On our last day in New York, we woke up early and took a taxi down to Battery Park where we would be hopping on a ferry to see the Statue of Liberty up close. Lines were already backed up, but thankfully we purchased our tickets in advance, so we just walked onto the ferry when it was time for our scheduled crossing.
We spent a couple of hours at Liberty Island checking out the views of Manhattan and the Statue of Liberty. We then took a short ferry ride to Ellis Island but stayed on the ferry to avoid being caught up in the crowds.
Once we made it back to Battery Park we took a taxi back up to the hotel with a short stop at B&H Photo. I’ve always purchased my camera gear from them, but always online so it was fun going inside and seeing what a big production it is. I did purchase a new lens but at the reasonable rate of $99!
We dropped some things off at the hotel and then headed to Times Square to catch one of the double-decker bus city tours. It was nice riding up top and getting to see all of the neighbors, but we were all a bit tired so it took some concentration to not take a nap instead of paying attention. The tour lasted a couple of hours, which gave us plenty of time to walk around some more before heading to dinner.
For dinner, we met up my long-time high school friend’s daughter, Melissa. She lives in Jersey City and works as a nurse at NYU. We met at a restaurant called “Mason Jar” and had comfort food for dinner. Melissa has grown into an amazing woman and it was fun catching up with her and hearing about her adventures of living in New York. It was definitely one of the highlights of the trip.
We made it back to the hotel around 11:00 pm and decided to call it a night since we had to wake up at 4:00 am to head to the airport and fly home. New York lived up to the hype and I’m sure we’ll find a reason to go back at some point. Hopefully, we can spread things out a bit over more than just a couple of days.
