Back in 2014, I was visiting New York in the summer when an old friend of mine decided to meet for dinner and catch up on life. We decided on a lovely, well-known Italian spot on the Lower East Side, sat down, and had an excellent time eating good food, drinking good wine, and chit-chating. After finishing our meal, the summer heat had dissipated, and we decided to walk home instead of just taking the cab. As then out-of-towners at the time, we were relatively unfamiliar with the area (and New York in general) and we each only knew of a handful of go-to restaurants and bars that we cycled through each time we came, intimidated by the vastness of the city. However, on our way home, we happened across a petite-little ice cream shop that had just opened that we had never heard. It looked rather unique, and we were in an adventurous mood, so we decided to stop and give it a try. What a fortunate decision that turned out to be, because to this day that little white cottage still remains some of the best (and most unusual) ice cream we have ever had. I often reminisce about that ice cream shop - thinking about it rekindles many of the fond memories we have of that day, that dinner, and summertime in New York in general. After we returned home, from that point on any time one of our friends was in the area I made sure to tell them all about Morgenstern’s Finest Ice Cream, and every time someone took my advice and paid them a visit, I always received kind words of appreciation and sterling reviews. I loved not only finding a “hidden gem” to call my own, but I enjoyed even more the sense of pride and joy I got whenever I was able to help make someone else’s experience even better. Since then, Morgenstern’s has become famous city-wide, has expanded to 3 locations, and no longer maintains the “underground cool” status it once had when I first started telling my friends about it. Nevertheless, I still love recommending it to people whenever they go, and I’ll never forget those first few experiences I had helping to optimize the adventures of others and the rush it gave me (and still does).

You see, I have an obsession with optimizing experiences. I’m never quite fully happy unless everything is the best it can be. While sometimes it certainly feels like a curse, this relentless pursuit of the perfect bite, the perfect room, the perfect event, the perfect gift, the perfect vacation, the perfect evening - the perfect moment, has led me to some incredible places, on incredible journeys, with some incredible people. I strive for these magnificent adventures, and as a result of this never ending pursuit of the perfect experience, over the years I’ve compiled lists of all of the places I’ve been, sights I’ve seen, things I’ve eaten, and places I’ve stayed in the hopes that, one day, someone else might be able to open their senses and their mind to the vast array of incredible wonders that exist all over this Earth we call home. But while each fleeting moment of these marvelous journeys are in their own way a masterpiece, there is always another, equally (if not more) grand experience to be had somewhere just over the horizon. It has thus become my life’s secret mission to encapsulated, record, and chronicle the most amazing aspects of life, from every culture, geographical location, and time period, so that anyone can use the precious little time we all have left to make the most of their own journey.

Orbis Non Sufficit - The World is Not Enough