It took eight months and tens of millions of dollars to patch up hurricane damage at Liberty Island just enough to allow the return of visitors.

My Mom and I took a boat to see Lady Liberty Wednesday afternoon. For both of us, it was our first visit to the Lady’s 14-acre home in Upper New York Bay. Significant work to the island’s infrastructure continues (and is evident by the scores of noisy work crews) but the flow of tourists to the site resumed on 7-4-13.

If you’ve never been, I’d recommend it. Big boats at Battery Park leave one right after another and drop you off at the island. Tickets for the boat are $17 and the ride lasts about 20 minutes. Once on the grounds of Liberty Island, you’re allowed to wander and linger as long as you want before making the return trip. It was overcast and rainy while we were there but the views of the city are exceptional – especially from the narrow viewing deck on the statute’s pedestal. One’s ferry ticket allows access to everything on the Island but the Lady’s crown which is a separate, hard-to-obtain reservation.

The other highlight of my Mom’s near-annual trip to the big city was Tuesday night’s show on Broadway. We saw “A Trip to Bountiful,” starring Cicely Tyson, Cuba Gooding Jr., Vanessa Williams and Tom Wopat. It was really good.

Tyson recently won the best actress Tony for her effort in this production. According to the personable, theatre-loving balcony usher named Linda we spoke to during the play’s intermission, Tyson has not yet missed a single performance since Bountiful opened in late April. That’s pretty incredible when you consider Tyson is said to be 88-years-old and is on stage for the duration of the show. The curtain goes up and down on seven performances a week (twice on Saturday and dark on Monday).

We didn’t know it at the time, but the night we were there was Gooding Jr.’s last appearance in Bountiful before it shuts down on 10-9-13. Gooding is leaving for a movie role so we were fortunate to see him before he bolted. Despite all of the play’s star power, it is a first-timer on Broadway who seemed to have really captured the imagination of the crowd. Adepero Oduye plays a bus rider who meets Tyson’s character by chance. Their interaction on a bus ride through rural Texas develops the story better than any other sequence. It’s because of Oduye’s convincing effort at showing earnest concern for an older lady on an adventure that you get pulled into the play.

When it’s all over, Tyson gets a much-deserved rousing standing ovation but it’s Oduye who seemed to get the biggest shrieks of support.

Bountiful is staged at what’s now called the Sondheim Theatre on 43rd Street. It has a listed capacity of 1055. There were maybe 250 empty seats the night we were there. Linda (our usher) told us that she’s witnessed several prominent celebrities during Bountiful’s run including Michelle Obama (with Sasha and Malia in tow), Whoopi Goldberg and Tom Cruise.

Other highlights of my Mom’s two-day visit to NYC:

-Just before entering the 74th and Rosie subway station early Wednesday morning, we were greeted by former New York state governor Eliot Spitzer who is making a run for NYC Comptroller.

-We attended mass at newly-renovated St. Brigid’s church on Avenue B. Dating to 1848, Brigid’s was nearly demolished under the direction of former NY archbishop and current Cardinal Edward Egan. Powerful community resistance and a wealthy anonymous donor saved the church and it was quite the sight to see. It is situated directly across the street from Tompkins Square Park.

-We ate well. Pie at Four and Twenty Blackbirds (a slice of plum cherry and a slice of the blueberry/nectarine crumble), dinner pasta and hearty house merlot at Bianca on Bleeker and the chicken biscuits at Pies and Thighs in Williamsburg. At one point during Tuesday’s lunch at Pies and Thighs, the sound system played Alex Bleeker’s “Getting By.”

The visit concluded after watching the TV broadcast of the Venus loss to Zheng in a thriller. My Mom flew back to Chicago this morning.