Well, I had scheduled a trip to go visit my friend, Danielle; she's been living in Hoboken for the past few years, and while I'm so happy for her being out there - I miss her and don't like that she's so far away. So, I try to get out there to visit her whenever I can.
So, for my second visit, I decided to head out toward the east coast during the fall. I knew I'd have to entertain myself during the day while Danielle was at work, so I was just google-ing random things to do in NYC. While doing so, I came across a few articles indicating that the Statue of Liberty had opened up for people to climb to her crown. I figured I had to do it.
I went to the website, and turns out - it sold out MONTHS in advance. Well, when I got to the website, every time period was filled up for the days that I was out there. Way bummed. Basically, I had kind of given up - seriously, who would give that up? It had just opened after years of being closed, so the demand was incredibly high.
Well, one day, I decided to just go to the website to at least purchase my cruise tickets to the Statue of Liberty; even if I couldn't climb to the crown, I still wanted to go there, as well as Ellis Island. I had heard that if you purchased your tickets online, the whole process would go a lot faster once you got there. While I was on the website, I thought just to check it out to see if there were any availability.....and would you know, there was literally ONE spot available for one of the time slots while I was in the NYC area. I saw one hyperlink available, meaning there were spots open. I seriously purchased that ticket faster than I could process what I was actually doing. As soon as I had purchased the ticket, I went back to the website, and everything was sold out; I seriously think I got the last ticket.
Wow. I was over the hill with excitement! To climb to the top of the crown. I just thought it was so cool.
So, I flew out and got to visit with my friend Danielle. I always have a blast every time I'm out there. So, she was at work one day. I rode the train into the city with her, and then I started just wandering around the city toward Battery Park. Eventually, I found the area where I needed to be.
I stood in line - honestly, not too long. There were a lot of school groups there; we all waited patiently for one of the ferries to come out to find us and bring us over to the Statue.
Because I was going to be climbing to the crown, I had to go to a different area and get a special wristband. I went to go put my purse away, because you literally couldn't bring anything with you. The only thing you could bring was a small camera. This was the first time I've ever seen lockers that you can only open with your finger print; very high tech.
Anyways, I went to the landing area where you get into a group and start the trek up to the crown. Of course, the day I was there was the day that all of the elevators and escalators were broken. I literally went from ground to the top.
Once I got to the landing, I realized that I seemed to be the only one there for my time period. I'm not sure exactly how that worked, but the lady let me just head up without anybody else in my group. It was actually quite nice, because I could take my time walking up the stairs. Literally, as you're heading up, the stairs turn into a spiral staircase that is (a) super steep, and (b) SO incredibly narrow. It was incredible how narrow the stairs were. It's one of those things you just need to experience. By the time I climbed to the top, I knew I needed to take a little bit of a break; the stairs were SO steep and narrow, I felt like I literally had my hands on the stairs and I was climbing up there. Ugh, I probably looked ridiculous; which is why I'm glad I was the only one in my "group."
I finally made it to the top; the view was pretty cool. There's something I just love about New York; and I think I've decided it's the fact that the place has amazingly huge buildings, yet in the middle of it all, is a calm area known as Central Park. While I couldn't necessarily see into Central Park, I could see glimpses of it. Or, maybe that was while I was somewhere else....
Anyways, I just loved it. I also loved that I was in my own "group." It gave me enough time to just stand around at the top of the crown and view the beauty that is the city.
Ah, I would highly recommend climbing to the crown of the Statue of Liberty. One of the tour guides was telling me that if you wanted to climb to the torch, you first climb up to the crown, and then there's kind of a secret passage way where you climb down her arm; once you get toward the bottom, the person literally has to do a 180 on the ladder to hop onto a different ladder. Maybe next time. ;)
Ah, I just loved it. And because of the city that doesn't sleep, it had a little place in my heart. How absolutely awesome, and I'm so glad I was able to do that while I visited my friend!
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