More Airports and a Statue ~ Days 102-103

Day 102: travel

Today we woke up early, and Maya was super grumpy because the TV over the bath didn't work. We had another buffet breakfast, and this time right back to the airport.

With another airport comes another drama. To get into the States, you need an ESTA, which is like a visa. Mum did ours in France, but dad apparently had one, as he went to Boston last year.

Turns out it had expired, so he couldn't get in. He applied for a new one, but he was not allowed to check into our flight.

Me, mum, and Maya walked all the way across the airport, and we were held up at security because of my rubber duck. We boarded the plane and we knew that dad couldn't make it. But then, he showed up!

To make the experience better, dad upgraded us to business class, which was actual business class, not the fake "club Europe". The only downside was that my TV was broken, so I watched Smurfs, which literally looped as "La, la, la, la, la sing a happy song"

Even though I have been to 15+ countries, I have never been to the USA. Ever since the world trade centres were attacked, immigration has been much more complex.

When we arrived at the airport, we were really jet lagged, so we just slept.

Day 103: The statue of Liberty

Today we went to have coffee. We walked a long way to Central Park, and saw a bunch of squirrels. We saw the first one, and everyone got excited, shouting "Squirrel, squirrel!", like that dog in Up.

After a bit there were so many squirrels, we were like "cool, another squirrel..."

Then we wandered after the city, past Trump tower, and this suitcase shaped Louis Vitton building, to this famous coffee shop.

Now usually famous places are terrible, but this place was an exception. They had delicious choc chip cookies and cinnamon scrolls.

Then we caught the subway to the Statue of Liberty, the line for the ferry was so long, and we waited like 40 minutes!

When we finally got to the island, we saw the queue for the boat back, and it literally wrapped around the whole island.

We went up the statue (which was smaller than I expected), but I couldn't stop thinking about the line. We had to get down because I couldn't breathe, and it was funny because mum suggested if I was having an asthma attack we might get in the boat faster.

We waited literally an hour (and a half) in the 2km queue, under the hot sun (well, mum did, I was getting souvenir coin #21), to get on the ferry. Then we had a stop at a playground on the way home.