You might possibly recall a photo of Monique standing beneath a very large branch during our walk through Central Park, and my mild consternation that I had no idea what sort of tree this was that was so commonly found across New York. Much to our surprise, we found out on Liberty Island.
It's the London planetree, platanus × acerifolia, a hybrid between the oriental plane tree and the American sycamore. It turns out to be a very popular urban tree in temperate zones around the world, so I look forward to identifying it around the world in future years.
With our horticultural inquiries satisfied, it was time to learn about the Statue of Liberty itself thanks to the audio tours:
Given the current hubbub around immigration in general and Syrian refugees in particular, I think a few politicians would do well to go back and re-read these lines from The New Colossus, the poem inscribed at the statue's base.
Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!
That's the America I love, brave and unafraid to stand as the world's greatest hope.
Manhattan to the north. One of the great things about visiting the Statue of Liberty is that you get a real sense of New York as a port city.
And as for Lady Liberty herself? Still spectacular!
Yup, that's a pretty big statue.
And now, time to hop back on the ferry and head back to Manhattan.
Farewell, Lady Liberty. Keep on standin'.
Next stop: Greenwich Village.
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