first up is the statue of liberty. i had checked online the evening before for tickets to go up in the statue, but they were sold out. apparently, you have to get those a month in advance (as do you tickets to late night with jimmy fallon). but the ferry ride to staten island was free and takes you by the lady libby twice. so, i took the boat. it was cloudy morning casting a shadow on libby, but a few moments when the sun broke through gave me shots like this one.
the next time i visit, i want to make it to liberty island. this time, however, it worked out well. i had to make it back to town to find spaz (aka ryan) and have some lunch. i got off at the wrong stop and ended up walking more than i wanted. this turned out for the best as i hadn’t made plans to find park avenue and madison avenue. my trek took me right through that part of town. after a bit of searching, i hooked up with spaz and and some sushi. it was a good catch up lunch. in fact, i don’t think i’ve been to lunch with spaz before when he was still in knoxtropolis working for scripps.
my next stop was to visit ground zero. this area is under a lot of security, and i wasn’t able to see as much as i would have liked. diagrams and mock photos showed what the future of the site was to look like. you could see the construction so far of the two new towers. i found the memorial mural. the changes to the block are significant. the buildings in that part of town are very picturesque.
i didn’t stay too long there because i needed to head back to clean up to meet rebecca at lincoln center. she was kind enough to grab some tickets to that evening’s concert of the new york philharmonic playing their summer classic. (we ate some sushi before. yeah, more sushi. more good stuff.)
rebecca works there so she has access to the tickets–what a deal that is! before the concert, she showed me around the plaza of lincoln center. i saw a little of fordham university’s campus and heard some salsa tunes for a midsummer’s swing.
the concert was incredible. it was one of the highlights of this trip. the box seats we had gave us a good view of alexendar gavrylyuk’s fingers as he flew across the keys. he performed amazingly. the conductor bramwell tovey entertained beyond his conducting. rebecca told me his interaction with the audience was worth the evening. she was right.
we finished up with some pinkberry yogurt not far from lincoln center. it was all-in-all a grand evening.
>> day 4
