Day 6: Princeton, NJ and Liberty Enlightening 04/09/2009

Bright and early, we left the Takoma Park, MD house and headed towards New Jersey. One of David's college friends is a Professor there. The Professor (as I will call him throughout my posts) has two apartments, one in Princeton, NJ and another in NYC, NY. He's in the Princeton one Monday through Thursday, and then heads to his NY abode for weekends. I believe that is fantastic. Single, no kids, Princeton Professor? Have at it! I'm personally jealous. :) So, another place to stay, free. Whoot!

We arrived at his beautiful Princeton pad in time to say hi, get the keys to the place, get the password for the Internet, and he ran off to meetings with his grad students.

We decided to take a stroll through Princeton. I'm thinking it was their Spring Break too, because there was hardly any activity to be seen.

From Once More With Feeling

We ate lunch on the main street at the campus at an authentic Italian pizzeria, Iano's. Seriously good stuff. Isabel ate the heck out of that pie. We were hoping the Prof could meet us, but his meetings ran late.

We jumped in the Jeep and headed towards the New Jersey side of the ferry boats that would take us to see Liberty Enlightening, or as you might know it, The Statue of Liberty.

Had we driven to the NY side, we would have "missed the boat." When we arrived at the parking lot for the NJ side, the parking booth attendant told us that we were just in time; the last ferry leaves at 3:30, and it was around 3:15. We parked and David ran to get the tickets while the kids and I walked.

It was cool on that ferry, so Isabel and I stayed in the lower section while the boys braved the winds to see Lady Liberty come in to sight. Because it was so late, on this trip, you could get off at Ellis Island OR the Statue, not both. Usually, you can get off at Ellis, walk around, and then hop on the next ferry to take you over to the Statue. Since it was so late, it was either/or. Only just slightly saddened, we chose the Statue. Click on the pictures to make them larger.


The kids and I. Jake was upset that we could not go up in the Statue. We got there too late to.



Working with the B&W setting of my camera.




David and the kids, with NY in the background. (Note Isabel pouting. Two seconds after I took it, she said "lemme see!" and giggled at her own pout.)

Walking back to the Ferry, I took this amazing shot.

We got on the packed ferry (last call), headed back to the NJ side, drove towards Princeton, where we stopped at a nearby Chili's for dinner.

We were excited about the following day, Day 7. Manhattan!

P.S. If anyone in New York can get me an embroidered Statue of Liberty patch, I will love you forever.