Saturday, September 26, 2009

Liberty Island at Night

The National Park Service opened up Liberty Island at night for the first time yesterday. It was kind of chilly. We'd all forgotten our parkas. And as it turns out, there's not really much to do on Liberty Island, so Roberta and I took photos of the Statue of Liberty and kept moving to stay warm.

We were treated to some documentary evangelism on the value of US National Parks. It so happens that National Parks propaganda is the only kind of patriotic propaganda that I unequivocally agree with. I left the island wanting to wear a funny park ranger hat and hang out with Smokey the Bear for the rest of my life, but I'm kind of over it this morning.


That's JC on the left and Manhattan on the right.


Ellis Island.


Approaching Liberty Island. Not too different from the half-dozen photos I've taken from the Staten Island Ferry.


Little-known fact: My legs glow.


Funny kid.


An outdoor screen previewed the new Ken Burns documentary about the US National Parks.


There was a big green lady on the island.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Smokey Bear Act of 1952--yes, Congress had nothing better to do that year--officially states the bear's name is Smokey Bear, not Smokey the Bear.

In the 1960s, when he was at the National Zoo in D.C., he had his own zip code and got more mail than the president.

Probably most of those letters were addressed to Smokey the Bear.

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Marie Javins said...

Having grown up in the DC area, I saw that bear many times.

And never got his name right.