November 11th and 12th

Our friends Dawn and Chris, who we went to see in Hershey, PA in September, came to visit us for Farley's  birthday weekend.  They arrived in the mid-afternoon on November 11th and Farley just happened to get off early so he met them at Penn Station and brought them back to Queens.  Since I was still in the NICU, they decided to head to one of our favorite restaurants in the neighborhood, Mojave.  They had appetizers and drinks until I got home.  Since it was Farley's birthday, we decided to head into Manhattan to his favorite restaurant: The Heartland Brewery at Union Square. 

It was a loud Friday night at The Heartland Brewery.  I wish we would have been seated on the second level because it is a little quieter than the first, but we still had a great time.  After leaving the restaurant, we stopped by Times Square on the way home.  I didn't take any pictures of Times Square, but we had a great time walking around.  It was fun to see the looks on their faces when they saw Times Square lit up at night.  It is really something to see.  All of the lights and advertisements are so bright that you could read a book in the middle of the night there.  We headed home and had some birthday cake before heading to bed.  It was a great first night.

I made brunch on Saturday before we headed to the World Trade Center Memorial.  I'm glad that we went to see it, but it would have been my first choice place to stop and visit.  We had tickets to get into the memorial, which we had to get weeks in advance.  There is airport-like security that you must go through before you can get to the memorial.  The lines are long, but they keep moving.  

Construction on the towers still ongoing

One of the two reflection pools

Chris, me and Dawn (left to right) overlooking the memorial.

Farley in front of one of the two reflections pools. You can see the names of people who died on September 11th behind him engraved into the monument.

More of the names at the memorial.  There were several that said a woman's name and her unborn child.  It  almost had me crying just reading the names.  It was such a somber place.

 After leaving the memorial, we headed down to Battery Park City and looked over the Hudson River toward New Jersey.  We were planning on taking a walk down the river, but we could see the Statue of Liberty from where we were, so Dawn and Chris decided that we should keep moving. On the way back to the subway, we walked past Zuccotti Park and the Occupy Wall Street protesters.  They were just banging their drums and being peaceful, but a few days later they were kicked out in the middle of the night.

 We headed to Little Italy for lunch and took a walk around SoHo and Chinatown.  Next we moved onto Midtown and went to Rockefeller Plaza, before heading up to the Top of the Rock.  We headed up to Top of the Rock just before sunset.  It was the perfect time of day to go.  We took great pictures during the afternoon, at sunset and in the night.

Central Park

Central Park

Farley and me

If I remember correctly, this is mid-town on the west side.

 

In front of the Empire State Building.

The sun starting to set over New Jersey

Dusk behind the Empire State Building

The bright red lights toward the bottom and middle of the screen is Times Square.  

Sunset over Jersey

Sunset over Jersey

Central Park as the sun was setting

Central Park just after the sunset

The Empire State Building and other buildings lighting up just after sunset.

Even though the skyline is blurry, I love this picture of us!

Looking south from Top of the Rock

Another picture looking south from Top of the Rock

 After leaving Top of the Rock, we headed to St. Patrick's Cathedral and also saw the Atlas Shrugged Statue.  I think Farley did a great job taking this picture, so I had to post it even though I've posted pictures of this before.   

The sculpture of Atlas on 5th Ave.

 Next we walked down 5th Ave. until we reached Bryant Park.  I love Bryant Park in the winter.  I love the holiday shops, I love watching the ice skaters and I just love the atmosphere. They have a two-story restaurant that is open just three months a year, Celsius.  We saw it last year, but we didn't go in.  We had a great seat and could watch all the kids staking in Bryant Park.  It was so much fun.

At Celsius, the seasonal restaurant in Bryant Park.

Finally, we headed back home to Astoria.  We were going to go our for Greek, but the wait was over two-hours so we decided to go to Spiced, a fusion restaurant in the neighborhood.  By the time we got home, we were all exhausted!