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conulyI had only been there once in my life, as a kid when my orthodontist appointment was cancelled during a visit from my grandparents, so I completely misestimated the time it would take and didn't bring nearly enough food. Whoops.
The self-guided audio tour around Liberty Island is pretty straightforward. You go around the statue. The audio tour of Ellis Island is more difficult due to the more free-form nature of the museum, and we all gave up after a few minutes.
Ellis Island, incidentally, quite possibly qualifies as "the whitest place I have ever been". I didn't really notice in the crowded downstairs, which had a number of exhibits trying to put Ellis Island into its greater historical context, with information about all sorts of immigration stories - Puritans, slavery, orphan trains, anti-Asian nativism, (Ana was pretty shocked at that and stormed up to me to tell me that that was racist), the Trail of Tears which only very loosely qualifies as an immigrant story if you squint a lot - but it was painfully obvious when Eva dragged us into the movie theater and I could *see* they were the only non-white people there, and then I started looking around. I honestly think that the three kids may have been the only black people on Ellis Island during our entire visit.
I guess that makes sense, the downstairs exhibits on slavery and the slave trade and on African-American and immigrant influences in music notwithstanding.
Because I hadn't brought enough food we ended up after buying a not very good and ridiculously overpriced falafel apiece, and now all three of them have tummy troubles so we're skipping today. Of course, the one day I actually wake up on time to start making lunch for later! Poor babies.
The self-guided audio tour around Liberty Island is pretty straightforward. You go around the statue. The audio tour of Ellis Island is more difficult due to the more free-form nature of the museum, and we all gave up after a few minutes.
Ellis Island, incidentally, quite possibly qualifies as "the whitest place I have ever been". I didn't really notice in the crowded downstairs, which had a number of exhibits trying to put Ellis Island into its greater historical context, with information about all sorts of immigration stories - Puritans, slavery, orphan trains, anti-Asian nativism, (Ana was pretty shocked at that and stormed up to me to tell me that that was racist), the Trail of Tears which only very loosely qualifies as an immigrant story if you squint a lot - but it was painfully obvious when Eva dragged us into the movie theater and I could *see* they were the only non-white people there, and then I started looking around. I honestly think that the three kids may have been the only black people on Ellis Island during our entire visit.
I guess that makes sense, the downstairs exhibits on slavery and the slave trade and on African-American and immigrant influences in music notwithstanding.
Because I hadn't brought enough food we ended up after buying a not very good and ridiculously overpriced falafel apiece, and now all three of them have tummy troubles so we're skipping today. Of course, the one day I actually wake up on time to start making lunch for later! Poor babies.
