MISS LIBERTY.....

These two ladies viewing this very famous lady standing guard in the harbor came from different parts of the world. Little did we know growing up in the small town in Colorado that some day together we would meet Miss Liberty. Leslie and I spent two fun-filled days in New York enjoying her many sights. The statue has to be a high-light of any trip to New York. This is a view from the Staten Ferry, but you still get the meaning of the wonderful poem written about the the people who first sailed into the harbor and into freedom. Lady Liberty is getting high-tech gifts for her 125th birthday; web-cams on her torch that will let viewers gaze out at New York and read the tablet in her hands or see visitors on the grounds of the island below. The statue, designed by sculptor Frederic Auguste Bartholdi, was given by the French government to the U.S. as a token of friendship between the two countries and dedicated by Pres. Grover Cleveland. She has a very impressive poem in her honor: "THE NEW COLOSSUS" 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 lighting 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 breath free, the wretched refuse of your teeming shores. Send these, the homeless tempest-lost to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!" Emma Lazarus 1883. Had a nice lunch with Kortney today.