Keychain

Watch this video. All of it. At the end, I ask Nick what the best part of his day was. He answers "Getting my keychain."



We went to see the Statue Of Liberty. I have been to see it before, but I was a small child, and I remember not being able to go up to see it because the line was too long and we were going to miss the ferry back and also Emily was crying.

I hadn't been down to that end of the city for years. We were a full block past the big block of cranes that I pointed out to the boys before I realized that this was the World Trade Center site.

Seeing the Statue itself was an experience. First of all, pack light, and be prepared to wait in lines. You know how you go through security at the airport? Well, you do that to get on the ferry. And again to get into the inside of the statue, should you choose to purchase the entry and stand on the line again. I had gotten the tickets to go in, but we were fooled into standing on the line outside, not realizing there was a huge line inside as well. Filled with 100 high school students on a class trip. Joy.

The security is ridiculous. Winston said there have been threats to blow it up. I'm thinking the threats were probably from someone that had gone through the security line. Not only did we have to stand on line a second time, but I had to check my bag. The locker was a dollar for two hours, which I assumed would be plenty of time, and it was done by fingerprint recognition.

The second line took us about an hour to go through. The stupid security gates were those poofy ones that blow air on you. I'm not sure why. Somehow this is supposed to find out if you've touched a bomb. I think they should be able to also let us know if we've got cancer.

After the security lines, there are 156 steps to walk up to get to the top. Of the pedestal. Not inside the statue. You can buy tickets to get to the crown, but you need to purchase them 4 months in advance. I would totally go up! But I would prefer not to be carrying Andrew next time.

Once we got up there, the view was amazing. But the wall came up to my chest, which meant that Nick and Nate were jumping up and down, seeing nothing on their own. Lillian and I had to lift them up one at a time. And each time I put Andy down he wailed, so it was quite a time.

When we finally made it down to the ground again, I went to retrieve my bag. But the fancy shmancy security system that took my fingerprint to secure my bag refused to recognize my fingerprint to open the locker and let me get my bag. It backfired. A lot. I used every single finger on both hands. I tried rolling my finger. I tried holding it further up and to the side. Lillian offered suggestions as I kept punching in the locker number and getting a "No Match Found" message. Is this the same software that matches up criminal fingerprints? Because it seems to work a lot better on "Criminal Minds."

All in all, in was a wonderful day. And we didn't even have time to see Ellis Island. It really is a pity that the security measures take so much pleasure out of the experience, and even act as a deterrent. Not to terrorists, but to tourists.