Wheeew - it has been a LOOOOONG day today!
Our flight out of DFW airport was at 7:30 AM, so we got up at 3, left the house at 4, and got to the airport just before 6 AM. The flight was smooth and pleasant and we arrived in NYC a little bit after noon. Spirit Airways managed to get our luggage to the same terminal we arrived at, and by 1:30 we were at our hotel, the Indigo on Wall Street. It's an interesting location - sandwiched between two buildings, the entire hotel is maybe fifty feet wide, but it's 25 stories tall! Our room is on the 10th floor and it is very small but VERY nice and clean, with all the amenities the limited floor space will allow.
We unpacked pretty quickly, and then walked down Pearl Street towards Battery Park in search of lunch. We ate at a sandwich shop (the "Lenwich") which was really good, and then strolled on down to Battery Park and caught the boat out to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. My only other visit to NYC was three years ago, and our trip to Lady Liberty got rained out that day - we snapped a couple of pictures of our drenched seniors and then got back on the boat pretty quickly. Then the rain stopped, the sun came out, and Ellis Island became a sauna. Today the weather was absolutely perfect - sunny, a nice breeze, and a high in the mid-80's. FACT: It was cooler at 4 PM in Manhattan than it was at 4 AM in Greenville, TX! I am going to try and cram some of this weather into my suitcase to take home when we leave, because 105 degrees Fahrenheit is stinking HOT, even for a Native Texan!
We had a blast walking all around Liberty Island and took a ton of pictures of the Statue, the Manhattan skyline, each other, and the beautiful harbor. Then we boarded the same boat and went over to Ellis Island, and toured this place where so many immigrants came to America a hundred years ago. We got there late in the day and didn't get to see everything we wanted to, but it was still a memorable and worthwhile experience. At 6 we boarded the boat and headed back to Battery Park. My wife discovered that even the gentle rolling of a ferry boat is hard on your feet if you suffer from plantar fasciitis - although as soon as we were on land she was a lot more comfortable; a few minute's rest made a world of difference.
We bought a drink from a street vendor and then headed back towards our hotel. After some discussion, we decided to eat at a little ramen shop right around the corner from the hotel. The soup was absolutely delicious and so spicy it made me break into more of a sweat than the entire 13,000 steps I walked today! After that we returned to the hotel, and I went across the street to a Duane Read store (a branch of Walgreen's, lots of snacks, meds, and other essentials) and got us some sodas and snack food for the next couple of days.
All day long, I had worn one of my PRESIDENT HAMILTON T-shirts, with the book cover on the front and the tag line on the back. I'd gotten a few curious glances but not a single comment until this moment. A local, walking by with his family, took one look and said: "I love that &^%$!!ing shirt!!" I smiled and said, "Well, I wrote the book!" We stood on the street corner and chatted for a minute, and the upshot of it was that he is planning on coming to my lecture at the Snyder Academy tomorrow! With that I returned to our room, and having been up for about fifteen hours, I think both of us are going to drop into a travel coma for the next 12 hours or so!
More tomorrow, so stay tuned!
Sending good wishes to you both.
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