Full day at Statue of Liberty and Staten Island

Original goal today was to get to Staten Island, take the ferry over to NYC, then do the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island.  When I went to my member's lunch yesterday, they in unison said we should consider leaving from Liberty Island on the New Jersey side, less traffic, better parking, etc etc etc.

So, Tracy and I left about 845, and headed up the Turnpike to Exit 14 and got ourselves to Liberty Park in good order-  Paid 7.00 to park pretty close, then walked to the beautiful old train station that used to serve all of the immigrants coming in from Ellis Island, and got our tickets for the boat, which was the 1030 boat. 

True to the advice, small crowd to get on, quick trip through airport type security, and good to go.  We sailed first over to Ellis Island-  Had been there a couple of times before, so this was a revisit, but first for stamps-  actually got 11 stamps there!  Also got a pin and a hiking staff medallion.  Beautiful restoration done here.  We passed on two 45 minute movies, and actually got the 1110 boat over to the Statue of Liberty. 

The actual Statue is pretty much closed for renovations, so we passed on going up or around her, since we both had been here several times.  Did get several stamps and stuff. 

It was just 1230 when we got back to Liberty Park, so Tracy agreed to let me try for the Staten Island run-  so we hurried back over the bridge to Staten Island, and drove through some of the not nicer parts to get to the stadium for the Staten Island Yankees, and they would NOT open their gift shop-  only open on game days-  screw them.

We then headed for Miller Field, which is a part of the Gateway NRA-  found the field ok, had a bit of a struggle finding the VC, found it though- then discovered that I could get a brand new stamp up at Fort Wadsworth, which is right underneath the Verrazanno Narrows bridge, so we hustled up to get that one.  Again, had problems locating the exact spot where the stamps were, but we were assisted by a nice Ranger, and pow, got that stamp- I was the first one in the Club to post that I got that one!!! 

Now it was 330, and we started to head back, fearing traffic.  We had some due to construction on I 278, got through that OK, and were sailing along the Turnpike on the way home, when Tracy learned that there was a 10 mile backup for some reason between Exits 8A and 8, so we bailed at Exit 9, and got jammed a bit on 130 back to Hamilton-  Wound up not getting back until almost 530.  Welcome to New York/New Jersey!!

Went to dinner at Cracker Barrel.  Had a great day with Tracy, beautiful cruising weather-  good people watching. 

Today, we are going to head off in a bit to Sandy Hook, New Jersey, which is part of Gateway, for up to 11 stamps there, plus a lighthouse.  Then tonight, we're off to see Don and Claire Sabbatini, and Don and I are going to a Lakewood Blue Claws baseball game, and the girls are going to do some Chick Flick and pizza. 

We have pretty much agreed to stay here through Tuesday, and not even attempt to try to go anywhere on Labor Day-  I'll just do local stuff around here-  still have to get a couple of sites in the city, and there are some rural New Jersey sites I could do, or I could even try to get to Long Island, but we'll see.   Don't want to get messed up in traffic.