The Sites: New York City - Lower Manhattan and Staten Island Ferry

Despite countless trips through the airports of New York on my way to other places, I'd never explored the city itself.  With a friend living in Queens playing the gracious host, I covered four boroughs in five days; ate my way through countless restaurants, cafes, diners, and street carts; covered both "tourist" ground and places off the beaten path; and tried to take in as much of the place as I could.

Liberty Island

The Staten Island Ferry afforded two views that literally brought tears to my eyes.  My father's family came to this country through Ellis Island from what was then the Austro-Hungarian Empire and what is now the Czech Republic.  Despite the wind and the spotty rain, I stood on the outer deck as we passed Liberty Island.  The idea that I was standing there because my great-grandparents had once stood there nearly a century ago was over-whelming and incredible.  It made me - in a word - grateful.

Lower Manhattan from Staten Island Ferry

Before the combination of dusk and mist became too much, I looked back at the receding skyline.  The angle of the ferry leaving Lower Manhattan aligned just right to present a view of the gaping hole still left from 9/11.  On my last day, we went to Ground Zero - something I felt I needed to do, having watched the events of that day unfold on live television from my college campus.  It made me - in a word and all politics aside - angry.  The memory of what happened there was palpable in the air, moreso than the thin veil that seemed to hang over the rest of the city.  

Liberty Island from Battery Park

We didn't stay long and we continued on to Battery Park, where the shadow of memory seemed to lift enough to begin to remember what makes this city so great: its cultural icons, its stunning architecture, its delectable food, and above all, its people.