Staten Island (the trip that almost wasn't)

Our trip from Indianapolis to Birmingham included a layover in Newark.  It was a cheerful flight out of Indy.  Charis and Clare had activities to keep them busy.  The woman sitting next to Elise was a retired elementary school teacher with grandchildren close to Elise's age.  She graciously kept a running conversation with Elise through the flight.

As a result of cheerfully occupied daughters, Kristine got a rare opportunity to knit in flight.

We decided to take an early flight out of Indianapolis to give us extra time for our layover in Newark.  We planned to rent a car, drive to the Staten Island ferry, and rendezvous with Kristine's brother Matt (who would come over from Manhattan) and my brothers Daniel and Deion (who would drive down from Hartford).  Our flight landed at noon.  We needed to be back at the airport by 5 for our 7 pm flight to Birmingham.  I budgeted an hour to get the rental car, and 30 minutes to get to and from Staten Island.  That gave us 3 hours to hang out.  Not much.  But it's the only 3 hours we'll get for the next 12 months.

I called this the trip that almost wasn't because our rather circuitous route to get to the ferry took an hour instead of 30 minutes.  I thought from the map on the wall at the Avis office that it would be straightforward.  I also thought that Staten Island would be small and that there would be clear signs from the interstate.  Then the woman at the Avis gate "just ran out of maps" and we mistakenly believed the mobile phone GPS that told us to turn right off the interstate (this after we were already frazzled from going across the bridge thinking we had tolls covered and finding out they wanted $13!!).

Through a series of phone calls with Matt and Daniel, we finally got ourselves moving in the right direction.  The phone told us to get back on the interstate and drive to the Manhattan side of the ferry route.  We put the confused app out of its misery by turning it off.  Sure enough, once we were going north from the interstate we ran into water, signs to the ferry, our family, and the throngs of people who were all gathered to celebrate us seeing each other.

We exchanged quick greetings, elbowed our way onto the ferry, and crossed the harbor uneventfully.  During our 30 minutes in Manhattan, we saw the Freedom Tower from a distance.

Daniel played photo tag with the girls.

And we did the obligatory "family in NYC" photo (if you're a sibling who keeps track of these things, yes - that's a smile on my face).

After a half hour, it was time to elbow through the throngs of people to get back onto the ferry.  We stood on the outside deck for the return trip.  The girls got to see the Statue of Liberty (they had seen it from the plane when we landed in Newark).

I was impressed when I saw a sailboat making its way through the harbor.

I was even more impressed when I saw the jet skiers (look for the white wake in the water just to the left of the boat).

We had a few minutes after we got off the ferry, so we walked down the boardwalk to the 9/11 memorial.

Then it was time for us to get in the car, Matt and Ashley to take the ferry back to Manhattan, and Deion and Daniel to drive back to Hartford.  Thankfully, the phone correctly got us to the interstate.  We backtracked from there to return the car, take the air train to the terminal, and board the plane and enjoy a lovely sunset on our flight to Birmingham.