===== Day 5 =====

It was nice to wake up to blue skies and temps above 50°F for once. Today wasn't as hectic as days past, which was nice because the foot blisters have been mounting.

We got a late start due to trying to catch up on some morning errands, but used the turnpikes to quickly get to our destination for the day. I decided to drive into Staten Island and then Brooklyn, in preparation for the crossing of the Brooklyn Bridge, but even at 11:30am the construction (and traffic) was so massive that I made a last minute veer into the Brooklyn Tunnel instead, which got me to a parking garage within 5 minutes.

We kept it simple. First stop was the construction of the World Trade Center. Not much to see, really. There has been progress since the last visit here in 2005, but the red tape has obviously hindered the advance. We headed east from this area.

The company I work for opened up an East Coast satellite office a few months ago in the old Trinity building on Broadway, so I made a brief stop on the 19th floor to check out the digs. Very impressive (the offices and the views)! They were located right next to the Trinity Church, which was of course our next stop. Amazing cathedral and ancient burial grounds. Wall Street was a quick glance here as well.

Farther south we walked to Battery Park, enjoying a $2.00 hot dog from one of the stands, and also checked off another National Monument on the list, Clinton Castle. This is where immigrants were processed prior to Ellis Island starting in the mid-1800s. It even used to be a fort to defend from any possible British invasion.

We figured that was enough for today, since it was already getting late. Unfortunately I didn't learn of our "oversize" vehicle until I had to pay the $48 parking fee. I think I came to the wrong garage. Vultures, they are...

We're back in Red Bank, NJ for the last night. We'll keep trekking north tomorrow after our visit to the upside of Manhattan. It only gets colder (and hopefully more colorful) from here.