Spring Friday at the High Line

Finally - a beautiful spring weekend in NYC! The weather was in the upper 70s, it was sunny and best of all, my good friend Amber came to visit me.

I played hooky from work Friday afternoon and took Amber to the High Line. For my friends in Atlanta, you may or may not have heard that the people who are building/designing the Beltline have been consulting with the guys who did the High Line here in New York. It really is just an amazingly unique type of park. An old, elevated rail line that was no longer in use was turned into a park for city dwellers to enjoy some much-needed outdoor time. It features some amazing views of the city, the Hudson River, the Statue of Liberty and New Jersey.

Empire State Building & Chelsea Rooftops

It also features some lovely grassy areas, which at least 3 young couples were using to put on a fascinating display of dry humpery for the tourists. What's really cool is that they retained a good bit of the old railroad tracks and incorporated them into the design. The spaces between the ties act as planter boxes for some beautiful flowers and plants.

Red Admiral Butterfly

Incorporation of the old Railroad Tracks

I had been to the High Line twice before - once in January when it was 30 degrees and once in July when it was 102 degrees. There was almost no one there for either of those previous visits. This time, however, you could barely move due to the throngs of tourists. So the High Line is probably not the place to go to get your cardio, but I can't think of many more perfect spots to enjoy your lunch and some sunshine during the work day.

We finished the afternoon off with a little shopping in the Meatpacking District, a late lunch of a delicious, shared Croque Monsieur at Pastis and beers over at the Blind Tiger Alehouse in the Village. I've been wanting to try Blind Tiger for a while, as I've heard it's one of the best beer bars in the city, but I was a little disappointed in their draft selection. I will definitely try it again, though. 

After meeting up with Bill when he finished work, we headed back uptown to Izakaya Ten, which has to be one of my favorite places in NYC so far. We had all 3 pork belly dishes and some asparagus and sea bass and some sort of weird octopus nonsense. Then we had a 2nd round of all 3 pork belly dishes. It was an amazing meal, as always and we managed to avoid having a heart attack in spite of all the pork belly.