Bouncing Back - NYC Weekend

This weekend, my friend, a leap year baby decided to celebrate her birthday in the city. I drove the car into the city and my brother drove the car back to New Jersey to visit my mom. This turned out well since I didn't have to worry about parking. I was worried about leaving my mom cuz she didn't even feel like getting out of bed and wasn't eating, but my brother was going to be there. My brother texted me later that night saying, "Mom won't stop eating" to my enormous relief.

In the morning, I met up with Linda and her friends to visit the High Line. (Took ACE train to 23rd street, entered High Line on 23rd and 8th St). The High Line is a public park built on an historic freight rail line elevated above the streets on Manhattan’s West Side. We walked around, absorbed the nice views, and relaxed on the sun loungers. I told myself I must come back here in the spring when the flowers are in full bloom.

I really do love socially awkward pics

Afterwards, we took a short walk over to Chelsea Market, where I had the most delicious lobster roll ($16).

lobster roll from chelsea market...it was bangin.

Chelsea Market is an enclosed urban food court, shopping mall, office building and television production facility located in the Chelsea neighborhood of the borough of Manhattan, in New York City. Built in the former National Biscuit Company factory complex where the Oreo cookie was invented and produced, the 22-building complex fills two entire blocks bounded by Ninth and Eleventh Avenues and 15th and 16th Streets, with a connecting bridge over Tenth Avenue. In addition to the retail concourse in the structure east of 10th Avenue, it also provides standard office space for tenants, including media and broadcasting companies such as Oxygen Network, Food Network, Mr Youth, MLB.com, EMI Music Publishing and the local New York City cable station NY1. Also, more recently, Google has moved into some of the second and fourth floors. (thank you wikipedia).

Linda, being the good itinerary planner she is, reserved tickets to the 9-11 memorial. At 2pm, we took the ACE train all the way down to Fulton Street and then after a short walk, we were there. I was really glad I went. I was blown away by the design of the memorial...how they could translate the enormity of 9-11 to a place of such dignity and reverence. The waterfalls were really beautiful, and at the same time, you could sense a heavy weight, a feeling of such sadness in your heart, amidst this beautiful, peaceful site.

9-11 memorial

crimson and cream cupcake (r) and coconut cupcake (r)

With dinner reservations at 7:30pm, I decided to part ways with my friends until then. We had some time to kill and they decided to head back to their hotel in midtown. I decided to go back to Chinatown; it was only a mile walk. I bought some groceries, bubble tea, and some roast pork buns. I chilled at my brother's apartment for a little bit before heading to Cafe Espanol (near West 4th), where we had a delicious dinner. Linda also had a $25 for $50 groupon, which made for a very reasonably-priced dinner. Afterwards, we walked next door to Sweet Revenge, where they have cupcake pairings with wine and beer (same concept as cheese and wine pairings). Yum!

They headed to the bar afterwards, and I headed home, but not before buying some takeout in Chinatown. Linda was great at planning her weekend birthday and everyone had an amazing time. For me, it was the break I needed. But aside from her awesome planning skills, she has mad good friendship skills. (Happy Birthday Leap Year Baby!)
To top the night off, when I got home, I saw that my mom had indeed gotten out of bed. I learned that my brother had taken her to the Cheesecake Factory, so I was glad she was up and moving again. Then at 1:30am, when I arrived home, we ate the chinese take out for dinner #2.

Food and Lee family go hand in hand...like peas and carrots, mash potatoes and gravy, and white on rice.