The National Park Service opened up the crown of the Statue of Liberty July 4th this year. Sara & Brian wanted to go, so Jim & I went with them. Brian had never been, Sara & Jim had never been into the crown & I was 8 the last time I went into the crown. Closed since September 11, 2001, renovations were done while she was closed. We ordered tickets in July and today was the day!
Our tickets were for the 10 o'clock time slot so we left at 7am & drove to Liberty State Park to leave from New Jersey. The weather was gorgeous! We couldn't have asked for a nicer day, not too hot, not too cold - perfect. We took the ferry the Miss New Jersey out to the statue.
Going to the Statue of Liberty now entails two security screenings, one before you get on the ferry and the next before they let you into the monument. No bags, no coats - nothing but cameras, your watch & your wallet can go into the monument. No pictures in security either - big signs everywhere! - or else I would have been taking pictures of Sara being wanded BOTH times.
First stop on the ferry is Ellis Island. We were running close to our time for the crown so we stayed on board & stopped on the way back.
From the ferry as it docked, an unusual view of the lady herself. I'd forgotten how many trees are actually on the island.
You go through security & then you start climbing. These are the "big" stairs to the observation deck. All 192 of them.
These are the stairs above the observation deck & to the tower - all 162 of them (it felt like a thousand!) 354 steps in all. My legs were not happy about 3/4s of the way up! YIKES!
This is Sara going down. This is definitely not for the claustrophobic!
The crown itself is MUCH smaller than I remember from when I was small - yes I was only 8 but I thought the landing was bigger. The four of us fit comfortably & were happy we had the crown to ourselves - anyone else up there with us would have been one too many. Here are some of the views from the crown.
Looking towards Brooklyn. The windows themselves, 25 of them, are about the size of the windows on airplanes.
The view of Manhattan. The green triangle is the bottom of the book the lady is holding.
The ladder leads up into the torch. Only maintenance workers are allowed into the torch.
An inside view of the lady's nose & mouth
Looking up towards the crown from the observation deck level. The tube is the staircases going up to the crown.
The four of us on the observation deck with a Manhattan view. (Don't we look like typical tourists????)
The NY skyline heading back to Libery State Park. 
And this building is the train depot at Liberty State Park. The building has been restored & the state is working on the ferry slips. Hopefully the trainyard is next!
It was a wonderful day and a real treat to visit an American treasure right in my own backyard.
