Ellis Island at last

We have wanted to visit Ellis Island for quite a while. But our plans were actually finalized because a friend whose great grand father came through the island in 1914 had a keen interest to visit. It was a nice spring day and as we had bought the tickets ahead of time through Statue Crusies we didn't have to deal with long waiting lines. Though we didn't get off at the liberty island we got a really good view of the statue we had so often seen from so far away.

The Ellis island museum was very informative. The photograph collection was amazing and the historical accounts were rich in content. My friend did see an electronic record of her great grand father's name and year of arrival. Out side was a memorial wall that contained names off immigrants. Due to construction my friend wasn't able to see names of her family. The grounds also offered a great view of the Manhattan skyline.

For dinner, we headed to Stanton Social, a trendy tapas bar downtown. Though we didn't have a reservation, we were able to get a table in the upstairs lounge. The food was pretty good and the vibe was trendy/casual. We ordered a few different small plates and were treated to free drinks for the small inconvenience of having to swicth tables. For dessert, we walked a couple of blocks to Babycakes NYC, a vegan bakery. Nelson had a very interesting doughnut from the eclectic selection. The cupcakes were good but no excpetional. The frosting was the best part. After strolling through shops in SoHo we had a second snack at Rice to Riches. This store offered rice pudding of every flavor in chic containers. I'm not a huge fan of rice pudding but it is an interesting place to sample lots of unique flavors.

Images courtesy of www.lifeofthecity.com & www.thetravelrag.com