As we were finishing up our Hard Hat Tour, we got this great view of the second building of Ellis Island, which was used as the reception center from the time it was built until the facility closed in 1954. The difference in the architecture was very interesting – this matches up so closely to that of the Empire State Building that you can just tell that they were designed and built around the same art-deco time period.
After our tour we spent some time in the actual museum there at Ellis Island. It was just incredibly interesting and well done – they did an especially good job of driving home all the different emotions the people who were arriving there must have been feeling at that point. One of my favorite exhibits was a piece of the wall of one of the rooms that they uncovered during restoration. It showed all the graffiti that people had left there in so many different languages they can’t figure them all out – notes to family members, that sort of thing. When I was at Ellis Island with Addie about 1992 I took a wrong turn, and ended up in an unrestored room with this all over the walls. It was definitely something I’ve never forgotten.
After we left Ellis Island and found us a killer hamburger place for supper, we walked around downtown until time for us to be at Radio City Music Hall to see the Rockettes perform. We saw lots of cool things, including – after a couple of wrong turns – the skating rink at Rockefeller Center. No skaters – the Zamboni was in action, and we’re not sure if that was due to the warmer than usual temps they had been having in New York this fall (that was fine with us!) or if it was just the time we were there. The big gold man was covered in scaffolding in preparation for the Christmas tree to go up, and the state flags had all been switched out for US flags to commemorate Veterans Day. Still, it was cool to just be there!