Stamps Like Champs: Two-For-One Blog!

This blog is a fun one to write because I have a mini park trip to talk about and a house update! We'll start with the park. Yesterday, we met our National Park buddy and trivia teammate, T.R., at Liberty State Park in New Jersey to catch the ferry to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. Back in January we booked tickets to go all the way up to the crown in the statue. Take note that if you buy crown tickets and want to stop at the pedestal, do that before you have the ranger cut off your wrist band to go up to the crown. Once you get to the pedestal on your way up, that's your only chance to get out there. We missed the opportunity to do that, and I wish the ranger would have given us the heads up but he didn't. It's about 200 steps to get to the pedestal and then about another 200 (a little less actually) to get to the crown. I've never thought of myself as claustrophobic and usually people warn that the tram that goes up the St. Louis Arch is so tiny that it will freak you out. That tram is a cake walk compared to the steps going up to the crown! It is a spiral staircase that is only as wide as one person. Going up was the easy part, going down was terrifying and I felt claustrophobic for the first time in my life. I'm happy to say we went up to the crown, but I think if I were to ever go back to the Statue of Liberty, I'd stick with pedestal tickets. I think the views would be far better from the pedestal than from the crown. Once inside the crown, the space is so small with tiny windows that really limit your view. On that subject too - we were shocked by how big the statue looks from the outside, but just how small being inside Lady Liberty's brain actually is.

The steps leading up to the crown

In the crown (we couldn't stop thinking about this scene while we were in the crown!)

Looking towards NYC (to the far left...)

Looking straight down

Lady Liberty's arm

On the way to the statue

At the end of the day

Hopefully this illustrates how small her head actually is. We couldn't believe it!

The first torch. The torch now is lit from the outside.

NYC (the tallest building you see is the 9/11 Memorial)

After the Statue of Liberty, we took the ferry over to Ellis Island. Steve and I could have spent an entire day here, probably longer. It was fascinating! Right away, we went over to the registry records so we could find some ancestors. We think we were successful because there were multiples of a lot of the names we searched for. We went into the Registry Room which was restored to look like how it had looked from 1918 - 1924 and it was awesome and felt like we walked through a time machine! We went through a few of the exhibits there, and then called it a day. We wish we had time for the hard hat tour that takes you through the non-restored areas including the morgue and the hospital. We will definitely go back to do that someday!

The area that's not restored - the hard hat tour takes you through these buildings

Ship registry

Passports

Registry room

That brings me to the house update. I don't have a lot of exciting pictures to share, but there was a lot of work done this past week! Plumbing and electric were done, but we still need BGE to come out and run electric from the power lines to the house and who knows when that will happen. They also prepped the front porch to pour the cement. Next up will be sprinklers and insulation with a couple inspections thrown in there and then we are ready for drywall! In the meantime, we are doing last minute projects and cleaning in our current house. We are having pictures done this Thursday and then it goes on the market next Friday. Wish us luck, please!