The Journey to Get to Lady Liberty

Thursday morning came bright and early. We woke up promptly at 9:00-again- got dressed, and finalized what we were going to do on our final day in NYC over breakfast. I wanted to go downtown and try to do as much as we could. My list of things to do downtown included: riding the ferry, seeing the Stature of Liberty, seeing the financial district, going to Chinatown, Little Italy, and SOHO. A pretty long list, but I knew after what we had already done that we would be fine trying to squeeze all this in!

We had talked to a nice NYC couple over supper the night before and they gave us some tips on using the subway system to get downtown. They made it sound so simple, but it proved to be a little more difficult than Josh and I expected. The lady told me that we had two options to get downtown; we could either take the 1 to South Ferry or we could take the 4,5 to Bowling Green. Both of those would get us close to where the ferry was and that's where we wanted to start our day. What the lady failed to tell us and what we failed to realized after looking at the map was that all the subway lines crossed at some point. I thought that we had to find a 4.5 station to get to our location, but that wasn't true at all. Needless to say, Josh and I did a lot of pointless walking just to find a station that had 4,5 on it when we could have gotten on about 5 or 6 train before that and then hopped to the 4,5 once we were down there. Oh well...live and learn!

While we were trying to find the 4,5 station, we passed St. Patrick's Cathedral again and I got some more incredible pictures. I would love to go inside this cathedral the next time we visit. If this is what the outside looks like, imagine what the inside looks like!



We FINALLY made it to the station we were looking for, boarded the train, and settled in for the ride. It took maybe 10 minutes for us to get downtown and it wasn't scary at all. I never once worried about our safety.


Our first stop of the day was Battery Park. We noticed a huge line and hoped that it wasn't the line to board the free ferry to Staten Island. We didn't have time in our jam-packed schedule for waiting! Luckily for us, all these people were waiting to PAY to ride the Liberty ferry that takes you to the Statue of Liberty for the tour. All I wanted to do was to get a picture of Lady Liberty and ride the FREE ferry :) Before we got on the ferry though, I did get my picture made with the Statue of Liberty. She wanted to charge me $5 but I bargained with her and she took $2. I was pretty pumped about that!

The Lady Liberty ferry (not the free one)

We walked to the Staten Island Ferry building and boarded the ferry. Apparently lots of people must have read the same guide book I did because there were lots of tourists on the ferry doing the exact same thing we were. Fighting for a spot at the back of the ferry wasn't fun, but we managed and I was able to snap a couple of pictures of the Statue of Liberty.

The ferry we took for free :)
It takes about 30 minutes there and 30 minutes back. You don't go to the Statue of Liberty, but you do get to pass right by her. Plus, you can sit down, relax, and enjoy the views of the city from the boat. It was actually very relaxing!