Town of Harrison

Today begins our 18th consecutive summer vacation. It could well be our last as a full family with Emma moving on to university and the boys both getting busier in their personal lives.

It's just after 7:45 and we head out for our first stop. The Tim's in Mill Bay. With our food and coffee to go we continue on and arrive in time to catch the 10:00 ferry out of Swartz Bay. From there it's to Park 'n Fly and then to check in with Phillipine Airlines for our 5 hr flight to NYC.

The flight is awesome. Non-stop to NYC. Lots of leg room. Good food and drinks. Departure and arrival on schedule. Then a hiccup. We are stuck on the plane after landing for about 1 1/2 hrs before the plane reaches the terminal and we can leave. Then we still need to clear customs, board the Airtrain to get to our car rental company, fill in the paperwork to get the car and drive for over an hour to get to our hotel in Jersey. By the time we do all that it is now 1 am! We are exhausted. I am too wound up to sleep so I watch some World Cup soccer before finally calling it a night around 2:30.

The following morning we struggled a bit to get going but made our way down to the Statue Cruises departure point to catch a boat to tour the Statue of Liberty. The heat is overwhelming already, even though it's only 11:00 am. After clearing the checkpoints and a short wait we are on the boat. The first stop is Ellis Island, the point of arrival for an estimated 12 million immigrants into America. We decide to continue on to the Statue and visit the island later.

After another security check we walk a corridor and enter the base of the enormous Statue of Liberty structure. We climb the first set of steps to the viewing platform where we take a short break before going up the steeper, spiral staircase that takes you to the crown. Although the inside of the statue has AC, it gets progressively hotter as you climb higher. Finally, we reach our destination and enjoy the view before heading back down. At the base there is a small, but interesting museum outlining the history and work involved in building this amazing structure.

Next stop for our first day of travel was Carlo's Bakery in Hoboken, nearby. It took a bit longer than expected to drive the short distance because of the heavy volume of traffic and numerous traffic lights. We lucked out and were able to find a free parking spot near the bakery. We each picked out a pastry and headed back to the hotel.

By now we are all hungry so we head a short distance to have dinner at Top's Diner. We all picked an item off the menu which must have had at least 50 meal choices. Our meals arrived quickly and we were all very impressed with the quality and the quantity of our meals. Most of us struggled to finish.Read more