Long Island City

Yesterday, Brian and I decided to go and check out Long Island City. It's not too far away from us, just a few subway stops. It is the western most part of Queens, up against the East River. We were excited to go and take some great pictures of Manhattan from across the river. However, we didn't take into account the weather. It was cold with a misty rain...and foggy.

We got off the subway and walked through the city to the Pier. We really enjoyed the area...it was quiet. I don't know if that was because it was rainy or what, but it was so nice. Our apartment is right near the above ground subway and a busy street with lots of shops. There is always tons of people out and about. So it was a change to be somewhere so still. Well, still compared to our area.

I think there is a car in that snow drift. Glad its not ours!

Street view as we were walking toward the pier. We loved the bare branches of these trees.

We made our way to Gantry Park, which is a state park set up there where the old pier used to be. The southern part of the park was a former dock facility. These are gantry cranes that were built in the 1920's and have since been restored. They were originally built to load and unload rail car floats. "Long Island" is written on the other side of them in big neon lights. They light up at night and you can see them from Manhattan. The piers were closed though, so we couldn't walk out on them past the cranes to get a picture of that side.

So our great pictures of the city weren't so great. It was so foggy that you could barely make out the buildings. The white dome building a the bottom is the United Nations building.

You can barely make out the city through the fog, but we promise it is there. I thought the pictures turned out nice anyway. The fog was really neat.

We didn't see any buildings...but we saw a boat!

Imagine really tall buildings here.

Ducks!

Here is another shot of the gantry cranes. I love this picture. They looked awesome in the fog.

You can see how big the cranes are in these next two shots. We are the tiny humans at the bottom.

It was cold! Here we are all bundled up and starting to get wet from the rain. Even though it was so cold, it was nice to get out of the apartment and walk around. I love exploring places with Brian.

Parts of the street running along the park were paved with cobblestone. They were very pretty.

Walking back through the city, we saw this church. I love all of the church buildings we've seen while in New York.

We fell in love with the door to the church. I loved the wreaths and Brian liked the Alpha and Omega symbols at the top.

It was a nice day even though we were wet and cold when we got home. We'll definitely have to go back when the weather is good. They had benches along sections of the walkways. The thought of taking a book and relaxing while watching the boats go by is very tempting.