Kristin, Jake & Shea

I've had some of my family visiting this week so I have had a wonderful time with them revisiting some of my favorite places and finding some new places along the way.

Before I tell you about my week, I want to tell you about the fireflies in my area.  It has been humid and warm which brings out the fireflies/lightning bugs.  Kristin was so excited to see them as were the rest of us.  Jake has an app on his phone that allows the aperture on his phone camera to remain open.  He took this picture of the fireflies in the church yard next to my home leaving the aperture open for 5 minutes.

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Information about fireflies:

Fireflies love humid, warm environments. In the U.S., almost no species of fireflies are found west of Kansas-although there are also warm and humid areas to the west. Nobody is sure why this is. There are many species of fireflies throughout the world, and the most diversity in species is found in tropical Asia as well as Central and South America.

Fireflies also love long grass. They're nocturnal, and during the day they spend most of their time on the ground. At night, they crawl to the tops of blades of grass and fly into tree branches to signal for mates. Long grass conceals the fireflies better and allows them a better vantage point for signaling at night, and over-mowing your lawn may disturb your firefly population.

Fireflies talk to each other with light. Fireflies emit light mostly to attract mates, although they also communicate for other reasons as well, such as to defend territory and warn predators away. In some firefly species, only one sex lights up. In most, however, both sexes glow; often the male will fly, while females will wait in trees, shrubs and grasses to spot an attractive male. If she finds one, she'll signal it with a flash of her own.

Fireflies produce "cold light."
Firefly lights are the most efficient lights in the world-100% of the energy is emitted as light. Compare that to an incandescent bulb, which emits 10% of its energy as light and the rest as heat, or a fluorescent bulb, which emits 90% of its energy as light. Because it produces no heat, scientists refer to firefly lights as "cold lights."

In a firefly's tail, you'll find two chemicals: luciferase and luciferin. Luciferin is heat resistant, and it glows under the right conditions. Luciferase is an enzyme that triggers light emission. ATP, a chemical within the firefly's body, converts to energy and initiates the glow. All living things, not just fireflies, contain ATP.

Fireflies are fascinating!!

Monday I took the sister training leaders in my area to Costco.  (They go on exchanges with the sisters they are over so they need a lot of food to feed them during these exchanges.)  Of course one can't go to Costco without getting something to eat.  I had a fruit smoothie and thoroughly enjoyed it.  The rest of the day I did my usual job, made cookies and brownies for the missionaries I knew I would see on Tuesday as they came for temple day, and cleaned my apartment.

Lunch at Costco wit Sisters Voss and McDowell

Tuesday Jake and Shea arrived.  It was so good to see them!  They were exhausted from their "red-eye" flight.  They flew into Philadelphia and took a bus to NYC.  (Sometimes it is cheaper to go that route.)  I dispensed my goodies to my missionaries and then went to dinner with Shea and Jake at a BBQ restaurant in Astoria.  The food was fantastic!  Anyone coming to visit me will want to go there.  Then for dessert, we headed straight to The French Bakery Workshop for the traditional duke and a whole lot of other goodies.

Brisket and burnt ends with corn bread and fries!

Butcher Bar in Astoria

Wednesday morning Kristin arrived on a "red-eye". After picking her up, we came back to my apartment and slept for a few hours.  That afternoon we went to a nature reserve on Randall's Island.

White crane in river

Shea and Kristin

Even the fences along the walkways were beautiful

View from Triborough Bridge

Manhattan from the Triborough

Under the roadway

Hell Gate Bridge is a 1,017 foot railroad bridge crossing a strait of the East River
between Astoria in Queens and Randalls Island in Manhattan.

Jake taking pictures of the bumblebee

If you enlarge this photo, you can see the bee's proboscis deep into the blossom getting the nectar.

There were numerous beautiful bumblebees in the garden.
Click HERE if you would like to read about the bees. Interesting and beautiful creatures.

Here is some information about the island:

From Wikipedia:

Native Americans called Wards Island Tenkenas which translated to "Wild Lands" or "uninhabited place", whereas Randalls Island was called Minnehanonck. The islands were acquired by Wouter Van Twiller, Director General of the Dutch colony of New Netherland, in July 1637. The island's first European names were Great Barent Island (Wards) and Little Barent Island (Randall's) after a Danish cowherd named Barent Jansen Blom. Both islands' names changed several times. At times Randall's was known as "Buchanan's Island" and "Great Barn Island", both of which were likely corruptions of Great Barent Island.

John Montresor, an engineer with the British army, purchased Randalls Island in 1772. He renamed it Montresor's Island and lived on it with his wife until the Revolutionary War forced him to deploy. During the Revolutionary War, both islands hosted military posts for the British military. The British used his island to launch amphibious attacks on Manhattan.  Montresor's house there was burned in 1777. He resigned his commission and returned to England in 1778, but retained ownership of the island until the British evacuated the city in 1783 and it was confiscated.

Both islands gained their current names from new owners after the war. In November 1784, Jonathan Randell (or Randel) bought Randall's Island, while Jaspar Ward and Bartholomew Ward, sons of judge Stephen Ward, bought Wards.

Nineteenth century

The New York House of Refuge youth detention center in 1855.

Although a small population had lived on Wards since as early as the 17th century, the Ward brothers developed the island more heavily by building a cotton mill and in 1807 building the first bridge to cross the East River. The wooden drawbridge connected the island with Manhattan at 114th Street, and was paid for by Bartholomew Ward and Philip Milledolar. The bridge lasted until 1821, when it was destroyed in a storm. After the destruction of the bridge, Wards Island was largely abandoned until 1840. Jonathan Randel's heirs sold Randall's to the city in 1835 for $60,000.

In the mid-19th century, both Randall's and Ward's Islands, like nearby Blackwell's Island became home to a variety of social facilities. Randall's housed an orphanage, poor house, burial ground for the poor, "idiot" asylum, homeopathic hospital and rest home for Civil War veterans, and was also site of the New York House of Refuge, a reform school completed in 1854 for juvenile delinquents or juveniles adjudicated as vagrants. Between 1840 and 1930, Wards Island was used for:

• Burial of hundreds of thousands of bodies relocated from the Madison Square and Bryant Park graveyards
• The State Emigrant Refuge, a hospital for sick and destitute immigrants, opened in 1847, the biggest hospital complex in the world during the 1850s
• The New York City Asylum for the Insane, opened around 1863
• Manhattan Psychiatric Center (incorporating the Asylum for the Insane), operated by New York State when it took over the immigration and asylum buildings in 1899. With 4,400 patients, it was the largest psychiatric institution in the world. The 1920 census notes that the hospital had a total of 6,045 patients. It later became the Manhattan Psychiatric Center.

NYC Parks Department Description:

An oasis in the middle of New York City, Randall's Island Park comprises most of an island in the East River, between East Harlem, the South Bronx and Astoria, Queens.

Randall's Island Park has sustained a long and colorful history, leading to the comprehensive sports and recreational facility which today welcomes New Yorkers and other visitors to its shores. The Island's 480 acres once comprised two separate islands, Randall's and Wards. The islands were first designated for recreational use by Robert Moses, and the park was opened in 1936 by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, along with the new Triborough Bridge. In subsequent years, the Little Hell Gate Channel and its adjacent wetlands were filled by debris from construction projects in Manhattan, joining the acreage into a single island.

After walking through the wetlands area we went to Roberta's for pizza.  We did a late night run to The French Workshop.

Roof top herb garden at Roberta's Pizza

Brooklyn wall art

The artist was great at making 3-dimensional paintings.
The little boy looked life-like. Had to look twice!

Thursday was Jake and Shea's wedding anniversary so they went to the Manhattan Temple.  Kristin and I went to Fire Island where we climbed the lighthouse and played on the beach.

Looking at the flag from the ground

Looking at the flag from the top of the lighthouse

Friday Kristin and I went to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island Museum. We took a tour offered by the Park Service on Liberty Island.  It was interesting to learn some of the "trivia" about the Lady from the park ranger.  I also included some things I learned reading about her on line.

Interesting Facts:

The height of the Statue of Liberty is 151 ft. from the base to the torch. With the pedestal and foundation included in the measurement, the full height is 305 ft.

Miss Liberty sits proudly atop the 65 ft. tall foundation fashioned in the shape of an eleven-point star, and an 89 ft. stone pedestal.

Miss Liberty's feet are 25 ft long, making her a US women's shoe size 879. She also has a 35 ft. waist, and her face is more than 8 ft. tall. Her right arm, which holds the ever-lit torch, measures 42 ft. The statue's original torch was replaced in 1984 by a new copper torch covered in 24k gold leaf.

The seven spikes on the crown, each measuring up to 9 feet in length and weighing as much as 150 pounds, represent the seven oceans and the seven continents of the world, indicating the universal concept of liberty.

Because real gems could not be place in the crown, there are 25 windows which symbolize gemstones found on the earth.

Although you cannot see Lady Liberty's feet clearly she is in fact standing among a broken shackle and chains, with her right foot raised, depicting her moving forward away from oppression and slavery.

Total weight of the Statue of Liberty is 225 tons (or 450,000 pounds)

The female form represented by the sculpture is based on Libertas, the Roman goddess of liberty. The statue's face was said to be modeled on the sculptor's mother, Charlotte. Her body after his wife.

She holds a tabula ansata (tablet) that has the date of the American Declaration of Independence inscribed in it (July 4, 1776- the numbers in Roman numerals).  The notches or keystones on the corners of the tablet represent the relationship of the United States and France.

The official name of the Statue of Liberty is 'Liberty Enlightening the World'.

Edouard de Laboulaye provided the idea for the statue, while Frederic-Auguste Bartholdi designed it.

The statue has an iron infrastructure and copper exterior which has turned green due to oxidation. Although it's a sign of damage, the patina (green coating) also acts as a form of protection from further deterioration.  In high winds, of 50mph or more, Lady Liberty can sway by up to 3 inches, while her torch can move 5 inches.  She does not stand on the pedestal but actually floats on the frame inside the statue.

Laboulaye proposed that a great monument should be given as a gift from France to the United States as a celebration of both the union's victory in the American Revolution, and the abolition of slavery. Laboulaye also hoped the gift of the statue would inspire French people to fight for their own democracy in the face of a repressive monarchy under Napolean III.

Gustave Eiffel, the man who designed the Eiffel Tower was also behind the design for Liberty's 'spine'; four iron columns supporting a metal framework that holds the copper skin.

300 different types of hammers were used to create the copper structure.

The Statue of Liberty became the symbol of immigration during the second half of the 19th century, as over 9m immigrants came to the United States, with the statue often being the first thing they saw when arriving by boat.

When the statue was first erected in 1886 it was the tallest iron structure ever built.

Lady Liberty is thought to have been hit by around 600 bolts of lightning every year since she was built.

American poet Emma Lazarus wrote about the Statue of Liberty in a sonnet called "The New Colossus" (1883). In 1903 the poem was engraved on a bronze plaque and placed inside the lower level of the pedestal on the statue.

The New Colossus

By Emma Lazarus
Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
"Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she
With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

I love this statue in Battery Park.  It is titled "The Immigrants"

After that we met Jake and Shea at John's on Bleecker Street for pizza and then ice cream at CONES.

 After lunch we walked across the Brooklyn Bridge.

That evening we went back to the Butcher Bar in Astoria for more BBQ.  We then came home a little early so that I could get my weekly reports done and sent in.

Kristin and I shared a burger with sweet potato fries

Butcher Bar interior

Saturday we went for Thai food before taking Kristin to the airport for her flight home.  Kristin flew in and out of Newark Airport.  We came back to Brooklyn via Staten Island and the Verrazano Narrows.

The Verrazano-Narrows Bridge is a double-decked suspension bridge that connects the New York City boroughs of Staten Island and Brooklyn. It spans the Narrows, a body of water connecting the relatively protected upper bay with the larger, wide open lower bay.

The bridge is named for the Italian explorer Giovanni da Verrazzano, who in 1524 became the first documented European explorer to enter New York Harbor and the Hudson River. It has a central span of 4,260 feet (1,298 m) and was the longest suspension bridge in the world from its completion in 1964 until it was surpassed by the Humber Bridge in the United Kingdom in 1981. It has the 13th longest main span in the world, and the longest in the Americas. Its towers can be seen throughout New York City and in New Jersey.

The bridge marks the gateway to New York Harbor. All ships arriving at the Port of New York and New Jersey pass underneath the bridge and must therefore be built to accommodate the clearance under it.

Statistics

• Each of the two towers contains 1 million bolts and 3 million rivets.
• The diameter of each of the four suspension cables is 36 inches. Each cable is composed of 26,108 wires amounting to a total of 143,000 miles in length.
• Because of the height of the towers (693 ft) and their distance apart (4,260 ft ), the curvature of the Earth's surface had to be taken into account when designing the bridge-the towers are 1 5?8 inches farther apart at their tops than at their bases; they are not parallel to each other. 
• Because of thermal expansion of the steel cables, the bridge roadway is 12 feet lower in summer than in winter.

The bridge is affected by weather more than any other bridge in the city because of its size and isolated location close to the open ocean; it is occasionally closed, either partially or entirely, during strong wind and snow storms. Additionally, the bridge's two towers are the tallest structures in New York City outside of Manhattan, and are taller than the tallest non-Manhattan building, the 658-foot One Court Square in Queens; its towers are also taller than the 604-foot towers of the next tallest New York bridge, the George Washington Bridge. Because of the bridge's height, cruise ships and container ships that dock in New York City must be built to accommodate the clearance under the bridge. For example, the RMS Queen Mary 2 was designed with a flatter funnel to pass under the bridge, and has 13 feet of clearance under the bridge during high tide.

Jake, Shea and I then went to Brooklyn for pizza at L & B Spumoni Garden Pizzeria.  They are best known for their Sicilian style pizza which is a deep dish type of pizza.  The sauce on the pizza was extraordinary but I confess I prefer the thin crisp crust pizza more.

The French Workshop Bakery was calling our names so we drove across the island to get a duke and a little more…….

Sunday was church as usual. A new chorister will be sustained next Sunday but I will remain in Primary for a week or two to help her get adjusted.  I am going to miss being the chorister but it is time to get a replacement for me.  That is hard to think about!

The beauties of the earth, the deliciousness of food, and the company of family and friends are true blessings!  I have enjoyed them all this week.

I love you my family and friends

Mounted police

Subway Library ready to read while riding the train?

Matching hair and clothing

Turtles in Central Park