Free Stuff is the Best Stuff

Yesterday, we tackled lower Manhattan. Following the Frommer's 24 Great Walks in New York guide, we started our day in front of the Museum of the American Indian (MAI), which used to be the US Customs house. It has some great statues depicting America, Europe, Asia and Africa as women but I neglected to get a good picture :( The museum was free so we went in and looked at some Native American artifacts and spent most of our time listening to interactive exhibits about successful American Indian musicians, including Taboo from the Black Eyed Peas.

The Charging Bull statue we're posing in front of is located directly across from the MAI, through a small park. Apparently it was an unsolicited gift from some artist who managed to secretly leave it in front of the New York Stock Exchange in 1989. How would you sneak a massive bronze bull anywhere?? Anyway, the thing was crawling with people taking pictures with both the front and (very impressive) back end so we had to settle for the middle.

After a small walk up Broadway (past some Occupy protesters in front of Trinity Church) we turned down Wall street and were floored by the size and grandeur of the New York Stock Exchange. The security around it is insane, with streets blocked off with adjustable ramps and the whole perimeter secured with a wrought iron fence so that the closest you can get to it is the opposite sidewalk. Certain vehicles are allowed through but only after being inspected by a police dog. I took this picture sitting on the steps of the Federal Hall National Memorial, where George Washington took his oaths as first President of the US.

The walk took us on a bit of a ramble through the financial district where tourists and suits alike came out of the woodwork at noontime. It was like an anthill. Thankfully, we were headed towards Battery Park, where we thought we'd find a bit of space and greenery to sit and relax in for a while. Right. Not pictured here: the INSANE amount of people lined up inside Castle Clinton and out on the pier waiting to board a boat to take them to the Statue of Liberty. We did find a nice place to sit though, in the Gardens of Hope (in memory of AIDS victims), where we had a snack and listened to a Rasta man play steel drums and shook our heads at the people sweltering in the huge lineup for the boat.

That's Moragh sitting on the steps leading to the East Coast Memorial, which is huge slabs of concrete depicting the names of all the US soldiers/etc who died in the Atlantic Ocean during WWII. And there's Emily, relaxing on the pier across from the memorial, with Lady Liberty in the background.

Sidenote: we're DYING of heat here. Really. We didn't bring nearly enough summery clothes to survive 30 degree weather in the city. If we comment on the weather to anyone though, we get mutterings about "Canadians..."

So after snickering at the people paying $20 and waiting in hours of lineups, we walked to the end of the park and hopped on the very full but FREE Staten Island ferry, and took a jaunt across the harbour. Got some really cool views of the city and of the Statue of Liberty, and all we had to do to get back was walk off the boat, turn around and get back on. For FREE. Excellent people watching as well, might we add.

Running out of time here this morning as we are heading out for dim sum and Central Park (eeeeee) but here are some pics of the rest of our day - will edit this post later and add details as needed!

Alan's Falafels - best $4.50 street food you'll ever find.

WTC site, with one new tower almost complete.

St. Paul's church, where rescue workers slept between shifts during 9/11, now turned into a kind of shrine to the efforts of firefighters/police officers/EMTs/etc on that day.

At the MoMA Free Friday! Contemporary art galleries and the Architecture and Design galleries were our favourites.

End of the day! Sitting on the steps of the Sculpture Gardens, MoMA. So, so, so tired.