A tourist day in New Jersey

I had to attend a training class for work in Newark, NJ, so I decided to come up a day early and be a tourist for the day! I did a little research online, and I decided to do the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island ferry tour. I will definitely say this is the best $20 I've spent on travel in a long time! I boarded the ferry on the New Jersey side (which is much less crowded than the NYC side), and headed over to Ellis Island for the first stop. The view of both sites from the New Jersey ferry is impressive!

The Registry building itself is really pretty, especially when you consider that it was a government building. The entire island fell into disrepair after the facility stopped being used in the 1950s, and it wasn't touched again until the 1980s. By then, major work was needed to restore it. The Registry Building has been restored, but the surrounding hospital and dormitory buildings have not been restored yet.

The Registry Room is very impressive! This is the main hall where the immigrants were inspected and processed for admission. I never knew that only the "steerage" passengers went through Ellis Island; the first-class passengers were inspected on their ships. 

The audio tour (included in the admission) was very informative, but I quickly realized that if I did the entire tour, I would run out of time to see everything. So, I focused only on the Ellis Island immigration portions. Still, there was more than enough to see and experience! The exhibits were very well done. I found several DAR items. These were citizenship handbooks, which the Society still gives to new immigrants today! 

I also found some neat Southern Pacific Railroad items. These were in the area where the exhibit showed how the immigrants bought train tickets to the rest of the USA after they were admitted. My father-in-law worked on the SPRR for many years, so I knew Sean and his family would enjoy these!

After eating a quick lunch, I got back on the ferry to proceed to the Statue of Liberty. The views of New York Harbor and the Statue from the ferry were spectacular! The big building is the One World Trade Center, which replaced the twin towers after 9/11. (I would loved to have been able to go to the 9/11 Museum, but there just wasn't enough time on this trip.)

There were a lot more people on Liberty Island, so I got right in line to go up to the Pedestal. This was also an excellent bargain, as it was only $2 more than the standard package, and it allowed me to go to the observation deck at the base of the statue. There was also access inside the Crown, but since that involved a small, enclosed space and a spiral staircase, I passed on it...

The view of the statue looking up from the pedestal was kind of odd... Inside the pedestal, there was a glass ceiling so you could look up inside the statue at the support structure (and that spiral staircase leading to the crown). My dad would have loved to see that! Again, the Harbor views were impressive! 

Once I got back down to the base, there is a nice museum about the concept, design and construction of the statue. The original torch, which was replaced in the 1980s due to deterioration, is on display inside. A new museum is being built, which will open in 2019.

The plaques with the poem written by Emma Lazarus are also on display in the museum. They were also removed from outdoors due to deterioration.

It was starting to get a little late in the afternoon, so I boarded the ferry to get back to land. I still had several more things I wanted to see!

The ferry docks in New Jersey at what used to be the Central Railroad terminal. People too ferries to NYC, and trains all over New Jersey from here. It's a really pretty building, and it's also very historic. Sadly, it is currently unused, other than to sell ferry tickets.

I would like to ride this train, but it doesn't seem to be running anymore...

A nice lady and I took each others' pictures with New York City in the background.

There's also a 9/11 Memorial at the ferry pier. It's called the Empty Sky, and it's New Jersey's monument. It focuses on the patch of the skyline that was left empty after 9/11. It also has all of the victims' names on it, and a piece of steel from the towers.

There was another 9/11 Memorial in New Jersey that I wanted to see. This one was way off the beaten path! It's called The Teardrop, and it was a gift from the people of Russia. It's in Bayonne, way at the end of an old pier that's now used for cruise ships. I had to use Google Earth to find it! But it was totally worth the effort! 

After all this, I was really hungry for dinner. I had scouted out a few local places on Yelp, and I decided tonight would be Jerry's in Jersey City. It was definitely a neighborhood favorite! I got lucky and found a parking place on the street, and walked over. 

I ordered Chicken Parm, which is one of my favorites. It did not disappoint! I will probably have garlic breath for a week!

 The owner/chef, Jerry, came over to greet me and make sure I enjoyed my meal. He thought it was really neat that I came all the way from Texas, and he gave me a homemade cannoli to try. Oh wow! I didn't take a picture, but I did promise him I would leave a good review on Yelp! 

After all of this, I drove back to my hotel in Newark, which, amazingly, was on the same road! (The highways here are a total mess. DFW traffic is nothing like this!) I totally enjoyed my day, and I am going to get a good night's sleep before my training class tomorrow!

Day 5: Guadalupe Mountains National Park

I was a little concerned when we got ready to leave this morning. It was still very foggy and cold in Carlsbad, NM. Since we had passed the park in total fog-out yesterday, we would have to backtrack almost an hour to get there today. Would it be worth the trip if it was still foggy? We decided to make the gamble and headed out. The further we got away from Carlsbad, and the higher the elevation, the heavier the fog became. Fortunately, almost the minute we crossed back into Texas, the fog lifted away!

By the time we got to the park sign, which we couldn't even see yesterday, it was a perfectly clear day.

Guadalupe Mountains isn't a very large park. The visitors center is pretty small, although it does have a nice exhibit about the flora and fauna of the area. We did the short nature trail hike, which had beautiful views of El Capitan, the highest peak in Texas.

We got back in the truck and drove down to McKittrick Canyon, which I was really looking forward to because it was supposed to have the best fall foliage colors. If you look closely in this photo, you can see the red and gold trees high up in the hills.

Unfortunately, the foliage doesn't start until a mile down the trail. We simply didn't have enough time to do a minimum 2+ mile hike and still make the 4 hour drive to our stopping point for the night. So, sadly, we decided to get back in the truck and start heading home. We did go down the nature trail in that area, which was at least a little bit scenic. 

The drive back took is through the far southeastern corner of New Mexico along US highway 180. There really wasn't much to see along the road. The area has the country's largest potash mine, and a lot of oil and gas wells. We crossed back into Texas, and through the southern panhandle area with lots of cotton fields, wind turbines, and more oil wells. The landscape changed to rolling hills just after we left Lamesa, and we stopped for the night in the small town of Snyder. We will make it back home tomorrow early afternoon...unless we find something fun to do along the way!

Day 3: Marfa, Alpine and Fort Davis

Our morning started with coffee from a convenience store as we got on the road early to head north from Presidio. No big breakfast today; we have plans for a delicious lunch! The road north went through some mountains, which were really pretty. Thank goodness for satellite radio out here!

Our first stop was in Marfa. Well, actually, it was in Valentine, which is northwest from Marfa. This was the town that Sean's dad was working in when he met Sean's mom. I also wanted to have my picture taken in front of the roadside art "Prada Marfa" fake storefront. So, we drove for 30 minutes to get there and back to Marfa. But I got my pictures! 

We drove back through Marfa, which is now home to many foo-foo people from Austin who have opened expensive restaurants and art galleries in the tiny town. There really wasn't much of interest for us here, so we kept on driving to Alpine. We liked this town a LOT better! It is home to Sul Ross State University, and the Big Bend Brewing Co. We had plans for lunch here at the original Reata restaurant. We are fans of their Fort Worth location, so we had to try the Alpine location. The restaurant is in an old house in downtown, and it is pretty small compared to Fort Worth.

There's a beautiful mural of James Dean and the Reata Ranch from the movie "Giant" in the courtyard. The movie was actually filmed outside of Marfa, but the set is long gone.

Of course, the food didn't disappoint! We love their tenderloin tamales, so we had those as an appetizer.

Sean had a chile relleno, and I had chicken enchiladas. Yum yum!

After lunch, we drove on to Fort Davis. Along the way, we stopped to take a picture at Camp Mitre Peak, which is the big Girl Scout camp where Sean's sister and her daughter both camped. The mountain that is the camp's namesake is beautiful!

We cruised into Fort Davis, and headed straight for the Fort Davis National Historic Site. This is the best preserved Texas frontier fort, and I had always wanted to see it. The fort is really nice! All of the officers' quarters, and many of the other buildings, have been reconstructed and restored. The exhibits in the post hospital were very interesting. 

The officers' quarters are in a perfect line that faces magnetic north.

We walked around and looked at the displays. Of course, I was impressed with the horse equipment! 

In the stable area, there were two horses and a goat. The one with all of the white wasn't very friendly, but the sorrel eventually let people pet him.

After visiting the fort, we headed for our accommodations for the night: The Mulhern House, which I rented through AirBnB. 

It was built in 1906 by a Houston lumber dealer so his family could have a summer get away to the cooler climate in west Texas. It is absolutely gorgeous! The house is furnished with antiques, and has a huge kitchen, dining room, and three guest suites. 

Fortunately, we had it all to ourselves! We happily sat in the rocking chairs on the front porch and relaxed before our big event that evening...

Day 4: Fog, and Carlsbad Caverns

After our late night, we took our time getting on the road this morning. We ate breakfast at the Fort Davis Drug Store, then we headed north. We drove past the observatory through the Davis Mountains. The weather had turned cold overnight, and it was in the 40s. It rained off and on, and the mountains were very pretty with the low clouds coming over them.

We hit I-10 for a few miles, then turned north from Van Horn. We drove through more mountains, and past several large ranches. Then, we started getting into some really heavy fog. And I mean REALLY heavy fog!

It quickly became obvious that we were not going to be able to visit Guadalupe Mountains National Park today! We couldn't even see the signs for the park entrance! Fortunately, we had a good alternate plan: Carlsbad Caverns National Park.

Cold, foggy weather has no effect on a cave that's 750 feet below the surface, and stays at 57 degrees year round. We happily paid our $10 each, and took the fast elevator down to the cave. Since it was a weekday, there were very few people in the cave with us. (I've heard it can get very crowded in the summer time.) We could hear the water dripping, and it was very quiet inside.

The cave has really nice paved walkways, and it is lit very subtly to highlight the formations. The walkway is 1.3 miles and we spent about 1.5 hours walking through it. This was one of my favorite formations. It's called the Rock of Ages!

When we came out of the cave, the fog had started to lift and we could see well for the drive to Carlsbad, New Mexico where we are staying for the night. We ate a good BBQ dinner at a local place, and we are now relaxing in our room. Tomorrow, we will backtrack to see Guadalupe National Park, then start heading east to get home.