Piano Man

It's been a day of surprises. Not bad ones, just a few deviations from the (very loose) plans.

After a late breakfast/early lunch, we did a small bit of shopping and meandering on our way back to the hotel. The last stop was the gallery across the street that caught our attention the night before. Next thing I knew (about an hour of deliberation and dealing later), I was plunking down a small fortune on a painting that captured my heart (photo to follow). I'm still in awe.

We didn't do much of the festival. It was pouring out. And that's a huge understatement. By half way through Billy Joel, it was the biggest wet t-shirt contest on the planet. Through rain ponchos, umbrellas and all, we were soaked to the bone. After being indoors and in warm, dry clothes I finally felt dry about an hour later. It poured the entire 2 hours of his playing.

All that being said, he was incredible. He had an amazing assortment of musicians in tow. He played a bit of everything, keeping jazz-centric, even among the hits. He even played "singin in the rain" ;) For his first encore he played my absolute favorite-- "Scenes from an Italian Restaurant". It felt complete. Did I mention we were in the front row for all of this?

Okay, I have someone anxiously waiting for me to finish this so we can move it along, I just had to get this out while fresh. More soon.