Gone traveling,
Back shortly.A Travel Journal by Scott Hargroves & Heather Noonan

We’ve split this blog into two posts… we figured that a mega long blog might bore some of you and splitting it into two would be easier on the eye.

So yesterday was interesting. We became true tourists. The day began at 6am, as it has been for our whole trip. I don’t think you get jet lag when you travel to New York (Heather: I disagree!). All that happens is you wake up at a stupid time and only last until about 8 or 9pm before having to hit the sack (that is jet lag isn’t it?). It’s okay though, because waking up so early give us the chance to write full in depth blogs and add all the pictures too. (Pictures are being uploaded now so…click on the link at the top of the page for the new ones!)

We got ready, after a very New York breakfast of Blueberry muffins, OJ and ricemilk, and headed out with the goal of visiting the Statue of Liberty. The weather was glorious, brilliant sunshine and at the same time the coldest it has been so far. We both adore days like this. As long as the sun is shining it doesn’t matter what the temperature is.
We headed to Grand central with the aim of getting the subway downtown, but realised that to get to the line we needed, we could just walk to Times Square.

It’s weird… New York is so walkable. In London, you often miss out on everything because walking leaves you lost and confused. There, you travel on the Tube, and your brain becomes accustomed to your location according to the Underground, not what’s on street level. Here, it’s easy to just walk to your destination and even if it takes you half an hour it doesn’t matter at all because you have many sights to behold, lights to admire and people to look at. So we avoided an unnecessary short trip on the underground and walked to Times Square before taking the necessary subway trip to downtown Manhattan. We emerged at Chamber’s Street station, with the intention of walking to The Statue of Liberty from there. We passed Ground Zero, another intention. There is nothing I could write about in this blog to describe it, nor do I want to. All I will say is that despite the overwhelming feeling of loss, there matched a very strong, very powerful sense of duty and perseverance from everybody in the area.

Moving on, we were getting hungry (again!) and our only cheap option in the moment appeared to be Burger King… which, at 2 Whoppers for $4 (that’s right, $2 each!), has proved to be our most tasty and financially helpful meal. We had a look around Battery Park (there was a man selling Obama condoms. Yep, you read that right. Obama Condoms. No, sorry, I didn’t buy any of you one) before walking to the dock and ferry.
For only $12 I think what you get is pretty spectacular. You board the boat and choose your seat (we went for the top: best views, best breeze, best sunshine) and off you go into the bay. It was pretty awe-inspiring watching the skyline emerge as we sped away (as you’ll see from some of my photographs) and even more magical as Lady Liberty herself emerged from the horizon. I know I keep saying it, but New York really does have a permanent film-like quality to it. Everything you see and hear could easily be transplanted to all and any of those films you have seen based here. We did a little walk around of the Statue, and though she is much smaller than you might imagine, she is still HUMONGOUS and such a feat of craftsmanship, even if she is only made out of a few sheets of coin thick copper.

We wanted to go to Ellis Island (where THIS used to happen), but the day was getting on (we’ve enjoyed so much just being able to wander around with relaxed aims, that everything takes about twice as long as I suppose it’s meant to…but…who cares?) and Scott really, really wanted me to get up the Empire State building and view the world from its very grand, very high throne. I’ll get to see Ellis Island another time. There is no way I’m not coming back to this city again.

We boarded the ferry, which stopped at Ellis first, and remained on the boat until we docked at Manhattan. From there we took our second (and last for the remainder of our trip) subway ride back uptown, emerging at Penn Station. From there we did some more wandering… Scott had a rough idea of where we should be heading so we just walked and looked, and talked, and looked some more. We found Macy’s! Which is actually just by the Empire State….we didn’t go in, that’s for later on today, but it was a good discovery all the same.

Into the Empire State building we went. I had half a mind to do a Buddy and run crazed around the revolving doors. The other half of mind said No. It is true though, the lights on the lifts really DO look like a christmas tree.

Up we went…and up, and up, and up up up….ears popped!…then up some more. They’re quite clever in there…all of the windows in the waiting areas were frosted, so you couldn’t be amazed by the sights before you we’re supposed to be. Finally, after security checks, pretty map purchases and a few queues, we were unleashed onto the 86th balconies of the Empire State Building.

WOW.

The sun was setting. For optimum photo-ops, we probably arrived about half an hour too late but it didn’t matter. There was a clear, huge Moon; the sun had left a tangerine glow low on the West side and the millions of rooms contained within all of the concrete were lighting up until, eventually and suddenly, there was an (almost) astronomical feel as far as my eyes could see. I was overwhelmed. And quiet. You can see the pictures I took. It was so silent up there, despite the crowd. Everybody appeared as in awe as I and nobody knew what to do with themselves, except to take photographs: as though capturing the sight was worth far more than the moment. But only because it was a moment that nobody wanted to forget.

Amazing.