Our Trip To Israel  Part 1: New York City

When we left Portland we flew to Newark New Jersey, arriving in New Jersey six hours later.  We were told that our flight went more quickly than expected because the tail winds were with us.  On the way back from New Jersey to Portland our flight was almost two hours longer because we were headed into the winds which slowed the plane significantly.  The return flight was a little rougher and bouncier than the flight into Newark.

Our first stop on the tour of New York was at Liberty Park in New Jersey where we took  a  ferry called the Miss New Jersey to Ellis Island and then onto the Statue of Liberty on Liberty Island. 

On Ellis Island we found the walls that contained the names of many thousands of immigrants who came into the Intake Center from 1892-1954.  Eight Million immigrants were processed through this island, which was the gateway to their potential prosperity and religious freedom.  It seemed strange almost that immigrants were still coming through Ellis Ilsnad during our lifetime.  Ellis Island was closed to Immigrants in 1954.  One of those immigrants was my uncle Nils Nilson, of which there were several in the registry but not on the walls.   This was the promised land to these very tired and ragged people who had traveled by boat for months to get to the land of the free.

Immigrants were inspected for disease and those that showed signs of ill health were marked with chalk on their clothing so that they could be identified as unhealthy and later determined to be those that would be deported.  Some immigrants learned of this practice and determined to be able to stay in the country, wiped off the chalk marks or turned their clothing inside out to be able to enter undetected.  Some immigrants who did not do these things, were sent back to their native countries.

Rodger and I had lunch in the Ellis Island Café that was furnished with reproduction furniture of that period.  On the walls were painted beautiful murals depicting the immigrant experience.  We almost felt as though we were stepping back in the time of the immigrants. 

After Ellis Island we returned to the ferry, the Miss New Jersey, and sailed to Liberty Island where the Statue of Liberty stood.  What an incredible sight as we floated closer and closer to that massive statue.  How excited the immigrants must have been as they came into New York harbor after such long voyages and tired hearts, looking up at the Statue that represented the freedom they were about to experience in their new home. 

The Statue of Liberty was given to us by France and inside is an engraved plaque on which is written a sonnet by Emma Lazarus the following:

With conquering limbs astride from land to land;

Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand

A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame

Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name

Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand

Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command

The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.

"Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she

With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor,

Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,

The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.

Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,

I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

Wow to think that America was once the promised land to the world, and still is to many.

As you look at the pictures of the statue you will find the walkway at the pedestal just above her feet, that is the walkway Rodger and I were standing on when we climbed the many stairs to get as high up as we were allowed. No one was allowed in the torch because of disrepair, and the crown was allowed but not on the day we were there.

From the Miss New Jersey ferry we could look across to Manhattan in New York City.

After leaving Liberty Island we sailed back to Liberty park where we started and proceeded to carry on to New York City. There we saw many sites including Rockefeller Center, Time Square, The subway, Grand Central Station, the Holland Tunnel… the one Lucy Ricardo drove her lawn mower through in one of the I Love Lucy episodes. We saw the Lincoln center, Central park, the Crysler building and the Empire State building. We also saw St. Patricks Cathedral, which was amazingly beautiful.

In Time square we saw where they drop the ball on New Years eve every year and we saw a living billboard. It was a computer that registered those who were walking on the street in a particular place on the sidewalk. Rodger and I were in the bill board and took pictures of ourselves along with our guide. Our guide is a lady who held a multicolored stripped umbrella which she carried above the heads of the crowd so that we would not lose her. Time Square was an mass of people. There were street restaurants in the middle of the Square. It was a place I cared only to see once. The multitudes of people left me overwhelmed, I could not imagine a time such as New Years Eve when a million people gather there on the streets and hanging out of windows just to see a silver ball fall to earth, designating a new year. After all the year is going to come whether or not anyone dropped a huge ball.

David Wilkersons church was only about four blocks from where we were, but we did not get to see it. Rodger asked if we were going to get to see Wall street where the stock market was, the guide said no because the street was too narrow for our tour bus to drive through. Wall street was only a couple of blocks away from where we were at that time. Also we saw ground zero where the World Trade Center stood and we saw the partially built new one that is going up. We also saw NBC studios where the Today Show was produced.

The excursion to New York was a side note to the our intended destination of Israel. In my estimation New York is a monster that overwhelms. If ever there were a place of overindulgence and materialism, it is New York city. Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty were our favorites in New York Harbor, the rest of it was interesting but not worth repeating. I love the small town life, the city has no draw for me.

Rodger Under the Statue of Liberty on Liberty Island

Rodger and I waiting for the Ferry to dock so that we can board.

On the Miss New Jersey in New York Harbor with

 Manhattan in the background.