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Well, this is outdated....now.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.