NYC Day 2

Heading out the next day we passed through the Garment District and the girls had fun looking at the wide variety of fabrics.  I tried to convince Patti to buy a 'party' dress because they we only $5, not sure how that worked.

We visited the 9/11 ground zero site.  While there we had some conversation with the girls about what took place and how some think they are doing Gods will when they kill those who do not profess to believe as they do.  While the Bible has been used as a pretext for violence, this method of justifying anything but defensive neccessity is not sustainable when weighed against the breadth of the text.  From the Bible we understand that submission to God and receiving Christ the Savior is the work of God alone and no amount of coaxing or duress will advance that.

Building around the site continues and I thought this was an interesting shot.

From there we toured out to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island.  The statue was closed so we stayed on the boat and took in the long view.  Our tour of Ellis Island included an audio guide which was a bit poorly designed but offered up some good information including a whole set of kids tracks.  My father in law is the family genealogist and he has found that several of my relatives had been processed through Ellis.  In Acts we read that God sets the times and the places where men are to dwell.  I am grateful to find myself in the United States at this time in history.

While touring you got a sense of the living conditions and the unique challenges that faced such a facility including the detainment and deportation of a number of the arrivals.  The Quota Act of 1921 specified the monthly quotas for each country and when the limit was reached all others were turned around.  How painful that must have been.

Here is an interesting Ellis era cartoon depicting those that desired shutting the nations doors to new entrants.  You can see their current prosperity and in the shadows their meager beginnings.

Interesting as well were the various tests that were performed, from intelligence to medical, with the goal of ensuring that the immigrant would be productive and not a ward of the state.  The literacy test was given with verses of the Bible.

STOMP!  Patti had signed up for Groupon NYC and a Stomp deal rolled in.  Tonight was our night.  I had seen this show years ago and recalled liking it.  I suppose we could have have seen Mary Poppins or Annie and the kids would have liked that as well.  It turned out that Stomp was a great choice for the kids, it was much more audience interactive then I had remembered.  It was a small venue, the Orpheus Theater, which had about 200 seats and we were 10 rows off the front, just right for the kids.  They were laughing and clapping the whole time.  I was always a fan of drummers like Neil Peart and John Bonham and their long live album solos.  In one of the sessions it was like Moby Dick, YYZ and Drum Line rolled into one.  To be sure, it was not all bashing drums, but anything that would make a noise was laid into rythme.  The kids 

Iiked the session with the old fashioned fluid lighters and I have to agree that was pretty cool both audibly and visually.

Before heading off to the show Patti went down to the lobby to use the wifi.  She came back to the room feeling a little self conscious seeing everyone all dolled up.  I assured her that our venue would apply no such pressure.  Patti had the kids put on their best cargo pants and t-shirts.  She combed out Riley's hair and commented how kind the humidity had been to it.

You can see all the NYC Day 2 images in the links section.