"Seniors in the City" All Grown Up

I took my first full day off from work on Friday and Emily and I went got up early and headed down to Lower Manhattan to board the ferry headed out to Liberty Island to see the Statue of Liberty. It was a VERY muggy day as you can see from the picture looking back at the skyline from the ferry.

Lookie there! What is that? The Statue of Liberty? I had no idea!

Emily and I attempted to take obnoxious pictures with the Statue. Emily gave Lady Liberty a wet willy in her ear...I picked her nose. Real mature, I know. :)
(For those of you keeping tabs on my VEISHEA wristband, Nicki, this is the last picture with the beloved piece of green plastic. I parted ways with it on Saturday. My wrist feels naked! haha)

The tickets to the crown are sold out until November and we were too impatient to stand in very long line to go up to the base of the monument. This close will have to do for now!
We were hot and tired on Liberty Island so we boarded the ferry that goes to Ellis Island next. We went inside the main building and counted our blessings that we hadn't arrived back in the day before they installed the air conditioning. :) We decided to learn more about the history of Ellis Island and went into a theater. After we collapsed in the seats, they turned down the lights and we knew we were doomed. A nice little nap was what we got out of that movie! After awaking from our slumber, we made our way to this beautiful, open room- the Registry Room. It was neat to look at the pictures and see this open space full of people all waiting to be let into America.

These columns were preserved because of the graffiti that was inscribed by the people who crossed through Ellis Island. There were illustrations as well as messages left to love ones.

The dormitory room housed some of the smallest and most UNcomfortable beds I've ever seen. A piece of canvas maybe 5 feet long, stretched tight between a couple bars, was all you got if you were unfortunate enough to have to spend the night at Ellis Island.

Coming off the ferry in Battery Park City, there were a couple of these brothers that would run down to were the crowd was and start shouting in a rehearsed manner:

"Ladies and Gentlemen, you have 5 minutes!"
"5 minutes!"
"To get off that ferry and over to watch our show!"
"Our show!"

Emily and I stopped by to watch what these brothers had put together. Of course their attractive outfits drew us in more than their actual act!
It's hard to miss the bull as you walk up Broadway towards Wall Street. There wasn't its usual crowd surrounding the figure so Emily and I jumped at the chance to snap a picture. Apparently I was into picking the noses of statues that day? Haha :)

Natalie had snagged tickets to a taping of the late night sensation, the Jimmy Fallon Show. We went over to the GE Building in Rockefeller Center, received our wristbands as we so fondly show off in the picture below, waited in line for quite awhile, but were finally let into the studio. It's just as they say- the studio is much smaller than they make it seem on the show! The guests that night, Anna Paquin, Mancow, and the band The Dead Weather, weren't exactly highlights. Yet, Jimmy was still hilarious and it was so much fun to watch the taping in real life. The episode we were at can be seen by clicking here. The kid that won the computer was sitting next to us! (Woop-de-do, I know...haha)
Emily, Natalie, and I with our official "Late Night with Jimmy Fallon" wristbands.

Natalie noticed this sign on 5th Ave on our walk back from Jimmy. Love it.

Friday night, we tried to go down to the Intrepid Aircraft Carrier where they were showing Jaws on its deck for free. We dinked around long enough after leaving NBC Studios that the on-board crowd reached capacity. Oh well. Still got a picture of the huge ship!

Because we missed out on the movie on the boat, we found these fountains nearby. After sitting and watching the pretty display of lights and water, we decided to retreat back to our childhoods and jumped in the fountains. It was ridiculously fun and made for some pretty pictures!

Saturday, Emily and I finally slept in and got some much needed zzzzz's. That afternoon we hopped on the 4 train to ride to the Bronx for the Yankees baseball game. It was the longest, most uncomfortable subway ride I've had this whole summer. Sooooooo many Yankee fans crowded in the subway car. It was hot. Everyone was sweating. Gross. This picture does no justice in displaying how crowded the car was:

Finally we made it to 161st Street and everyone clambered out of the subway car into the sunny platform with a view of both Yankee Stadiums. The first is of old Yankee Stadium covered by scaffolding:

And then the bright, new Yankee stadium was off to the right.

Being baseball fans, Emily and I were pumped about going to the game, but I should throw a disclaimer out there. We are NOT Yankee fans. In fact, I despise the Yankees. We went for the experience. Period. :)

Because of the loooong subway ride, we got in after the top of the 1st was already complete. Derek Jeter was up and hit a single during our first look at the field.

The food and drink prices were outrageous, of course! Try not to be distracted by the calories listed immediately after the menu item. That number is outrageous as well!

Finally we made it to our seats! We got lucky and didn't bake in the sun since we sat up high enough to be shaded by the overhanging at the top of the stadium. :)

As I warned you all before during my post about the Mets game, I adore baseball diamonds. Therefore, here is yet another shot of the view we had.

The background view of Yankee Stadium offers a glimpse of some of the finest in the Bronx of New York. I was talking to Dad before we came to the game. He had an uncle that lived on Long Island, NY that Mom and him visited a few times. Dad reminded me, "Uncle Rusty would roll over in his grave knowing you're going up to the Bronx." It isn't exactly the nicest borough of New York City, that's for sure... Oh and I should mention, Uncle Rusty was a die-hard Mets fan. Enough said.

The grounds crew came out between innings and while dragging the field, they did a synchronized dance to the YMCA song that was blaring over the loudspeakers. It was impressive!

A-rod hit a homerun to liven up the 0-0 game that they had going...

Then Marcus Thames of Detroit responded with a solo home himself. In true Yankee-form, the fan who caught the ball threw it back into the field in disgust. Yankee fans are classy people. A good comparison would be they're a lot like Hawk fans. But that's just my opinion. :)

In the section next to us, there was an Obama look-alike. He obviously knew of this similarity and played up the part. Why else would some random dude come to a Saturday afternoon game in a suit?! People were taking so many pictures of the guy, you'd think he actually WAS the President.

With a 2-1 score going into the top of the 9th, Mariano Rivera came in from the Yankee bullpen to finish off the game by shutting down the Tigers one last time. No, Thad, it wasn't quite the perfect game I was hoping for, like Billy Chapel (Kevin Costner) somehow throws everytime (haha) in one of our favorite movies For Love of the Game.

Emily and I decided the classic picture with the field in the background was necessary.

And, in keeping tradition from childhood family vacations of visiting MLB stadiums in the area...Yankee Stadium, check!

Saturday night, Natalie and I took Emily down to Blockheads, the Mexican restaurant that we have become regulars at over the summer. Warm night, good food and drinks, and a fun atmosphere made for a great time.


After dinner we went down towards Union Square near NYU in the Soho area. Our destination was this place called the Beauty Bar where you can get a drink and a manicure for only $10 (so cheap!), but the line was too long so we soon left after arriving. We sat in Union Square people watching for a bit, but had to leave when Emily's shoulder got pooped on by a bird. Hahahahaha
This picture of Emily and I was suppose to capture the view of the Chrysler building lit up down the street, but the flash didn't allow that to happen...

Sunday brought yet another trip to Coney Island. My lil sun goddess, Emily, enjoyed the sun while Natalie applied sunscreen every 5 minutes, I swear! Here we are on the pier looking back at the huge crowd of colorful umbrellas on the beach.

For Emily's last night, we went to Times Square to get the classic picture together. Dinner at Applebee's allowed us to be "eatin good in the neighborhood"

Look, I met Morgan Freeman! You thought he was real, didn't you?! So did I... We were walking by this store front that had wax figures of movie stars in it. Morgan Freeman's was closest to the sidewalk and when I saw "him" I stopped dead in my tracks and started grabbing for my camera. "Emily, I know him!" Emily was confused but then after realizing what I thought, she grabbed my arm, doubling over with laughter, and pulled me away. "Hallie, 'he' is NOT REAL."
How embarassing... :)

Monday morning before Emily's plane left, we walked down to the plaza were the Today Show is filmed. A goal of Emily's was to see Matt Lauer. It's still on my to-do list as well because no sooner did we get down there and found out that Matt was on vacation. Not cool, Matt. We did get to see Meridith Viera and Al Roker. We ended up standing by a family that was from West Des Moines. The kid had a Hawkeye jacket on so of course we shared some friendly banter about Iowa vs. Iowa State. It turns out that the dad had relatives that played and coached football at Central College the same time Reece was there. Small world!

This is the way to go. Lucky Mr. Policeman of the NYPD.