Statue of Liberty, New York

New York Trip- March 18, 2015

Last March, we had our family road trip to New York City; my hubby, our son and daughter, my daughter's husband or son-in-law ;-) and my grandson (yes, I'm a young grandma- almost 2 years now!).   We had some side trips along the way but I will be posting this trip in Statue of Liberty first, I'm just so excited to post our photos there.  This was my second time to see the state of New York, first time was in Niagara Falls.  We stayed during our vacation using our time share at Marriott Villa in Galloway, New Jersey except one night (March 18) where we stayed in Manhattan, New York City.

March 17-  My brother-in-law (my hubby's brother) and his 2 kids arrived in our villa, they surprised us.  He drove all the way from Toronto, Canada to see and meet us up (Florida is too far for him to drive).  They're supposed to come on March 16 but he told us they won't make it due to his work but he managed to finish all his pending issues and didn't tell us that they're coming.  It ended up they got surprised too because we were in our friend's house when they came and had to wait an hour at the hotel/villa's reception lobby.

March 18-  It's almost 12noon when we left our villa, my plan was to leave early to ride the ferry boat to see Ellis Island and Liberty Island,unfortunately we were late to get to the last ride to take us to both islands.  We arrived at Liberty State Park, New Jersey at exactly 2pm but need to buy tickets and need to go to security line for bag inspection, so too bad we only got to see Liberty Island.  Our ferry boat stopped at the dock of Ellis Island but we can't leave the boat.  Well, that happens when you have 3 families to attend to ;-) aside from getting lost at the park looking for the ticket office hehehe.

Liberty State Park, New Jersey- the right side building is where the ticket office 

Manhattan Skyline- view from Liberty State Park

Ready to board on the ferry

View of Liberty State Park Buildings from the ferry

Another view of Liberty State Park from the ferry

Ellis Island Museum

Ferry at Ellis Island

Statue of Liberty and the Manhattan Skyline

Manhattan Skyline, New York

Statue of Liberty

Statue of Liberty

The ferry who brought us to the Liberty Island

Another shot of Statue of Liberty and the Manhattan Skyline

Ferry Tickets Office at Liberty Park, New Jersey

Statue of Liberty, Liberty Island, New York

Ellis Island 

During our ferry ride, there's few people on the boat (probably March is not peak season) and the parking lot is not bad at Liberty State Park, only $7 parking fee.  The big deal was too many toll fees from New Jersey to New York and need to have a lot of coins since some tolls require 75 cents and you have to drop it in the hole,  there's no operator so you can't pay dollar bills.

We bought the tickets for $18- adult; kids- $14 these have no access to crown and the pedestal, only grounds of Liberty and Ellis Island.  Make sure you'll be there before 2pm otherwise they won't let you go to Ellis Island already.

My DSLR camera was broken when we were there, I can't zoom in or out all the way and didn't have the chance to take the close-up shot of the crown and face of the statue….too bad.

After that trip to Statue of Liberty, we went to White Castle Burger Restaurant at downtown Jersey City and tried their burgers and later we headed to our reserved hotel in Manhattan New York City to see Time Square.

Tip: If you will be driving to New York to see  the statue of liberty, it's better to take the ferry boat at Liberty State Park, New Jersey side,  it has more parking spots and only $7 parking fee.

That will be my next post, New York City.

Niagara Falls, New York

American Falls

American Falls

Another view of American Falls

American Falls overlooking Canada side

Double rainbow and the Maid of the Mist Boat Tour

Horseshoe Falls

Maid of the Mist Boat Tour

Overlooking the people below from Cave of the Wind (I'm not sure if this falls is the Bridal Veil Falls)

Another view of the Horseshoe Falls

The Map

Another Map ;-)

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Niagara Falls- is the collective name for the 3 waterfalls: "Horseshoe Falls" (The name is derived from its curving, horseshoe-shaped crest), the adjacent "American Falls" (which is within the US border) and the small "Bridal Veil Falls" which when combined form the highest flow rate of any waterfalls in the world. Horseshoe Falls is the most powerful waterfalls in North America. Much of Horseshoe Falls is located in Ontario, Canada, that's why it's also known as Canadian Falls. Niagara Falls is the border between Ontario, Canada and New York, USA.

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The photos above were taken 4 months ago, I'm far behind posting my travel blog when we went to Ontario, Canada hehehe. And it's a week of adventure so I'm trying to catch up now (I hope I can hehehe).

July 10, 2011 (Sunday)- After a week from our travel to Las Vegas, we went to Toronto, Canada to visit my brother-in-law and his family who lives in Mississauga, Ontario Canada. It's been 10 years since we last saw him. It was still summer then and we expected the fare would be soaring high and yes, it was high especially we didn't plan this travel ahead of time, it was just 3 weeks before the flight when we bought the tickets. We opted to fly to Cleveland, Ohio than flying straight to Toronto, Canada since it's a lot cheaper and at the same time we could see other scenic views along the way to Canada. So from Ohio, we rented a car and drove up to Canada, and our first stop was in Niagara Falls, New York. It took us 5 hours to Niagara Falls. Initially, our plan was to leave Saturday morning but then we were 10 minutes late when we arrived at the airport check-in counter hehehe. They changed our flight to Saturday evening, at 11pm and fortunate that the airlines waived our fees, we didn't get to pay any fees when they changed our flight. We arrived in Ohio Sunday morning already and we just slept during our 5 hour-trip. Our itinerary got messed up due to our late trip, we're supposed to stop in downtown Ohio and drive around that area but instead we drove straight to New York.

When we were in Niagara Falls, we didn't try to go to any boat tours since we had limited time and besides I don't want my camera to get soak and wet from the falls hehehe. When I saw the mist I have thought I won't get nice views from the boat hehehe and I was right. We spent 2 hours at Niagara Falls State Park and then we headed straight to Mississauga to attend my brother-in-law's son's birthday, it was tiring and a long walk but we had fun.

For my pictures, too bad I forgot to bring my tripod and I was so disappointed with my settings, I could not figure out to adjust mt speed settings hehehe I think I have to learn more on my camera settings I was too lazy to do that before the trip.

On my next post, is Niagara Falls, the Canada Side( better views).