Unfinished Business

There were a few items on last year's bucket list that we never got to, so we set out today to clear our dance card.

First of all we wanted to simply view the Statue of Liberty. As it turned out the World Trade Center site and Wall Street, were in the same neck of the woods, so we decided to make a couple pit stops along the route.

We found that the WTC construction site is something of a tourist destination though it has a solemn, eery vibe. As K said, it felt a little like rubber necking.

Further down the road things began to look up when K got the scoop on some insider trading info.

We also happened upon Trinity Church, which turns out to be the mothership landing site for our beloved Columbia University.

Eventually we got to catch up with Lady Liberty over a cup a joe while cruising along on the free Staten Island Ferry.

While boarding we were told that everyone had to get off at Staten Island, for security reasons, and then we could immediately reboard and return to Manhattan proper (we didn't want to hang out there, we just wanted a closer look at the SOL). What our helper didn't tell us was that we had about four minutes to disembark, then book it over to ANOTHER ferry, on an adjacent dock, to get the return voyage. When we realized the sitch, we poured on the coal to make it to the other ship just as the gate slammed shut behind us. Whew! Nobody likes to slosh their mid-morning coffee! That's our first ferry in the background.

Also on our to-do list was getting hand pulled noodles. We hit Chinatown just in time to find streets blockaded for the Transfiguration Progression parade (?! - affiliated with the Roman Catholic church). Quite a different scene from the Gay Pride parade we saw last year. We skirted around potential curbside baptisms and slurped down our noodles in peace.

After some refreshing gelato in Lil' Italy and some window shopping in Soho we boogied up to Times Square to check out the show ops. We were able to get tickets to Billy Elliot, which had been a top contender on our list of potential musicals last year. Great show - amazing young dancers and unique use of people of as "props."

As we were heading back to the subway, we came upon another road blockade. This time it was about 20-30 emergency vehicles outside the Lion King theater. K thought it might be important to document the fact that we were there, amongst the numerous haz mat trucks in Times Square. We never heard what had happened...