After working all weekend, I had a case of spring fever. Sunday night I started thinking how much fun it would be to take a day trip into the city with my daughter The city being none other than NYC of course!! Told my daughter about the plan, so 6:30 the next morning she was waking me up to go. We got a late start as I did some reasesrch on parking.Through Centralparking's app, I downloaded to my phone, a coupon for $25 to park for 12 hours. As it would turn out, I didn't need it.!!
I took my usual toll free route, 9 to 9a, to Taconic/Sprain, Rt 100 in Yonkers to 87/Major Deagan, to the Cross Bronx/Alexander Hamilton Bridge to the Henry Hudson Parkway/Riverside Dr. Without much traffic it takes just over an hour. Instead of getting on the Henry Hudson my daughter wanted to take Riverside Dr. If I lived in NYC i would live along Riverside Dr I think the area is so lovely. Well by takithis route we stumbled onto a Presidential Historic Site/National Park, which are.our favorites. It was Grant's Tomb. The final resting place of the 18th President of the United States, Ulysses S Grant and his wife Julia Dent Grant.
Across the street was Riverside Church. I 'd seen that church over a hundred times on trips into the city. The Riverside Church is located at one of highest points above sea-level in New York City, on the NW edge of Morningside Heights. It is modeled after 13th Century Chartes Cathedral in France. It is a fine example of Gothic style. It is breathtakingly beautiful.
We couldnt believe our good fortune but as we stumbled upon these two places, we also found parking on the street. Serendipity!! Upon further inspection we had to move our car in an hour. The sign read no parking Monday and Wednesday from 11:00-12:30.
We went down and across the street to the visitor's center for Grants Tomb. We asked the Park Ranger about the Junior Ranger Program. The children are given a booklet to fill out, teaching them about that particular site. It takes about an hour to fill out. Upon completion the children are given a badge and sworn in as Junior Rangers. It is really cute. The Ranger asked my daughter some questions about President Grant. We had gone to his farm just outside St. Louis, last summer. She knew a little about him with some reminders from me. For example, Ulysses S Grant was kind to the slaves on his farm and gave one or more their freedom. That certainly wasn't the custom at the time and it put a burden upon his family who was struggling financially.
My daughter got her badge. We got a stamp for our National Park book. The Ranger told us about a great program on C-Span that we are going to look into about First Ladies. The conversation had segue into a discussion about Eleanor Rossevelt, for whom my daughter has a great respect. He kindly printed out the schedule of program.
At one point in the conversation he asked if my daughter was taught script on school. She was not. He said he has heard about that a few times and couldn't believe it. One of those things that have fallen by the wayside in this technological age. Teachers have to teach the children to pass a federal test so they can keep their funding. There isn't time to equip a child with the skill of how to sign their name I guess.
The ranger said the Tomb was open from 10-11, 12-1, 2-3 and so on. So we looked around the visitor's center then went back out, across the street and up the hill to Grant's Tomb. The Tomb is a rather large, white marble, dome shaped mausoleum. It is quite pretty. With some nice architechtural details. Here's a link to some information about the site on Wikipedia. http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grant's_Tomb
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