Day 13 - Central Park, Bryn & Alev's, Columbia Uni, Broadway

This morning we headed to Central park for breakfast by the lake. On a Sunday morning it looked like a large percentage of the park is closed to cars and there were two groups of people in and around the park, tourists and those doing their morning exercise.

Breakfast was delicious, the restaurant even had little appetisers like mini muffins and croissants which I combined with my omelette.

We walk back towards downtown and stopped at FAO Schwarz quite a famous toy store and pretended to be children for a while. They have a version of the piano from the movie Big. We manage to time it well and were there to see two performers play a number of songs on the piano 'Big style'. You can have your own at home for the low, low price of US$250,000.

Lunch today is at Tom's Restaurant made famous from the television show Seinfeld. But first, Bryn & Alev's apartment is conveniently located just across the road from the restaurant so we venture upstairs to take a look.

Bryn takes us to a local pizza restaurant down the street to see some of the biggest pizza slices known to man. I can't pass up the opportunity so indulge in some pre-lunch, lunch, which in itself really is lunch and dinner combined.

The healthy eating sure has gone out the window, food is part of the holiday experience, but I'll be getting back into the routine in Melbourne.

We then get back to Tom's for a now lighter lunch. Once finished we go for a quick walk around the nearby Columbia campus.

Late afternoon we arrive back at Times Square and head to the half price ticket outlets to see if we can watch a Broadway show tonight at a bargain basement price. We find several on sale for 50% off and quickly do some iPhone research on the options. After getting to the front of the line quicker than expected and still not having made up our mind we hastily decide on a show called 'Next to Normal'.

After getting the tickets we head to a close by pub and have dinner and a few drinks before the show.

The theatre is just off Times Square which was rather convenient with the weather looking a bit suspect. I walk into the show without knowing anything about what we are going to see other than it being a Broadway musical and it being fairly highly reviewed and winning some awards including a Tony. Well we were all blown away. The story and acting was amazing, I guess, what do we expect being on Broadway. It was a mix of serious storyline about keeping a family together and the mental health issues the mother experiences after losing a child. This combined with uplifting and rock music which left you confused as to what to feel. Amazing performance, highly recommended if it ever came to Australia!