NY Trip - Liberty & Ellis Island (Day 3)

24-May-2008


We got up early and reached Liberty State Park, to board the ferry to Liberty Statue at 8 am. We spent some time in the Ellis Island before reaching the Statue of Liberty. Ellis Island had a museum depicting the history of U.S immigration. We spent about an hour in this island.

We reached Statue of Liberty at around 11.00 am. The view of the giant statue in the middle of the lake was amazing. We got off the Liberty Island. I had booked ferry ticket with "Monument Access". There are only limited tickets with "Monument Access". You can get to the pedestal with this ticket.

There are two levels of security check. One at the Liberty State Park (before boarding) and the other at the Liberty Island (before getting to the pedestal). We had to wait in the queue for about an hour to get to the pedestal. The interiors were great and unbelievable. The government has been taking extra care to preserve the gift from France. Unfortunately, the elevators were not for general public use and we had to climb about 100+ stairs (354?). Our life expectancy went up by climbing the stairs :)

The visit to Liberty Island was memorable. You can spend more than 1/2 a day in the Liberty Island. I would recommend boarding the ferry from Liberty State Park. You have plenty of parking there and it is very inexpensive.

We drove to Buffalo from there. It was a very long & tiring 6 hours drive. We reached Buffalo at about 9.30 pm. We checked-in to Holiday Inn. Holiday Inn is located in the downtown and it was about 30 minutes away from Niagara Falls.

NY Trip - Downtown New York (Day 2)

23-May-2008

We had the complimentary breakfast in the hotel and went to see the Downtown Manhattan. Driving in the downton was fun. NY downtown traffic looked like India devoided of 2 wheelers. I managed to find a parking lot close to Empire State Building. They charged me 32$ for 10 hours.

We waited in the queue for about 3 hours to get to the top of the Empire State Building. My little one lost her patience. We got a nice view of the Downtown Manhattan from the top. We came down pretty quick. We then had our lunch in a park close to Empire State Building. Yep. I was surprised to see this calm park in the middle of the busy Manhattan. There were several other people who were relaxing and having their food.

We walked to the Time Square. Time Square was extraordinarily crowded. It looked like a mini Vegas :) We spent a few minutes there and walked to the U.N building. We saw the Grand Central Station on our way to the U.N building. We had to walk for about 30 minutes to get to the U.N building. But, it was not worth the walk. We then returned to Grand Central and took a subway train to Wall Street.

We got off the Wall Street station. We visited Ground Zero, Brooklyn Bridge & Wall Street. Ground Zero kindled some of the 9/11 memories. There is heavy construction activities going on in Ground Zero. We then returned back to Wall Street and took to the subway train to Empire State Building. We took our car from the parking lot and drove back to the hotel.

On our way back, we stopped in Liberty State Park to get a glimpse of the New York skyline. It was an awesome view from the Liberty State Park. It is a nice location for photographers. We took some snaps there and returned to the hotel at around 10 pm.

NY Trip - Washington DC (Day 1)

22-May-2008


This was one of my long postponed and much awaited trips.

We left SJC on May 21st in the night and reached BWI (Maryland) in the morning. We had a stopover in Atlanta. We had our breakfast in airport, took the rental car and drove to DC. It was about an hour and a half drive from BWI -> DC. We reached the US State Capitol building and parked our SUV close by (It took 1/2 hour to find the 'perfect' parking space :)).

We visited the State Capitol Building, Supreme Court building, Washington National Monument, Lincoln Memorial, World War II Memorial & White House. You can spend a whole day in this area. However, it is tough to find a parking lot on a week day. We visited the National Mall & Monuments area on a weekday. I don't know if there will be enough parking available on a weekend. The monuments were beautiful and most of them resembled European architecture. The view of the reflection pond inbetween the Capitol building and the Washington National Monument was amazing. I liked my brief visit to the Lincoln Memorial. I couldn't resist recollecting Martin Luther King's "I have a dream speech" that was delivered in Lincoln Memorial, ages ago. Lincoln's statue was majestic. That was the best one that I've ever seen.

We then visited the whitehouse. It IS a very secure area. We took a few pictures infront of white house.

I did the most costliest parking ever during my DC trip. I was charged $100 for 3 hours of parking :) You won't believe it, but it is true. I got a parking ticket :( When I parked my SUV, I didn't notice the parking hours for that location. I violated by 10 minutes and the police officer was not kind enough ! (Latest update: It looks like the officer didn't submit the ticket to the DMV on-time. So, the ticket was voided !! :))

We then went to Arlington's Cemetry in VA. It was about an hour drive from the National Monuments area. My wife & kid stayed in the car. They were very tired. I took an hour walk inside the cemetry - saw JFK's & thousand other soldier's cemetry. It was very moving.

We then drove to New Jersey and reached our hotel by about 11 pm.