The Bronx is up and the Battery's down

This weekend I learned something extremely useful, I finally learned why in On the Town, Gene Kelly sings the Battery's down, I've know what the Bronx being up is for some time. I learned this piece of trivia on my first trip ever to the Big Apple. On Friday morning and afternoon we had briefings for class and immediately after that Michael-Sean, Stephen, Alex, Jeff, and I caught a bus from Dupont circle, excited to be in the bit city. Unfortunately we would not be there quickly, traffic around Baltimore was heavy and delayed us by about an hour, so much for the charm city. We did finally arrive at Penn Station (the one in NYC) and got on a New York subway headed for Columbia University, where we would be staying with a friend of Michael-Sean's When we exited the underground transit what should we be greeted by but the Pulitzer Building, at which point we promptly broke into a rendition of "And the World Will Know" The finished we unloaded our bags and walked around the Columbia campus before going to sleep.

Everyone needs a picture of a Subway Payphone

The next morning we headed down to, you guessed it, the Battery. I caught my first glimpse of Lady Liberty here. Michael-Sean, Jeff, and I got tickets to ride out to Liberty and Elis Islands on the ferry. It was fun, a little rushed though so we could get back for our reserved time for ground zero. It was great to see the statue of Liberty even though you cannot currently go inside, and at Ellis Island it was very interesting to walk where my great grandfather had walked when he came from Denmark. We almost missed our ferry back to the city because Michael-Sean and Jeff started talking with some sister missionaries in the genealogy library while I was wandering the examination rooms upstairs. Luckily we did make it though and got back to Manhattan in time and met up with Steve, the friend we stayed with. We picked up tickets right by Trinity Church which you may know is feature on National Treasure and then we were able to go down through a twisty way of security to finally arrive at the ground zero 9/11 memorial. It was a really great place be, one of my favorite memorials i've been to this summer. We went and stood inline after that to get broadway tickets and then went to 5th Avenue and Canal Street. At night Michael-Sean, Steve, and I went to the Phantom of the Opera which was quite a good experience for my first broadway play. 

First Glimpse

I've got a ticket to ride

Mariner Merchant Memeorial

Jeff, Me, and Michael-Sean, on the ferry with the skyline

Trinity Church

The Freedom Tower

For everyone who wanted to know what the top
of the Chrysler building shines like

This is not our kitchen, it actually is Grand Central Station

Today we went to church in the chapel that is adjoined to the Manhattan temple and then we took a walk through central park and found the statue of Balto and the bridge from enchanted. Then we rushed back to Penn station and I am now on a bus headed back to the District of Columbia. 

We got on the bus at the New Yorker Hotel, which happens
to be where Tesla died