Monday Blah!

Okay, I'm very sick today. So sick that I had to call and CANCEL our "Ruths Chris Steakhouse" reservations for tonight. We were going out to eat to celebrate our Anniversary which is TODAY!
You know I MUST not be feeling well to have to cancled them. Ugh.
I hate that.

However.....this "stuff" seemed to grab me quickly and it's been like a huge "WELCOME BACK TO LOUISIANA" presentto me.
Thank you very much. NOT!!
It seems like whenever we travel out of State then come back home....someone gets sick. Usually.....you know who.

So, me....."MS. Crummy Immune System"....has become ill with a "Sinus Infection and Upper Resportory Infection"...which happens to me occasionally even though I am very careful.
I REALLY think it's the wretched MOLD that is always present here in South Louisiana and some of the other "junk in the air" that the hurricanes have stirred up much like a big ol' Witches Brew. UGH! Not good.

Last Monday.....we did a "Downtown Bus Tour" of Manhattan.
At the "end of the bus tour"......we got off and ate on the street before going to tour the "Statue of Liberty and to Ellis Island."

My "People" eating Gyro's and Hotdogs near Battery Park.
Gabe, Miss Priss and Don....finishing up. The Gyro's were GREAT!!! Don did the NYC Hotdogs instead.
"September 11 Memorial In Battery Park"
This sculpture was formally in front of the World Trade Centers....you can see the damage to it.

Once you get your tickets to the Island.....you wait in a LONG line for the Ferry to take you there....and you mill in and through like cattle...with a million people who are not from America....which was interesting.....and you get on to the Ferry finally and it gets into the Harbor and in the distance you see you see this.....
The Brooklyn Bridge

And this.....
Manhattan fading away

Gabe and Miss Priss on the very crammed Ferry
Now I know how those Ferry's "Go down" in India with 300+ passangers on them.
Scary!
And when you focus forward on the Ferry.....you see this.....

"Lady Liberty" starts getting clearer and closer.....and you start feeling weird and emotional.


We stood on a wall that is all around the State so we are looking down at the camera and Lady Libery I know looks about our heights....but she's actally HUGE as you can just imagine.
Miss Priss, Joyce and Don
Joyce and Don


Next you take the Ferry to nearby "Ellis Island".....

Miss Priss didn't want to go there....we were looking over at Ellis Island from Statue Island and she said.......much to my horror.
"Mom it's just a bunch of TOWNHOMES."

I was mad about that and thought to myself...."God help us because our kids do not know HISTORY."
Todays kids DO NOT understand what our ancestors went through to come to America.

Besides.....it didn't look like "townhomes" it looked a bit more like nice Concentration Camp Buildings. Sadly.

View of Ellis Island....
The brick buildings look tiny tiny in the photo....

Ellis Island from Statue Island.....

Once arriving at Ellis Island and going inside the only building your allowed in which is the Museum.....I decided to check out the "Archive Center" where you can check for your family. They have a huge data base there on site.
Great Hall at the Musuem at Ellis Island.....


As I sat at the computer and started to type in my family names....I started to cry which made me feel weird and like a nutburger....but it is a highly emotional place.

Just knowing that your relatives landed there after a long ocean journey and your now standing where they stood once arriving in America is a huge thing.
I was seeing what they had saw.
Sort of....just many years later.

And then I found the "ship manifest and passanger list" for the ship my Great Grandfather came over to America on and KNEW for a fact that he had come through Ellis Island.
This began to overwhelm me.

He was 23 years old when he was "processed" at Ellis Island......the year was 1898. He departed from the port of Hamburg Germany on a ship named the "Patria." Which after researching now from my home I have learned that it "burned" in the English Channel the very next year.

I can't imagine what he must have felt.
I wondered to myself...Was he scared? How long did it take him to get here? Where was the rest of his family at? Could he speak any English? Did he know anyone else with him? Where was he going next? How as he going to get there?

I couldn't ponder on all this for too long because the last Ferry off the Island was preparing to come and get everyone so we had to get back into another very long "line" and hurry up and WAIT to get on board to get over to Manhattan..

On the way off Ellis Island....watching the Manhattan skyline in the later afternoon brought more emotions......because you knew those TWO Twin Towers were "supposed" to be there....and they weren't.
It sort of ticked you off inside.....and made you mad that our country could be hit like that by terrorist. It bothered me.

All day long we were very "aware" that something "has changed how things are there in New York..... because the NYPD helicopters fly overhead continually while you are on the Island with the Statue of Liberty and it's very freaky. We also noticed this in Times Square several times as well.

Let me tell you.....it was an entire day of "emotions"....that Monday.

We were so tired by the end of the day...and GLAD to get into our bed that night.

We really weren't able to process everything we saw that day and..... felt...not until we got back.