Day 2 started bright and early, as we needed to head down to Battery Park to catch the ferry for the Statue of Liberty.  Day 2 involved a lot of subway riding and rain.


Liberty Island from the ferry.  I felt like an immigrant to the United States, getting their first glimpse of America.

 
The picture on the left is me being a normal person taking a picture with the statue.  On the right is me impersonating the hordes of Asian tourists taking a lot of strange pictures.


This is currently my profile pic on facebook.  I felt really self conscious taking the pic but the cashiers didn't mind.  And I was not going to pay 3 bucks for a foam tiara I'm never going to wear again...


Liberty Island had these little cute benches and tables, so we grabbed a mini bench to pose with the leaves that fell.

We walked around Liberty Island, and went up the pedestal, which was quite a walk up.  We didn't get tickets up into the crown (they were sold out) but I think we would have died from that march.  Also inside the pedestal is a neat little museum that explains the history of the statue of liberty, how it was made, and how the pedestal was designed.  There was also an exhibit with histories of those who passed by Lady Liberty on their way to the US, and the emotions they felt as they saw her for the first time. 

After about three hours on Liberty Island (they weren't kidding when they said to allocate 5 hours for Liberty Island/Ellils Island) we hopped onto the ferry towards Ellis Island.


It was raining. 

I LOVED Ellis Island.  Since I'm a nerd that enjoys historical museums, Ellis Island was totally up my alley.


The registry room, where the immigrants would file in and be questioned about their entry into the United States.  It reminded me of "Godfather 2" where a young Vito was coming into the country all alone, didn't know English, and was then quarantined due to small pox. 

The way the museum is set up is pretty ingenius if you enter through the correct door.  We wound up going through it backwards, but you get a history of the complete experience on the process of coming through Ellis Island, for women, children, etc, medical exams, meals, reasons for detainment, writing home, etc.  It is a lot of information that was extremely interesting.  Ellis Island is an absolute must for anyone.


One of the dorm rooms.  Can you imagine sleeping on these?

After going through the museum, we caught the ferry back to New York.  We walked through Battery Park, where we encountered this:


I don't know what these vendors are trying to say, but I swear, all over NYC, a picture of the Jonas Brothers was usually pretty darn close to a picture of the sign of Gay St.

Our next stop was to the World Trade Center site.


Caroline said the last time she came, it was still just a hole in the ground.  They have started construction on the site, and I hope eventually there will be a permanent memorial.

It was really hard not to start crying, especially since I was listening into a tour that was also going on at the site.



This was on the side of the Firehouse that is located right next to the WTC site.  There is also a museum set up closeby, but it's very small right now.


The firehouse.  This firehouse came into being to service the WTC.

As it started to drizzle again, we headed off to find the Wall Street Bull.  You'd think it'd be on Wall Street, right?  Or outside the Stock Exchange?

LIES.


The NYSE, without a bull anywhere closeby. 

We found a nice security card, and he told us how to get to the bull.  It's actually a couple of blocks away on Broadway.


It was not easy to get this picture - there are SO many people there!  This is an anatomically correct bull, as there are umm... testicles in the back.  And many people taking pictures of themselves touching them.  Nice.

It was raining again and we were tired of walking, so we hopped on the subway to go to Chinatown.  Except the train we got on did not stop at Canal Street, so we had to ride it until we got to a station with a transfer to another train that got off on Canal Street.  Whew.  We got lucky we didn't have to pay for a second subway fare.

NYC's Chinatown reminded me a LOT of San Francisco's Chinatown.  In general, NYC reminded me a lot of SFO.


Look at that price on lobster!!!!  I wanted one!

Every corner in Chinatown are little ladies that mutter "Louis Vuitton?  Handbags?  Chanel?"
"Do you have Burberry"
"Oh no.  Coach?" 
"No."  (As I think to myself you know Coach is cheap enough, do you REALLY need to knock that off?)

Eventually, I got one that said he had Burberry.  (he lied.)  He told us to follow him to his store.  Caroline joked that they hide the good stuff in the basement.

It's no joke.

We get to the store and we are led inside.  One of the employees then pops a wall open (holy crap!) and we are led down a flight of stairs to their basement, where they have a room with nothing but knock off bags.  This store didn't have a great selection, although I did buy a Gucci wallet.  She wanted $25, and I countered with $15.  She took the price right away.  I felt ripped off - I should have suggested $10.  Oh well.

A goal of our Chinatown trip was to go to Joe's Shanghai for their famous Shanghai style dumplings.


Located on Pell Street, which is a tiny little street.


We were seated at a table designed for 8, but they will seat you next to other people to save seats. 

We ordered three things:


Hot and Sour Soup, which definitely cleared the sinuses, but was a bit thick.  I wasn't a huge fan of this version.


Shanghai style chow mein, vegetarian style, which was REALLY good.  Vegetarian style because my friend doesn't eat dark meat chicken, red meat, pork, or seafood.


And the stars of the place, eight pork dumplings with soup.  I ate 7 of them, my friend ate the skin and the soup of one.  For only 4.65!  Oh man, they were good.  The wrapper is nice and chewy.  The soup is hot when you first bite into them.  I feel like I've had this soup before, but it was nice and warm. 


A quick peek inside. 

For the two of us, It was only 22 something dollars.  A really good deal for the three items we ordered.  And so worth it.  I loved it and might start looking up places here in the Bay Area to visit for these dumplings.

We found a random shop to get some pearl tea/boba (I had to keep reminding Caroline they've never heard of the word "boba" before and to use the word "bubbles") and while we were waiting, a random fight broke out in the back of the restaurant in Chinese.  It was kinda in Cantonese, but I couldn't understand it - apparently there's a dialect of Cantonese that's spoken in NYC.  But it was loud, public, and between two random people!

After Chinatown, we headed down to South Street Seaport, which is a disappointment.  It's just a big shopping mall, with a couple of ships.  However, it has a spectacular view of the Brooklyn Bridge.


There's a plaque on this lighthouse commemorating the Titanic.


The Brooklyn Bridge at night, all purty.

Our last stop of the day was to Katz's Deli.  I've wanted to go here ever since I saw it on the Food Network and Travel Channel and my mouth was watering at the thought of the pastrami.

Katz's Deli is also the location of the famous "scene" from When Harry Met Sally.  It's on Houston St and we didn't walk there, but caught a cab.  We were tired.


When you enter Katz's, you are given a ticket.  HOLD ON TO THIS TICKET WITH YOUR LIFE.


It indicates what you've ordered and how much you need to be charged, as you pay on your way out. 

You take your ticket and get in line for a cutter.  Any cutter.  There isn't one line, which lends to some of the craziness at the place, since there's no orderly lines.  Just get in one and hope for the best.

I of course, had to order the pastrami.  The cutter gave me a slice to munch on as he prepared my sandwich, and it was so good.  It was tender.  It melted in my mouth as I chewed.  I cannot believe how fabulous this pastrami is.


Look at it!  So gorgeous. 

By the way, NO MAYO.  Mustard only.


I wanted to order a Vanilla Egg Cream to drink, but they were out of vanilla!  Boo!  So I got a Doc Browns cream soda instead.  Yummmmmm.  I hate pickles, so Caroline ate them, but the cucumbers were crisp and delicious, although I could only eat about 1.5 of them.  I just can't stand that pickle taste.

By the way, for you When harry Met Sally fans...


Exact seat.


You can't say you weren't warned!  Otherwise, they'll never know what you ordered or didn't order!

After this we walked a few blocks up to the subway, and took it back to the hotel and crashed for the night.  It was a lot to cram into one day, but we did it, and had some great meals to show for it.

Hi!

While it's fun to be away, it's always great to come back home.  Even better when the plane ride is very uneventful and I have a TV in my face so I could watch Monday Night Football!

I'm slooooooooooooowly going through my pictures, and I'm disappointed some of the ones of me came out fuzzy.  I need to give out picture taking lessons.  Hrmph. 

But here's a start:



Awesome.

The latest lunch escapade took us to Palo Alto Sol on California in Palo Alto.  I have no idea where I heard about this place, but I knew I wanted to try it after hearing about it.

We try to get to restaurants by 1145am so that we're seated before the lunch rush.  Palo Alto Sol is pretty dim though, not a lot of lighting, and a lot of small tables, so if you're in a large party you may need to split up.  There is also seating outside.


Their chips, heavenly.  Crispy and not greasy.  It comes with three salsas - I didn't touch the bright red one, which would have been too hot for me, but the other two were very mild.  I couldn't stop eating the chips - they were so good.

Their lunch menu is pretty big, and not ridiculously expensive.  Entrees are about 10.95 to 13.95 range, depending on what you want to order.

I was torn between a burrito and enchiladas, and eventually went with enchiladas.


Verdes enchiladas, with beef.  The beef was yummy and tender, and the sauce was not spicy (YAY!)  These two enchiladas were killing me later though - I was in a major food coma from the amount.  It doesn't look like a lot but it felt like it.  The beans were average, the rice was decent.


Allan went with the catfish tacos, which looked REALLY good.  He said adding the bell peppers added a different taste that was welcome, and the catfish was not deep fried, as you traditionally see with fish tacos.

Overall, I may go back again to try the catfish tacos or get the burritos.  I saw a lady chowing down on one outside and wanted one.