Give Me Your Tired, Your Poor, Your Huddled Masses Yearning to Breathe Free

Got on our bikes early and headed down to Battery Park for our ferry ride to Liberty Island. Feels like it’s been a whirlwind tour, but we’re in full-blown tourist mode this weekend ’cause the rest of our stay looks a lot more like work than vacation.

Liberty Enlightening the World is a big gal, and looks pretty good for a 127-year-old (I hear she’s had some work done).

I did not expect to be so moved reading the words of people who came by ship from some pretty horrible circumstances. Their recollections of first seeing Liberty as they arrived in America and being filled with hope and wonder were overwhelming. Why I had to get on a ferry to get it, I don’t know, but I’m glad I did.

Ellis Island was supposed to be part of the tour, but it’s still closed as they recover from Hurricane Sandy. We Ellis’ are slow recoverers (last Tuesday morning comes to mind).

Got back on our bikes in Battery Park and headed for the Brooklyn Bridge. Riding your bike across the Brooklyn Bridge is a lot like riding through Times Square on a busy night, except there’s more people and less space. And it’s bloody long and uphill half the way.

On the Brooklyn side, we rode around for a bit and found Dumbo (which, I was disappointed to learn, gets its name from District Under Manhattan Bridge Overpass, not my favorite elephant). Saw Jane’s Carousel (an antique carousel restored and relocated to a glass cube by the river).

We had lunch at Dumbo Kitchen, then rode back home, crossing the Manhattan Bridge.

Our friend Raymond called yesterday to say he was in New York for the U.S. Open and had a ticket for me for the men’s final on Monday, and one for Gill for the women’s final today. I can’t make it tomorrow ’cause my course starts, but Gill got in the Mini and found her way to Flushing Meadows.

Mordecai’s weekend was little more than guard duty so far, so we saw Gill off and headed down the Hudson River Walk. We found Leroy’s dog run and spent some quality time chasing a ball and hanging out in a wading pool.

We continued south on the River Walk and checked out the Tribeca dog run for big dogs. Had the place to ourselves, and it was more like a water park for dogs. Instead of chasing balls and lying in pools, this was more run through the sprinklers to retrieve the ball.

With his tongue scraping the sidewalk, we headed back home through Tribeca, Soho, the Village and finally home.

Watched the rest of the women’s final (the longest in 33 years) on TV, then got a semi-panicked call from Gill and spent some time on Google Maps getting her home from north Queens.

Gill made a light dinner, and we just watched some real-life murder/mystery thing on TV before letting Mordecai out and headed to bed to start the week.