Lots of Walking

We got up early again and took the subway to catch a ferry to Liberty and Ellis Islands. Once we got there we had to wait in line for about an hour to get tickets and then wait in another line to get on the ferry. It was worth it though! We weren’t able to get tickets into the Statue of Liberty because they only give out a certain number each day, but we went to the island and walked around. We took some great pictures of the city. Then we got separated from Alison and Tracy and took the ferry to Ellis Island on our own. While on the ferry, the older woman sitting next to me on the boat fell over on me. She had passed out. Matt went to look for help, but the crew was very unhelpful and pretty much sent him on a wild goose chase. This is a little concerning! But there was a nurse on vacation that finally came and helped her. I think she just had heat exhaustion. Once on Ellis Island we walked around and looked at the museum. Then we took the ferry back to Battery Park. Matt and I wandered down Broadway and made our way to Wall Street and saw the New York Stock Exchange. It was pretty neat to see where all the action goes down. We kept wandering and had a slice of pizza for lunch. Then found Century 21 department store, which was supposedly a great store to find designer stuff, but it reminded us of a giant TJ Maxx or something. We weren’t too impressed. We kept walking and came across St. Paul’s Chapel. The Chapel is located directly across from the World Trade Center site. I was quickly touched by the Chapel. It was built in 1766 and is the city’s oldest public building in continuous use. Outside was an old cemetery, which are always interesting. Set up along the walls of the Chapel are 9/11 memorials. There are posters and articles taken from the memorials left outside the church after 9/11. I read some history about the church and it survived the great fires of New York shortly after it’s construction and it survived the attacks on 9/11. Not even one pane of glass was broken after the attacks, which is amazing considering it is literally across the street from the WTC.

Tracy and Alison caught up to us at the Chapel and from there we decided to head to Canal Street to do a little shopping. On Canal Street you can buy all sorts of knock-off products like purses, watches, jewelry and electronics. We were mainly interested the Coach purses. As we walked down the street we were approached by several different people selling purses. One came up and said he had Coach purses and to follow him. So we walk about a block down to a tiny store where we were told to wait. Then a small secret door opened up at the back of the shop and we were ushered in. Inside there was floor to ceiling designer handbags. Alison and I picked 3 bags each and tried bargaining with the woman inside. She eventually got mad at us and said we were “driving everyone crazy” and proceeded to kick us out of the secret room. So, we left empty handed, but quickly were ushered into another secret room by someone else. We eventually bought our share of bags. I ended up with 2 black Coach handbags, 1 brown Coach handbag, a black Coach wallet and a brown Coach wristlet. And I think it all coast $130! Not too bad. They aren’t real Coach, but unless you look really close you can’t tell. While the girls were shopping for bags, Matt walked through some electronic shops that had their own secret rooms. But those rooms were to preview adult movies. So weird. But Matt says he didn’t go in them!

After a crazy afternoon of secret room shopping, we decided to head back to Little Italy for dinner. We found a place that looked pretty good. However, we had the worst service ever! And the food wasn’t as good as it was the previous night.