In order to score our tickets up we had to book three months in advanced. Actually, I remember when Pants and I were looking at booking the tickets word got back to our Boss. He was kind of concerned that we were booking tickets before the project was even signed off and his Don't count your chickens catch phrase followed. Before we left we were sticking chickens drawn on Post Its on his office door everyday.
Apparently the folks in Sydney are still building to our collection. This morning I was missing our daily team lunches in Sydney and last night I was really missing the soon to be Mrs. Juzzy! Wow... sentimental tangent.... and we're back on track.
So, last Sunday we jumped on a boat (literally, jumped, we were quite excited) to Liberty Island. We shared Statue of Liberty Trivia as we travelled... over the course of the day we learnt that all of Pant's facts were true and all of mine made up. Typical.
There were three levels of security before we were able to enter the Statue. (One in Manhattan at Battery Park, one on Liberty Island and then one final ticket check at the Statue herself.) Finally it was time to climb Lady Liberty.
We were concerned out the hike... but turns out the number of stairs was easy to master... it was the cramped space inside that was harder to deal with. As we climbed her it got narrower and narrower.
Worth it! At the top there were Rangers who live in the Statue (well, that's what we thought, until we climbed back down to Earth and saw one of the rangers again... how did she get down before us?)
The Lady who lived in the Statue cleared up all the myths (OK, given most of the myths we had made up, it wasn't too suprising) and answered all of our questions. The Ranger also let us know that despite popular belief there is no restaurant at the top of the Statue. Of course we had to ask "Do you mind if we perpetuate the rumor anyway?" Awkward silence.
It was worth while going up into the head. It was tiny, with very little windows, and not much to see. But still awesome. You could see and feel Liberty's hair and look out the crown at the people below. Photo Op. Where is R when you need him?
The Ranger also told us that because of the materials that Lady Liberty is made of she is an excellent conductor and it almost always struck by lightening during an electrical storm. "Hmmm" contemplated Mr. Pants "Surely all energy that would eventually do some damage. I wonder why not?" To which I replied "Because God Blessed America!"
So we agreed that quote of the day would go to me. Mr Pants was a close second with a comment about Osama after I pointed out a suspicious looking object floating in the ocean. We were all clearly on a role, because of the boat trip back Mr. Pants said "I wonder why Pirates are called Pirates?" Finally my moment to shine... a joke I have had preprepared for years.... "Because they arrrghhh"
OK, so one of the three of us should have realized that the day could only go downhill from here.... Alas, it was not to be. On a post Statue high we decided to "after party" at Ellis Island. This was a bit of a mistake. The only thing we could see on the Island was an immigration museum. Umm... my attention span was too small for that sort stuff by that time!
And so with that we were homeward bound - with a new found intellectual relationship with our neighbor over on Liberty Island.
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