The Happiest Place on Earth, Part 1: Getting There

For some the "happiest place on earth" (thanks to a great marketing team at Disney) is thought to be Disneyland.

Not so for me. My nerdy "Disneyland" isn't a theme park: it's Ellis Island. (I know, I know. SUPER nerdy, right?! Well, welcome to my world.)

And until last Saturday, I'd never been, which is kind of pathetic for a genealogist who is enamoured by the immigrant experience. However, every time I'd visited NYC, something always came up and I never made it; and my layovers at JFK, though quite lengthy, weren't long enough to leave the airport and trek to Ellis Island and return in time to fly out again.

My luck changed last weekend, though, when a very generous friend (Jenga) offered her tickets to me because she wasn't going to be able to use them. Would I take them, she asked. Um, HECK YEAH I would!

Thanks to our awesome tickets (thanks, Jenga!), we walked right by the loooooooooong, general admission line and quickly passed through security to board the (appropriately named) Miss Ellis Island ferry.

No, not a beauty contestant -- although I'd vote for her!

We made the obligatory stop at Liberty Island to see the Statue of Liberty, etc. I kept thinking to myself, "Green statue, yeah yeah. Let's get to the good stuff, people!"

Lady Liberty pic from the ferry

View 1 of the Liberty Bike. Couldn't Tell if it was a Harley Davidson or not....

View 2 of the Liberty Bike at Liberty Island

I did learn some cool things about Lady Liberty and her connection to the immigrant experience from some of the displays outside of the gift shop.

The Statue of Liberty welcomed over 14 million immigrants to the United States between 1886 and 1924

A poem written by Emma Lazarus captured how the Statue of Liberty offered hope to immigrants seeking refuge from the misery of their homeland situations.