Here is a link to my pictures of New York with some commentary. Facebook's picture setup is a little more user friendly. 

 

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150767126099313.421761.503919312&type=1&l=6b913747e4

 

 

Ellis Island Ferry

Ellis Island post numero 2.
After extensive yelling at my computer and fighting with my blog I have figured out how to post pics that can actually be seen by people who click on my blog. The earlier posts have been fixed so that if you click on the pics they expand and you can read them.

Pic 1 is a cool cartoon from the immigrant migration portion of the Ellis Island museum. The first pic has 1/3rd of the essential elements that make up an angry mob (missing pitchfork guy, and guy in the back who yells things.) Meanwhile good old America with peace, prosperity, and plenty.

I also like the state poster competition posters (Come to Cali! No cyclones or blizzards! Don't worry about the ground shaking, or the forest fires!)

Highlights of Ellis Island
1. I overheard (eavesdropped) on some women from Armenia. One of them found a photo (below) and marker about the massacres of Armenians and the subsequent migration of refugees to America. She called over her friends and then I listened as they talked (in Armenian? Not English?)

2. Minutes later I was in a section about the Russian pogroms of Jews. Three people were looking at a chart of the deaths and devastation in different Russian towns. They were also NOT speaking English. Russian? Yiddish? They were pointing at the deaths and pointing out different towns that they seemed to be familiar with.

In neither of these cases could I actually TELL what the people were saying but if anything that made the whole experience more interesting.

3. This morning I decided to venture out wearing a Red Sox sweatshirt and hoping for trouble.
Boarding the ferry to head back from Ellis Island the security guy was moving the crowd onto the boat when he saw me. "Watch your step, watch your step. This boat has one stop, New York City, home of the best baseball team in the world, the New York Yankees."

Mission get a rise out of Yankees fans was a success.

Vietnam Memorial

The Vietnam Memorial is made up of letters that were written from soldiers. The first pics were really low resolution so you could just see a green background but I THINK these ones are good enough to read if you have cat like vision. 

Ready to chase squirrels.

Sorry pups, this trip isn't for you. Upon hearing of NYC Oaks (left) was very excited. Calamity was more circumspect (not so much a traveler.)











We drove by some high rise tenements on the way into the city that housed around 1.3 million people (according to the bus driver.) We are clearly not in Maine anymore.













After stepping off the bus and checking in we are  heading to Fort Green Park in Brooklyn. More to come, and hopefully some deeper thoughts.

Introducing BLSC. This is my new blog where I hope to explore topics ranging from the Squirrel's of NYC to the museums and historical sights of NYC. I'll try not to exclusively focus on one or the other. So if you are a fan wondering "What did Isaiah learn at Ellis Island today and how will he incorporate this information into his class" or "I wonder how many people Isaiah saw feeding squirrels as he walked through Central Park today" I will try to satisfy both of your curiosities.

I've never blogged about anything before, but then again I've never had a trip to NYC to tour historical sights and check up on the native Sciuridae population so I am hoping for success on all fronts.