New York: Day 1

We bought a selfie stick.  It was the first time where Ben and I felt like we REALLY needed one.

Since we were in line for the Statue of Liberty, our stick is decorated with an American Flag.  It is awesome . . . and quite useful.  No more asking strangers to take our picture.

Here we are in line to see the Statue of Liberty.  We bought our tickets well in advance, but not in advance enough to get tickets to go up to the crown of the Statue of Liberty.  Our tickets got us up to the pedestal, which is 2nd best and still pretty awesome.

To get over to the Statue of Liberty, you take a 20 minute or so ferry ride.  

Here is the original torch held inside the Pedestal lobby.  It was removed in 1984 and replaced with the current torch in 1986.  Apparently, the tour used to include an option to go up to the torch as well as the crown and pedestal,  but has been closed to the public since the "Black Tom"
 explosion on July 30, 1916.

I don't think I had ever seen what the back of the Statue of Liberty looked liked before.  It was so interesting to see different angles in real life.  Beautiful and majestic.  

One of my favorite things we did in New York.  I would do it again.

After visiting the Statue of Liberty, the ferry takes you over to Ellis Island which is just a short distance away.  There is a short film you can view once you get inside (I highly recommend to watch it) that describes what Ellis Island was used for and gives a feel for how it was for over 12 million immigrants who came through here to come to the United States.  

This building had a special, quiet, almost sacred feeling to it.

Riding the subway back to our New York home.

Day 1 was awesome and I was able to check these sites off my bucket list!