Our Final Day in NYC

We actually slept in until 8 am this morning when Larnzy called and woke us.  It was a long and productive day yesterday.

We walked to the Port Authority to find out what time we can leave in the morning.  6 am is the first bus out and Frank wants to be on it because we have a long drive back to the plane and then a short flight out and he would like to land before dark.

Right next to the Port Authority is the Cake Boss Bakery.  My Spencer loves the Cake Boss so we were very excited and had to go inside to get him a shirt.

From there we went to breakfast and then walked over to the Empire State Building where we spent the next few hours learning about this awesome structure.  It was well worth while and I am glad that it was on our to do list.

We stopped on the 2nd floor where we went into the IMAX theatre for a virtual helicopter flight over NYC to see all the sights.  Then we proceeded to the 80th floor where we walked through the museum and learned that the tallest building in NYC (until the Twin Towers) was built in only 11 months and employed nearly 5000 employees during the great depression.

Up to the 86th floor where we went onto the observation deck even though it was a windy and wet day with very little visibility.  

We left there and had a leisurely lunch before hopping on the tourist bus to head down to catch the ferry for Ellis Island. We were told that the last boat left at 6 pm.  We arrived at 4:15 to learn that the last boat had left at 4 pm.  I was pretty disappointed because I really wanted to visit the Island that my maternal grandmother had passed through before gaining entry into this country.  Many years ago, I contributed to have a brick placed with her name upon it and I was hoping to see that as well as getting a copy of the manifest for the ship on which she arrived.  I guess this just means that we have to come back again some day.

We took the tour bus back and had a very nice dinner at a wine bar.  And then we headed back for an early night because we need to get up at the crack of dawn.

One year ago--Excited about Autumn