Week in Review: Mother in Law Visit: Statue of Liberty

With the government shutdown, Liberty Island is now closed so I was so happy that my first visit to the Statue wasn't put on hold. We were able to visit the island the Friday before the shutdown and kept saying how lucky we were that we didn't plan the visit for the following week. MIL, kids and I had never been to the Statue before, Hubby had gone when he used to live in NYC in his younger years (Before Kendra). My family had gone when I was in the first grade but I refused to miss school to go see the statue, because I was that much of a nerd, even at six. We bought tickets in advance (they were more expensive then I really thought they would be) for 11am time slot but arrived there early and there was no problem getting on the ferry early. We decided to park on the New Jersey side instead of going into NYC, figuring it would make it easier getting home with minimal traffic. That plan would have worked except that we were so hungry when we left that we stopped at the first restaurant we could all agree on and then hit some traffic on the way home, but still ended up getting home early enough to have a normal bedtime. 

We took the ferry over to the island (which I am pretty sure is the only way to get there), they had a bunch of different ferries with names like: Miss Liberty, Miss New Jersey, Miss New York, Miss Ellis Island. We pointed out to the kids where all boats have their names and how each boat has a unique name. Ellis Island is still closed since they are repairing damage from Hurricane Sandy, but as the boat went by, we gave little history recaps on the island and Ellis Island. 

ferry at the dock before we left for the island

The weather was absolutely awesome, I wish I had packed a great lunch because the grounds were perfect for a family lunch. I had only packed some snacks so we wouldn't be starving while we there, but we could have spent another hour there just enjoying the view. I definitely would recommend bringing at least a sweater because the water makes it a little bit more chilly then the mainland, I took my sweater off on the island but I was also carrying around the baby and he is a little hot furnace. We even could have ate at the park from where the ferry left from and where we left the car. There was the old railway station there, built in 1913 that is super creepy but awesomely cool to take some pictures. The trip was awesome, easy to get to and other then the crowds (which you can't avoid at a huge touristy hotspot) and Steven sleeping through the climb to the pedestal, it was a perfect day trip. I was so happy to finally get to see this hugely important monument to our country. 

Week in Review: Mother-in-Law Visit: Walkway over the Hudson

The past two weeks were stressfully spent preparing for a visit from Mother-in-Law so blog posts have been falling to the wayside, although I have plenty of pictures so recap the week. After spending Monday in a hurried mess to try and get everything neat and organized, we drove almost two hours to Kennedy airport to pick up MIL. MIL and I have met before but it was very early in the relationship with Hubbs. Since there is a decent time difference between Ireland and New York, we spent the afternoon just relaxing. Tuesday we also had a late start, just trying to get MIL used to the time difference and then took an afternoon trip to the Walkway over the Hudson in Highland, NY. The bridge used to be the railroad bridge and is now part of the local rail trail in addition to being a park. It is very high off the water, but in no way feels unsafe ( I have a fear of heights so these things are important to me!). We parked the car on the Highland side of the bridge (west side) and only walked to the halfway point since it was getting late and the bridge closes at dusk. There was a spacious parking lot, a snack/drink cart and very clean bathroom facilities. We saw tons of kids on the bridge, walking and biking and the bridge is very pet friendly (they even had a water dish at the halfway point just for pups!) so if you bring the kids, be prepare to spend a fair chunk of time just petting dogs. If you wanted to make a day trip of it with the kids, you could go to the Children's Museum for the day, picnic at either end of the park and walk the bridge during sunset. Overall the outings rating would be a 6/10. It is very weather dependent, but we had a great time and it was an easy walk to just enjoy the view. 

looking south towards the Mid-Hudson Bridge

looking west towards Highland

Later we had bathtime!!! Once he realizes that it's a bath and not liquid death, Steven enjoys it a ton