Lovely Day with Vicki: National Design Museum, Ristorante Il Melograno and MGMT

Our plans for Tuesday the 17th revolved around finally seeing the Otto Dix show at the Neue Gallery and lunching at the museum's Cafe Sabarsky. Stepping ceremoniously onto the first step, I almost landed in a pool of wet cement. The Neue Gallery and the Cafe were closed.

Standing in the center of New York's museum district, we were not completely disheartened. A few moment's indecision past, we were heading towards the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum. The National Design Triennial: Why Design Now? exhibition encompassed the first floor of the museum and featured some amazing energy saving and alternate energy prototypes as well as some inventions that we often take for granted like twitter and the iPhone. No photos were allowed, so my apologies. I bought some incredibly designed ribbons to use in dresses which I will post as soon as they are realized.

After a walk across the park, we headed down to Ristorante Il Melograno for an early dinner before the concert. Il Melograno is Vicki's favorite restaurant to go before heading to the Met (Opera), and I am incredibly thankful to her for discovering it. We started off with a Caprese salad, which has been our go to appetizer since our first trip to Italy: delicate slices of fresh mozzarella and tomato drizzled with olive oil, balsamic vinegar of Modena and a basil pesto sauce on a bed of arugula. Incredibly delicious! Vicki had pasta with shrimp and peas in a light sauce and I went for rack of lamb over broccoli and roasted spinach.

I do not know much about MGMT and decided to go on the knowledge of one song and hoped for the best. The past few weeks many of my friends have been mocking me for going to a hipster concert, but alas, I gave it a chance and it was a lot of fun. Not all the songs were as successful as others, but it was an entertaining evening full of dancing and singing along where one could. Vicki took a video of "Time to Pretend" which you can find below.

I had an amazing day and look forward to many others once Vicki finally moves back to the city.