Highlawn Pavillion Anniversary

Today is our Highlawn Pavillion Anniversary. I'm not sure what other couples call their 3rd anniversary, but ours is Highlawn Pavillion. That's because we finally went to eat at the Highlawn Pavillion - which is at Eagle Rock Reservation, a place we have visited on a number of other occasions. Our 2nd anniversary was our Coffee Table Anniversary.

One of the reasons we chose to have our anniversary dinner at the Highlawn Pavillion is that the restaurant has a nice view of the New York City skyline. For the last week or so, the weather in New Jersey has been beautiful; however, halfway through today big dark clouds rolled in, opened up and dumped a bunch of rain on us. The rain had died down by the time we went to eat, but clouds and fog were still all about, and we didn't have much of a view at all.

After dinner, the rain stopped completely, and we were able to snap this photo of the skyline. A far cry from the photo we took last year. But at least the sky looks kind of cool with the clouds the way they are.

Highlawn Pavillion is a really nice restaurant. Kenji had fillet mignon and I had venison - both dishes were yummy. The building itself was erected in 1909, and was at one time a "casino" (I put that in quotes because the history blurb on the menu used the word casino, yet it didn't really sound like there was much gambling going on, which doesn't strike me as very casino-ish). But it sounds like the Florentine style building has spent most of its years in disrepair. In the 80's Essex County decided to demolish it; but when confronted with the cost decided to sell it for restoration by a revenue-generating business. So now we have a fancy restaurant instead of a broken down, grafitti-covered eyesore.

Highlawn Pavillion came with some interesting friends. I noticed that birds were painted on the ceiling here and there. One of the birds was painted directly above our table, so I snapped a picture...

I like how they give the bird a little drop-shadow to make it appear more real.

Kenji noticed that I had a 100-legged friend crawling along the wall towards me. I supposed I could have gotten up and run away, but then you all wouldn't get to see the picture.

Quote of the evening: "Thanks for not liking jewelry!" -- Kenji