Early to Bed, Early to Rise 10-3-13

Keith, Teresa, Lindsay, Chris and Paige picked me up at 5:15 AM for our ride to the Atlanta airport.  Our 7:30 AM flight left as the sun was rising.  The kids were very excited about flying to Philadelphia.  We then picked up our rental van and headed toward Newark, NJ where we would spend the night.  Grandma had printed out the MapQuest directions but somehow we got Mommy lost in Trenton.  With the help of her iPhone GPS we were able to get back on track with minimal panic at being lost in a very scary hood.  The information on the Springhill Suites on Trip Advisor said it was a great place but difficult to find...we were not the exception to this rule.  We could see it from the expressway but we couldn't get there..  We finally figure it out and check in and leave our bags and head out again.  This time we hit traffic that is moving an inch at a time and we spend a half hour going 1 mile due to an accident or broken down truck.   We arrived at Liberty State Park a little after 1:30
PM that day and found a diner near the park entrance where we had lunch.  After the lunch that was a hit with all of us, we found our way to the park entrance.  Since the government is currently "shut down", we needed to trade in the tickets to the Statue of Liberty Tour we had for the harbor tour that was still operating.  We have about and hour and a half to wait for the next tour so we walked the park.  They have a beautiful old train station that is going to be restored to its original grandeur.  You have a wonderful view of the Manhattan skyline from here and especially the new Freedom Tower built as part of the 911 Memorial  The park also had a 911 Memorial for all those from New Jersey that were lost that day as well.

 

It was a beautiful day to take the boat ride and lucky for us too as we were the last to ride that day and there were probably less than 20 of us on board.  The kids got to stand up front with the crew and they were very informative with where we were and stopped for a long while for us to get photos at the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island.  Ellis Island is being remodeled and would have been closed even if the government was not shut down.  They took us up the Hudson River where we had great views of Empire State Building and both Newark and Lower Manhattan including Battery Park.  We could see the entrance to the 911 Memorial and where the WTC Twin Towers had stood.  We then went up the East River past Governor's Island and under the Brooklyn and Manhattan Bridges and we could also see the Williamsburg Bridge and the Chrysler Building from where we were.  We all enjoyed this tour which included watching the Staten Island Ferry and scenic helicopters as we passed by their launches.  We then went back to the hotel so the kids could swim in the indoor pool to work off some energy.  We ordered pizza for dinner and Teresa walked down this dark road to get us some wine.  The manager at the front desk told her the little Marriott market was two buildings over but it was not as simple as they made it sound.  The hotel building in between us and the wine was fenced in which forced her to walk all the way around.   Anyway the pizza and salad was good as was the wine and we all crashed early since we have another busy day tomorrow.