Translate

April 28, 2010

Ellis Island

Living near New York City, but not in it, has advantages.  It's like living near an ocean.  You know it's there, and you can go any time you want to, and that's enough for long stretches of time.  It took me over 30 years to get over the feeling of wanting to stay in NYC one more minute before going home.  And I get that rush still sometimes.  But I am at the stage where I know the city (as much as anyone living in NJ can), know the neighborhoods, can pick where I want to go and what I want to see, and can give visitors choices of where it might be interesting.

One of my very favorite spots is Ellis Island.  Yes, it's a stop on the way to the Statue of Liberty, but it's so very worth it all on it's own.  One of the last times I went there, my co-mother-in-law was along, she'd never been there.  Her parents came through Ellis Island.  She found the records of their journey, the ships manifest with her father's name on it, the ship he came on, she was just floored.
Sidenote:  I have no emotional attachment to Ellis Island, now if they are going to make a museum out of JFK Airport - well, that would be a different story!

Just to get you to think about coming and seeing this terrific museum - the trip on the ferry is worth it alone, with the view of lower Manhattan, fabulous - I'll show (off) a few of my pictures:
Registry Hall, where the hopeful immigrants would sit on wooden benches and wait for their turn to be called.
One of the cupolas from the entrance to the museum.
No, the statue is on another island.  In the front is Ellis Island.
Note to self:  Either find someone to show Ellis Island to, or go by yourself!

5 comments:

  1. Hey Ruth... I'll go with ya!

    Well, in my daydreams anyway. Someday I'll save money to come visit and you can show me all these incredible places. Till then, we're all so lucky to have you to show us in pictures and tell us all about them. You're just a special lady..

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hallo Ruth,

    Thanks for the E-Mail address. I'll try it and that should give you mine, if it works. Love that picture of the Gorch Fock. But my favorite one that you used was the one from BK with the "Brueckenhaeuser."

    A few weeks ago my sister-in-law and her husband invited us along to the neighboring town for wine tasting and can you believe the winery featured that Saturday was Schlink winery from BK and Michaela Schlink was there to represent them. That's another "Small World Story."

    ReplyDelete
  3. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  4. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  5. I wanna go back to New York someday. Have only been there as a 13-year-old and don't remember much... When I go, I'll definitely visit Ellis Island, promise.

    ReplyDelete