Day 80 - NYC

Another day, another tragedy. I won't go into details in order to protect the family's privacy, but a family member of a friend of mine was involved in a tragic incident last night and was pronounced brain dead this evening. This individual was almost killed in a similar incident back in September, and did not manage to survive this time. Such a tragedy and so much the family has had to endure. I was supposed to visit this friend next weekend, so I'm still working on reorganizing some things in order to possibly go to the funeral, and then I definitely won't be able to visit them in their home next weekend. This is now the second person I've known who has been involved in incidents that caused them to be pronounced brain dead while I've been on this trip. This trend needs to stop. Immediately. No more.

So that obviously cast a huge shadow over the day. Gretchen and I did continue with our plans though while I was kept apprised of the developments in the situation. So, here's the recap of our day. We started with brunch near the Natural History museum. Great hollandaise sauce on the eggs benedict. We had plenty of time before curtain for the show we were going to, so we walked the rest of the way down to the theatre district, stopping for coffee on the way as well.

Theatre today was Pippin, which just won the Tony for best revival of a musical. I definitely enjoyed it more than Matilda the other day. The first act, especially, was amazing. Patina Miller was incredible and Andrea Martin was a revelation. The second act had weird pacing and it definitely wasn't as high energy as the first act. I wasn't a huge fan of the actor playing Catherine and the kid seemed a little uncomfortable on stage until he started singing. The circus acts fit seamlessly into the story and it was truly an amazing spectacle.

After the show was over, we took the subway over to Madison Square Park and hit up Shake Shack - a local chain, and seriously yummy burgers and shakes. The fries were lacking though. At this point, we wanted to find a wine bar, so we tried one rooftop bar nearby that ended up having pretty crappy wine, so we bailed and made our way up north to a tried wine bar and managed to find some great wine and cheese. I always like coming to visit New York - Gretchen and I have so much to talk about and we never get bored. Leaving NYC tomorrow.