Statue of Liberty

After months of planning, Don, Ashley and I went to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island this past weekend. While looking out on our snow covered lawn on January 9th I made reservations to climb to the crown of the Statue of Liberty on April 16th, a day that we thought would be the perfect Spring Day. As the day drew closer and the forecast called for cold rain, we hesitated about making the trip. As you can see in the above picture, we had Liberty Island almost to ourselves and the rain held until the ride home.

Don and I had both been to the Statue of Liberty a couple of times. Each time it was extremely crowded, and hot (well, it was summer) and our view at the top was rushed because the people immediately behind us also wanted to see. If this was your experience, it is time to go back.

Tickets now must be purchased months in advance: http://www.statuecruises.com/ferry-service/welcome.aspx

Every 20 minutes the Park Rangers send up a group of 10 people. We climbed all 200+ steps at our own pace. At the top were two Park Rangers telling us what we are seeing, and that swaying is normal. They also took our picture and let us take as much time as we wanted. About 20 minutes later we began the descent on the other side of the double-helix staircase.

We wandered around the museum in the pedestal and then boarded the boat to Ellis Island. Ashely and I had read lots of books about people coming through Ellis Island. We also watched their movie. Nothing compares, though, to seeing the place. It was quiet there, too.

The best part of the day was seeing Ashley's eyes sparkle with amazement at the entire experience. Each time she saw Lady Liberty that day she couldn't believe she actually climbed to the top of her.

She couldn't wait to see her classmates and tell them about her weekend.

If you do plan to go, order tickets soon because the Statue of Liberty will be closed starting in November for scheduled maintenance. Climbing to the crown was definitely the highlight of our trip.