Statue of Liberty and Carlo's Bake Shop

We took the subway downtown this morning and hopped on the ferry out to Liberty Island to visit the Statue of Liberty.

The New York skyline, as viewed from the ferry

We hired audio machines to listen to the whole story of how it was designed and built and the history around it.  They were a very good investment!  I've seen the statue twice before and never knew any of the story.

I bought a key ring there - it's like a little metal book that opens out to a concertina of pages.  I can remember I had one like this when I was a little girl!

One of the most amazing things I learned was that, even though the statue is of a woman and the whole theme is about freedom and liberty, and the cost of the stone pedestal that she stands on was raised through donations from the public, women were banned from attending the opening ceremony.  How disgusting!!  However, some hardy suffragettes took to boats and sailed about the island protesting during the whole ceremony.

Then we got back on the ferry and continued across the Hudson to New Jersey, hopped on the light train to  Hoboken and visited Carlo's Bake Shop.  This bakery features in one of my favourite Foxtel shows - "Cake Boss".

Buddy himself wasn't there, but his sister Madeleine was and she and the rest of the family are all stars on the show.   She came out to greet us and we chatted about the show.  She asked where we were from and then said that Buddy was coming out to Australia to visit next year.

They have great cakes!

We had cupcakes and Buddy's famous canoli - pastry curls filled with sweet cream cheese and blueberries! What a great excuse to break my vegan diet!

Wayne and Richie treated me and bought me an autographed set of the three series of Cake Boss on DVD.  How spoiled I am!!

Then we took the train from Hoboken through a tunnel under the Hudson River back to New York.  We showered and relaxed for a while and then went out to dinner at Planet Hollywood.

Richie bought himself a Planet Hollywood t-shirt and also bought me yet another key ring ...

Then home to another well deserved night's sleep!