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Town of Ithaca

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    • TravelerEast Coast Summer Trip
      1
      Day 2

      Finally Made it to Ithaca

      July 24, 2018 in the United States ⋅ ⛅ 23 °C

      I’m here in Ithaca staying with my dear cousin Leon and his beautiful wife Renate and their daughter Sylvie. Leon and I grew up together in the Bronx and spent glorious summers in Swan Lake. He still looks at me funny sometimes - now that I’m all growed up.

      We went over to Cornell to take in some of the spectacular gardens. Lee is quite the plant maven, especially roses and bonsai. I’m spending a few days so I’ll get some nice shots of their 3-acre property later. Today was catching up, telling stories, looking at photos as well as popping into town for a drizzly stroll.

      Renate cooked up a famous Cornell marinaded chicken with their first basil pesto of the season for dinner. Delish.

      Looking forward to my first good night’s sleep in two days. Sleeping on a red-eye and on the floor at the Detroit airport for my layover just didn’t quite do it.      Read more

    • TravelerEast Coast Summer Trip
      Day 4

      Road Trip!

      July 26, 2018 in the United States ⋅ 🌙 22 °C

      Mr Sunny was out today! We decided to see some of the surrounding sights. First stop was the Women’s Rights National Historic Park in Seneca Falls where the 1848 Women’s Rights Convention was held. I have to say that I was underwhelmed. I’m not sure what I was expecting, but it was not well done - sadly. Quotes were mismatched with with historical photos of other women. The nearly life-sized sculptures of some convention attendees were places in the middle of the floor with no note about who was whom and even why the statues were there. Disappointing. I got a copy of the Women’s Declaration of Sentiments modeled after the Declaration of Independence to read. I’m still glad I went as I have thought about going for a long time.

      We stopped for lunch at this amazing old-fashioned diner called Connie’s Diner. Very kitschy. Most of the clientele fit right in. They had photos of famous people and old movie and tv posters. The food was pretty good and very inexpensive. Good times.

      After lunch we drove up to Chimney Bluffs State Park on Lake Ontario. This strange landscape of skyscraper-tall mounds of clay embedded with smooth river rocks are slowly eroding leaving jagged spires and pointed towers. It was beautiful and puzzling looking. Glaciers dumped a pile of this debris, and water has carved out these sculptures in the sky. I was a bit torn whether to look down at the stones or up at the formations. It was fun to walk along the lake’s edge with Renate, Leon and Sylvie.

      It was getting hot so we drove back to the house with a quick stop at Harriet Tubman’s house. It seems that there are very many famous people from this area. I loved driving through the little towns and villages with the east coast architecture and gardens. My hosts are a font of knowledge about the history and who’s who around here.

      We took a quick break at the house before heading back out to visit with Lee and Renate’s son, Jules and his wife Jean, and Ollie at their house. Jules and I have been connected for a little while on Facebook but have actually never met. He is into bicycling, makes beer, and loves the forest. It was a treat to finally meet and chat. Jean is the City Forester for Ithaca. They are a lovely couple. They will be joining that gang at the end of my east coast trip on the Cape.      Read more

    • TravelerEast Coast Summer Trip
      Day 5

      Family, Art, Good Food, and Fun

      July 27, 2018 in the United States ⋅ ⛅ 18 °C

      Leon is the keeper of the family lore. He spent his youth visiting with our older relatives learning their histories and stories. We spent the morning flipping through his papers and photos. When and why they came to the US, what political and union work they were involved in, and some of their great arts and artist’s circles they ran in. Fascinating stuff.

      I also got to see some family photos I had never seen before - some of me.

      After lunch, we visited an arts fair - I took no photos - but thoroughly enjoyed the art and watching both Lee and Renate run into a dozen people they know. They are well regarded in this town.

      Leon repotted a bonsai apple tree from a tall pot to a new shallower one. It’s not about trimming the roots; it is all about pruning. While learning the bonsai process, I got a better shot of the spiral from the side porch. Looks pretty cool.

      We went to dinner and a play, Pride and Prejudice. It was funny with lots of kooky slapstick humor. Very entertaining.

      A nice, relaxing day.      Read more

    • TravelerIndian Summer
      Day 15

      Ithaca Falls

      October 11, 2023 in the United States ⋅ ☁️ 13 °C

      Wir machen noch einen kurzen Ausflug zu den Ithaca Falls und genießen das schöne Herbstwetter, bevor wir uns Abends in unserem Ferienhaus köstliche Burger 🍔zubereiten 😋

      See translation
    • TravelerBack in the USA
      Day 176

      Hiking the Finger Lakes Trail

      October 5, 2020 in the United States ⋅ ⛅ 12 °C

      Not sweating enough on the hash yesterday, we hung around on Monday for a hike on the Finger Lakes Trail. The start information was a bit fuzzy, but we eventually found a trail head, and off we went, right into a flooded area . . . so turn around and go the other way. We soon found some turns, that led us along for about a mile, right to an exit point, so we turned around and headed back into the woods. After following many trails, which all turned out to be dead ends, we just got back on the main trial and walked until we had enough, and turned around and back to the car. Was a bit overcast and grey out, but we had a lovely chat, reminiscing about our 4 months and 20 countries we visited together to start the year. We then made our way back to the old homestead, for some dandelion wine from my Dad's winery. Good times. https://www.relive.cc/view/v4OGjYKAp5vRead more

    • TravelerUpstate New York
      Day 6

      Drenched

      September 5, 2022 in the United States ⋅ 🌧 68 °F

      Yep, called it. We were downright dripping through most of our ride today. It would have been an easy straight-shot 25 miles from our campground to Ithaca today, but we figured, hey, let's go see Finger Lakes National Forest on our way. What's another 10 miles?

      Reader, those ten miles were uphill in pouring rain and dirt road. I could barely see. And for some strange reason, both of us were tired. Like we had biked 60 miles the day before or something. We turned off at the first sign of pavement and sought much appreciated refuge at a coffee shop. Decided we had seen enough of the forest and to go see Taughannock Falls instead (only 3 miles out of the way - at this point more our speed).

      This was a good decision because there was a beautiful 10 mile downhill trail into town after that - a welcome change for the last of our riding.

      The second cheapest hotel in Ithaca is nestled between a Walmart and two oil change shops in the most cyclist-unfriendly spot possible. We were only a couple miles from downtown but decided not to bike since even our rain gear was saturated and it was still raining. The only Lyft driver in the city was unavailable and the bus wasn't for an hour, so we got umbrellas and walked, only to get drenched (again) in our clean dry clothes by a passing car. Then, the restaurant we were heading to, one of the only ones open in town, turned us away because they were too busy. The journey to our 250 mile celebration dinner was turning into a comedy of errors. We ducked into the next open spot and our luck changed. They had two seats outside (well covered). The food was a bit fancy but extremely fairly priced. We feasted on pickled beets, fish sauce glazed brussels sprouts (some of the best I've ever had), brisket and fried chicken sandwiches, and an entire bottle of local wine, from the year of our last bike trip together (2017). The Finger Lakes are apparently the top wine producing region in the country. Given my complete lack of expertise and sample size of 1, I can confirm this!

      After dinner we walked around to look at more waterfalls but it was too dark, so we just listened to them roar. It was nice. The geography of this place seems kind of dangerous for anyone in a drunken condition (lots of gorges right next to the sidewalk! The Ithaca is Gorges people weren't kidding!!) but we survived (I was the only one in danger -half a bottle of wine while tired and dehydrated took it's toll...)

      By 10:30, the Only Lyft Driver in Ithaca was finally available to take us back to our comfy bed (!!) so we didn't have to brave the puddle showers again. Overall, a long but rewarding adventure of a day. More rain tomorrow. We'll see what the day off brings      Read more

    • TravelerBack in the USA
      Day 175

      Ithaca H3 Trail #937

      October 4, 2020 in the United States ⋅ ⛅ 14 °C

      After about 25 years of telling myself I need to take a break the next time I go home and go over and run with the Ithaca H3, I finally did it. Was an easy hour+ drive out on Sunday, Jo came over for a couple days to go as well. The trail announcement mentioned it was a virgin hare, with other virgins planning to attend. We arrived about an hour early, just as the hares arrived to drop off 2 beer checks and 2 shot stops. We chatted for a bit, and they made an off hand comment that the trail was going to be about 2 miles . . . I wonder how well I concealed my eye rolls? Soon after the hares took off, the pack started to arrive and we had time to chat with everyone. The first few mentioned they normally were getting 12-15 out for trail, but 33 turned up for this one. After the usual introductions, we set off on trail and true to form for a virgin hare, we soon had confusion. Marks were small and sparse, but with a pack of over 30, we spread out and managed to find our way. After 3/4 of a mile, we hit the first beer check, where we socialized for nearly 30 minutes. Then after another half mile, we hit the first shot stop, with another 20 minute halt. Then 1/4 mile later we hit the second beer stop, an another 1/4 mile after that we hit the second shot stop. In the end, true trail was about 2 miles, with false trails and searching, trail was maybe 2.5 miles . . . but just standing around the beer/shot checks, the wobble of the satellites added the additional mile while standing around for over an hour. Not exactly a great trail, but it was fun meeting all the hashers, and circle was a good time as well, with many songs and jokes. We even had an on on on at a local pub, which also was fun. (Hope to get more photos from other hashers, so only the two I snapped before trail so far). https://www.relive.cc/view/vYvEZPoVnGORead more

    • TravelerUpstate New York
      Day 7

      Ithaca

      September 6, 2022 in the United States ⋅ ☁️ 64 °F

      Our day off was also very wet. We visited Cornell, hoping to see their ornithology lab and botanic gardens, but the weather didn't co-operate. At least we got a nice view at the top of the super steep hill it lives on (so steep I wouldn't bike up OR down it)...

      Ithaca is truly beautiful, you can't shake a stick without seeing a waterfall and they had really great local bread, but after a week on the road my tolerance for urban life is low and I'll be glad to move on.

      The hotel within our budget wasn't a whole lot less damp than our tent anyway and at least our tent isn't haunted      Read more

    • Geaux GurusFamily Sabbatical - East Coast
      Day 173

      Smokey and Dreary in Ithaca

      June 8, 2023 in the United States ⋅ ☁️ 55 °F

      Well, the Canadian fires are hitting our area pretty hard. Today, we even added some rain to the mix. All and all, it makes for some difficult photography of some beautiful waterfalls!

    You might also know this place by the following names:

    Town of Ithaca

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