The Statue of Liberty

On our last day in New York City we got to see the Statue of Liberty, she was really beautiful.  Dad drove to the ferry in our hire car, he said that it was like learning to drive again because cars drive on the right hand side of the road in America and the steering wheel is on the left side of the car. It was really busy on the roads in Manhattan too!

We caught a ferry to Liberty Island, it was really windy on top of the deck but it was well worth going to see her.  The Statue of Liberty was a gift to America from France in 1883 to signify the friendship of the two nations.  Hannah

Night in the Museum

Today we went to the Natural History Museum of America in New York, it's the one that Night in the Museum was filmed.  It was a rainy day and there was a very long line to get into the museum, I think everyone had the same idea to visit the museum because it was warm and dry inside.

This is Theodore Roosevelt (Teddy) who was a politician, naturalist, author, soldier, explorer and historian who was also the 26th president of the United States.  He seemed like a jolly good chap!

We saw alot of stuffed animals shown in their habitiats.  There were displays from Asia, North America, South America, Africa, under the ocean and more.  We even came across this naughty little fellow.....

Luckily we weren't at the museum at night time or we'd be in big trouble with Dexter the Capuchin monkey on the loose!  Just by the look of him you could tell he was mischievous! 

There were lots of other displays at the museum such as the history of people from different nations and their culture and Countdown to Zero which described lots of diseases that have infected people in the world such Polio, River Blindness and the Guinea Worm and how they are being eradicated.

These are some of the first European settlers in America, they were Dutch but there were also English, French, Italians and many others as well as the American Indians who were already living there.

They also had an area for The Pacific and look who we found - "Hey Dum-Dum you give me Gum-Gum!"  I can't wait to see the real Easter Island heads when we go there.  We had an awesome day in the museum, it was really interesting.  Hannah

World Trade Centre Memorial and Museum

On September 11, 2001, 19 militants associated with the Islamic extremist group al-Qaeda hijacked four airplanes and carried out suicide attacks against targets in the United States. Two of the planes were flown into the towers of the World Trade Centre in New York City, a third plane hit the Pentagon just outside Washington, D.C., and the fourth plane crashed in a field in Pennsylvania. 

Often called 9/11, the attacks resulted in extensive death and destruction, including the fall of the twin towers.Over 3,000 people were killed during the attacks in New York City and Washington,D.C., including more than 400 police officers and firefighters.

  This is the last steel column to be pulled down from the wreckage left of the twin towers after they had been hit by the two planes.  It has been signed by the surviving fireman, policemen and rescue crews that helped evacuate, find survivors and pulled bodies from the wreckage.  They also put photos of their fallen comrades on the column.

This is the remains of one of the firetrucks that came to peoples' aid.  They lost many of their crew that day when the towers fell.

This is the new Trade Centre that was rebuilt on the site of one of the previous trade centres, on the other site is the water memorial called Reflecting Absence.  The new tower has been renamed "The One World Trade Centre".  I think that this is pretty cool because not only was one of the towers rebuilt meaning new hope for the future it also represents that we are one world together not just lots of different people from lots of different countries.  Drew

 

Central Park

  We arrived in New York after a very long train ride (10 hours) from Canada.  Crossing the border was interesting because America has a very high security system so mum and dad had their finger prints and photos taken for identity purposes.  A cab driver took us over the bridge from Canada to the USA border - the customs officer was really friendly and it didn't take that long.

On the first day we arrived in New York we walked to Central Park because it was near our hotel and the weather was nice.  It was still cold enough for the lakes to be frozen even though it was sunny.  There  were heaps of squirrels running around which was very cool.  We got some roasted nuts from a street cart and sat down to eat them.  Squirrels smelt the nuts and came straight over and ate the nuts right out of our hands, we loved it and thought it was really funny.  There were heaps of tiny brown hopping birds too.  

Central Park was a lot bigger than I thought, it has heaps of trees, grass, walkways, bridges, lakes and streams, rocks and even an ice skating rink.  Hannah and I tried ice skating as we'd never done it before and thought it would be like roller blading.  It was a bit harder than roller blading as the ice was really, really slippery but we still enjoyed it.  We both fell over a few times, but we finally got the hang of it and had a great time.  Drew