Day Two in NYC

Liberty Island

The Main Registration Hall on Ellis Island

Wow what a busy and full day.  We got an early start today heading out through the old seaport area along the East River heading south towards Battery Park and the ferry out to Ellis Island.  Ed was a wealth of interesting information that certainly makes the trip more meaningful.  Once we arrived at Battery Park we boarded the ferry for the short ride out to Liberty Island were we got some great pictures of the Statue of Liberty.  She certainly is an amazing sight to see.  We continued on to Ellis Island where again Ed provided background and then we were off to follow in the footsteps of so many immigrants that arrived on our shores looking for the American Dream.  This had been the leg of the trip
that I was most looking forward to.  I couldn't help but picture my great-grandmother, Roslia Fazio, a young 17 year old woman arriving at the island with her mother, Francesca, and four younger siblings, Guiseppi, Gracia, Michela, and Alphonso .  The year was 1901.  They had just spent two weeks traveling from Santa Caterina Sicily and they had finally arrived in the Land of Promise. I could feel their excitement and fear as they climbed the stairs to meet the medical inspectors, then on to register, answering so many questions-- what is you name, your age, can you read and write, what is your occupation, how much money do you have, are you meeting anyone in America, do you have a job, what is your final destination, do you have a ticket, who bought the ticket for you?  They had all the correct answers, yes Rosalia could read and write, they did not have a job, they had $30 between all of them, they had a ticket on a boat that would take them on to Boston where they were meeting Rosalia's father Guiseppi.  They had made it IN. And then the rest is my family. Rosalia married another immigrant Gaetano Guttadauro, they would raise eight children who would all live the American Dream. My grandfather, Michael was the oldest.  Rosalia lived to the ripe age of 97 and until the end she always spoke in her broken English which most of us could barely understand, she could cook amazing Italian food and loved to have her family close.  She was an amazing woman who came alive for me again at Ellis Island.

The Standard Oil Building (SO -- ESSO--Exxon)

When we returned to Manhattan we continued our historic walk through the lower end of Manhattan.  Past the Standard Oil Building, the Customs House, the site of the first capital and location of Washington's Inauguration.  Then Wall Street and onto Broadway finally making it to Trinity Church and St. Paul's Chapel.  The emotions of seeing all the memorabilia from 9/11 brought tears to my eyes. We continued down to the Grown Zero, 9/11 Memorial.  So hard to believe the horors of what happend there.

9/11 Memorial Pool