supervising from the couch: NYC, day two

On Saturday we tried to cram in as much as possible, starting with a trip to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. FYI, the ferry leaves from Battery Park, NOT the Staten Island Ferry building. Don't worry, we figured this out after only a few minutes there.

The downtown skyline as we headed over—you can see the progress on the two new World Trade Center towers:

When we texted Statue of Liberty photos to the kids, Ainsley kept asking us to get closer. I have to admit, I always imagined it as larger (not that we're super close in this picture).

At the entrance to the Ellis Island Immigration Museum:

We did the audio tour, which was fascinating, and kind of emotional, realizing what our ancestors went through.

I love the tile work on this ceiling. Apparently the craftsmanship was so good that they only had to replace about ten tiles when they renovated it.

It's a beautiful building, inside and out.

We spent some time walking around downtown. There were a lot of people lined up to take photos with the Wall Street bull, most of them on the other end of the bull...

The New York Stock Exchange building:

This is where Washington was sworn in as President:

A quick subway ride later...

...and we were at Washington Square Park, aka the "When Harry Met Sally" drop off spot.

I read a blog post that a friend sent me on restaurants in NY, and we knew we wanted to sample the roasted marshmallow shakes based on her recommendation:

"Oh man, roasted marshmallow shakes. One of our favorite things EVER. Not. to. be. missed. Special trips just for the shakes are worth it. We take all our out of town guests here. And then before their trip is over, they always sneak back there on their own and get another one. Every person has said it's like one of the best things they've ever eaten. They really are THAT good!! You have to trust me on this one. (And that's from a girl who doesn't really have an affinity for marshmallows.)"

I can verify that this is no exaggeration. And yes, I did go back for a second one later in the week while Rob was in conference meetings. Someday he'll forgive me.

From there we walked over to the Strand, home to 18 miles of books. I have to admit, I came back here a second time as well, marshmallow shake in hand.

We walked through Chinatown...

...and back to the lower east side. Here's the Brooklyn Bridge.

We had a 4:15 tour at the Tenement Museum, where we saw the actual apartments and heard the stories of some immigrant families. It was really interesting, although I wish we'd been able to schedule it earlier in the day—we were both exhausted and sleepy right about then.

After a little falafel at Maoz, we went to see Spiderman: Turn Off the Dark. The critics haven't loved it, but we're fans of the story and of U2, and liked it enough that Rob bought the soundtrack right after we saw it. Of the three shows we saw, this one was definitely the biggest budget. The scenery, stunts and cast were all (appropriately) amazing.