Total Tourist Immersion

Back in June I bought some Living Social vouchers for the the Downtown Circle Line. 

I thought this would be a Summer thing but the Summer ended and so did my opportunity to go on The Shark.

So we went on the Zepher. A 50 minute trip up the the Brooklyn Bridge and then back to the Statue of Liberty.

  Our guide on the trip ask people where they were from. Out of 300 people on the deck there was only one other group from NYC.  Most people did not even speak English. That made it hard for him to give his shpeal.  But my kids made it easy.  I told them that they should ask the him what the tallest building in NYC was before the Empire State Building.  They all cheered when he got the answer correct.

When we had a good view of the Verrazano Bridge he pointed out that after Giovanni da Verrazzano (yes they are spelled differently) left the harbor that bears his name he sailed south and was captured and eaten by cannibals.  Thus, introducing Italian food to The Americas.


He redeemed himself later when he pointed out 40 Wall St.  It is important because for a short period of time is was the tallest building in the world.  It is taller than the Woolworth Building, but was not as tall as the Chrysler that was finished a few weeks after it was build.  40 Wall is now owned by Donald Trump, so it is no called Trump Tower.  Our guide pointed out that The Donald was not in town because he was in Europe, awaiting the birth of his next wife.  ha ha.

The boat ride was not bad, but I would still recommend the Staten Island Ferry if someone was looking for a quick boat ride around the Brooklyn Bridge and Statue of Liberty.

Anyway, I took the obligatory photo of the Statue Of Liberty.

The South Street Seaport is also a mall for tourists. So, after the boat ride, we stepped into the Brookstone store.  The kids had an absolute ball trying out the foot massagers.

Next door there is a shop called Superdry.  My daughter thinks their cloths were really ugly.We all thought that if anyone holds the copyright for the word Superdry and does not sell toilet paper they are wasting their money.

That was all on Saturday.  Below is my most common view of the South Street Seaport and The Zephyr

From the Manhattan Bridge.