Top of the Rock(s)!

I went to NYC this past weekend to celebrate my birthday (the best day of the year). My sister planned the whole thing out, so I basically could just relax and enjoy. That's one of the best parts about visiting friends/family in another city. You can leave everything up to them.

The weather gods were on my side this year, as the city saw its best weekend weather-wise in months, and definitely the best one of 2009 - 70s all day on Saturday and Sunday.

We started out on Saturday morning (well a New York morning, it was probably about 1pm) at Top of the Rock, aka 30 Rock, aka the GE/NBC building, where we had an amazing view of the city. I'm a sucker for views, and love to find the tallest observation decks in a city just to see what it looks like from the top. There's just something about it that makes you feel both very big and very small at the same time. The view did not disappoint. You could see everything, from Central Park to the Statue of Liberty, both rivers, Queens, Brooklyn, the Chrysler Building, the Empire State Building. Even the skeptical of our group were pretty amazed.

From there, it was off to Central Park to picnic and enjoy the weather from a different altitude. We picked up some food from a nearby Whole Foods (where it was absolute madness!) and proceeded towards the park. We were deciding where to sit, when my sister's boyfriend said that we could sit on 'top of a rock.' The rest of us were like 'yeah, we could find a stone to sit on.' But he kept on insisting that, it'd be cool to sit on top of a rock. It took us awhile to figure out his wittiness, but we finally ended up on 'top of a rock' again for the second time that day!

After that, we went to a rooftop bar for a quick drink before dinner. I had no idea we were going somewhere so trendy! It was "sunglasses-indoors", "everyone looks like they could be a celebrity" trendy. We were incredibly underdressed, and I never quite got over how trendy the place was. It was interesting to see that kind of place though - my sister said we probably wouldn't have gotten in later that same night.

It had already been a pretty busy day, and the fun was just starting! First it was dinner at a tapas place and then drinks at a nautical-themed bar just downstairs from my cousin's condo. I thought the bar would be different, but it really just felt like a typical dive bar. My sister had made up her own drink earlier that day (vodka/sprite with a splash of pineapple juice), and tried to get the bartenders to catch on, but I don't think it worked too well. If you hear about that drink in the future, just remember you heard it here first ;)

When we were just about to leave the bar, the bartender came over to our table and offered to buy us a round of drinks if we left the table. How weird is that? I've heard of other people offering drinks if you want the table, but for the bar itself to ask you to leave a table? I'm pretty sure you can't reserve tables at a dive bar. Bizarre.

We went up to my cousin's place afterwards for my second favorite part of the day (first being the Top of the Rock obviously), playing DDR! I hadn't played in a long time and it was a great way to end the evening. I also got to see my other friend who I hadn't seen in probably 10 years, so it was really cool to see him too.

On Sunday, we got a bit of a late start and didn't have much time since I had an afternoon bus back to DC. We got brunch at a nearby restaurant and then went to the Brooklyn Museum of Art. That place is huge! You always hear about these other great musuems in Manhattan, but the Brooklyn one is a hidden gem. 5 floors of art you don't see in most places, plus way less crowded - definitely worth it to go a little out of your way.

Overall, a really fun birthday weekend. Everyone should feel like a million bucks on their birthday, and this year did not disappoint.