28 August 2011 - NY/NJ Vacation

We left for New Jersey on Sunday right after church and arrived at Jerry and Danae's house a little after 9 PM.  There were bad rain storms across most of Pennsylvania that had caused several traffic accidents, causing us to have to get off the interstate and take side roads, which slowed us down some.  Still, we made good time.  On Monday, the girls played with their cousins all day while Jerry and I worked on finishing up his gates on each side of his house and the rest of his front fence.  We were pretty proud of our work.

On Tuesday we took the girls to Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty.  We waited too long to get tickets to go up inside the Statue of Liberty, and soon it will be closed for renovations for a year or so, but at least we got to go see it.  Our first stop though was at Ellis Island, and Madeline got to be one of the judges (she's seated in the middle) in a mock hearing for an immigrant whose means and motives for coming to America were being questioned.  Madeline was in favor of the lady, and we eventually all voted to let her in.  We spent a couple of hours looking at the Ellis Island exhibits, and I felt like it was really good for the kids to be there. 

In one exhibit hall we saw a picture of an Eastern European immigrant who was a shepherd who's stated destination was Wyoming.  It reminded me of a grave marker in Afton Cemetery I saw once that indicated the man buried there was born in Prussia.  I imagined this man, having traveled three or four thousand miles to get to Ellis Island, coming through that building we were standing in, and still facing almost three thousand more miles to get to Afton.  It was a good experience for me to be there as well.  While we were waiting for the boat to take us from Ellis to Liberty Island Joanne snapped this photo of us with Manhattan in the background.

We made it to Liberty Island without any trouble.  We walked all around the island and got some nice pictures.  When we got back to Jerry and Danae's house that evening, they asked if we felt the earthquake.  We hadn't, we figured out we were probably on the boat and just felt a few extra waves when it happened.

Wednesday was our day at Six Flags.  We were joined for this part of our vacation by Jennifer who flew in from Utah and Karl and Jolene's family who drove up from Delaware.  We started at Wild Safari, which is a drive through wild animal park.  There were elephants and rhinos and buffaloes and a bunch of other animals, but the three giraffes that were standing in the middle of the road and licking, nudging and otherwise accosting cars were probably the highlight.  Joanne took this picture right through the windshield.

After the animal park we went to find some rides.  There were rides for kids of all sizes.  Here's Madeline and Emily on a cute little bug ride.  But don't let the tame nature of this one fool you...

Emily also rode Kingda Ka, the tallest (453 ft) and second fastest (128 mph) coaster in the world:

Calista, Eden and Trevor preferred the tamer rides however.

And most of us enjoyed the dolphin show.

Thursday we went into NYC to see a Yankees game.  It was raining hard, but after a delay of an hour or so, the game was played.  Despite the fact that I've been to dozens of Major League Baseball games, I can't ever remember being at one where a Grand Slam was hit.  This game between the Yankees and A's featured a record-breaking three Grand Slams, with seven total home runs and more than thirty total runs scored.  If you peek between Joanne and me, you can see the final score: Yankees 22, A's 9.

From the Yankees game Joanne and I headed to Times Square and stayed the night in a hotel.  We had dinner that evening at Toloache Mexican restaurant, which I now highly recommend if you ever find yourself in West Midtown Manhattan.  The next morning we took to the streets of Times Square to engage in Joanne's favorite pastime: shopping.  Along the way, I made a friend.

Joanne tried to do a self portrait of us in Times Square.  We also did a little shopping in Chinatown.

That evening we all met up in Queens for a Mets game at their new ballpark near Flushing Meadows.  Although there were not 30 runs scored, the game was still very entertaining, the new ballpark was fantastic, and the Mets won!

Meanwhile, back at Jerry and Danae's house, the girls were having a grand old time.  Jessica loved helping take care of Eden, and Eden in turn enjoyed being cared for.

They visited the park next door as often as occasion allowed, and also, when the weather was warm enough, went to the SprayGround a couple of times.

Our final activity of the week was supposed to be Arthur Ashe Kids' day at the U.S. Open tennis tournament, but Hurricane Irene was on her way, and the festivities were canceled.  We decided to get on our way to avoid the storm, and ended up getting back to Washington, PA around 9 PM Saturday evening.  The hurricane rolled up the East Coast on Sunday, but we were grateful to hear from both Karl and Jerry that neither of them sustained any major damage due to the storm.  It was an excellent week and we were grateful to spend it with our family.