Summer East Coast 2015 -- Ellis Island

Morning breakfast and Onions orders Corned Beef and Hash based on my kind of sketchy description.  Not a fan.  Then when we got back to Seattle, my friend Peter emails us a blog post that the restaurant is closing. Onions probably ate the last Corned Beef and Hash ever cooked at Grand Canyon Restaurant in Brooklyn Heights.

Ellis Island, this is the main immigration building which was in use until the 1950's and restored in the 1980's

We were joined for the day by my friend Brian B. from my year in Rome.

The museum covers the history of immigration to the United States and even though Ellis Island received and processed mostly European immigrants, there is some discussion of immigrants from Asia, specifically China.

Not all Italian immigrants came to the United States.

The first floor of the immigration was the baggage hall but here on the second floor was the processing room.

Here's what it looked like.  Immigration was waiting for your name to be called, a quick physical and you were through.  Welcome to America!

The fear of China started EARLY.

And....anti-immigrant sentiment begins.

Even though it's a museum on the history of Ellis Island, I wish they had taken the time to discuss this strain of anti-immigration that is prevalent in politics and society today.

Well, this is outdated....now.  But back before gay marriage and the defeat of DOMA, did this mean that only men could sponsor women and not vice versa?

I didn't know about this.

An American immigrant who most of us know.  She was always afraid to reveal her sexuality in public before becoming a citizen because it might affect her immigration process.  Who knew?

Being an American by birth the immigration process never really played a big part of my life. But since Onions is not going to be a part of the system, it's foremost in my mind.  He's to the fact that someday, he'll take this oath.

The final display talked about what happens to immigrants upon arrival into the United States.  This I already knew and have witnessed on the Chinese side.

Upon return to "the mainland" it was a quick walk up to the Ground Zero Site.  It took me a few seconds to register the significance of each of these large holes in the ground.

The evening ended with a great dinner with Brian and our NYC host, Mary Bentley at an Argentinian restaurant in Brooklyn.

The requisite Korean girl photo, but apparently my head should be tilted the other way.

Summer 2015 East Coast -- New York City, Onions Style

After a smooth bus ride into NYC, Onions and I spent the evening walking along the Brooklyn Bridge and the Promenade. Here's a picture of the Manhattan Bridge with the Empire State Building in the background.

Listening to my podcasts in China, I heard about the new burger place called the Shake Shack.  We tried out the burgers (REAL MEAT, at least I think) and the shakes and concretes.  I can see why it's a popular spot.

Manhattan Twilight

New York Bagel, a first.  He liked his first bagel.

An afternoon was spent at the Met.  We toured (tried to at least) the entire first level.

That's dedication to getting the perfect shot!

Having studied Art History in Italy....I had a lot of context for the Egyptian, Greek and Renaissance art.  Egyptian here.

Temple of Dendur

Canova, my favorite sculptor.

The rear view might be even better.

Rodin's "The Burghers of Calais"

Not really a painting or modern painting fan, but I connected to this painting.

After a morning and afternoon in the Met, we spent an hour walking around Central Park.

We were lucky to catch my friend Jennifer for an hour at her house.

The view from her home on 5th Avenue

We ended the day with a twilight cruise around the tip of Manhattan.  Here's the new World Trade Center.

Onions first pretzel....he wasn't a fan.  Our final stop of the day was Chinese food in Chinatown.  Unfortunately, we were hungry and just popped into the first restaurant we found....bad call.