everywhere. We eventually found it, and, like I said, the whole thing was just construction. We walked a few blocks to the memorial building and read about the new memorial which is being built, but that wasn't for very long because we had to hurry over to Battery Park to catch our ferry to see the Statue of Liberty.
When we had made it to Battery Park, which is only a few block from where we were, people were everywhere! We got in line and, no joke, stood there for at least an hour and a half. There was this small group of British people talking, so I basically listened in on their whole conversation. I had my phone along with Lauren and Ashely jabbering on, so I was pretty entertained for that hour and a half. When we finally got somewhat close to the actual ferry we went through TWO airport style security. They luckily didn't make us take off our shoes!

We made it onto the ferry which was a triple decker. It held I think 700 people? One of the rangers said how many people they fit onto it, but at this point in time, I've forgotten.

This is where they take all of the touristy pictures for New York, so the next picture might look a tad bit familiar.

 This picture is one of my all time favorites.

When we got to the statue, I was so amazed at how huge that thing is. It sounds stupid to say, but it really is bigger than I expected it. Just imagine the pictures you've seen of it and then multiply the size by about 10. I'll help you out. :)

(We were able to go inside the pedestal, so that is where this picture was taken.)

Seeing the statue took up most of the day, but when we had gotten back to the mainland, we went and saw Trinnity Church. This was the church used for the National Treasure movie. I felt so cool being in there! There were some cameras set up and a few top notch movie making people there, so perhaps I'll be in a new movie... haha

We also, crossed the street and walked up Wall Street which was really cool too.

(The church at the end is Trinnity Church)

We then walked over to the Brooklyn Bridge. We walked with the many, many tourists on the wooden planks that Lauren thought were the original. It was built in 1883.
The whole time I was walking I just thought of Enchanted. Actually one scene in particular. You know the scene where Giselle and Prince Edward are walking together. Edward is eating a hot dog and he says, "we shall be married in the morning!" and Giselle tells him she'd rather date? Are you remembering? Well, that's what I was thinking about, and the entire time I just wanted to burst out in song. I spared New York, though, and didn't. haha

We ended this day off on a good note just as we had done for the previous day by going to see the Yankees kick Baltimore's butt. I've heard the Orioles kind of suck, though, so this might not be so significant. The whole time I was there I kept telling my parents how out of place I felt. I'm as unsporty as unsporty gets, so it might have been a comical sight to have seen me at that baseball game. I had fun, nonetheless. :)