Category Archives: Ithaca

Continuing my Golden Oldies tour, I drove on another spectacular weather day to Ithaca’s Fall Creek neighborhood, with pretty old wooden houses sporting open porches, riotous gardens and shades of a hippie past. After a cuppa at Gimme Coffee (a visit to the bathroom to read the flyers tacked on the burlap covered bulletin board is a must) I walked up the stone path and steps lining the water falls and rushing water over flat rocks of Casadilla Gorge from downtown to Collegetown, where I stopped for lunch at the venerable (and still hopping) Collegetown Bagels for lunch and then next door Bear Necessities which sells Cornell and Ithaca gear.

I walked the trail further than I have in the past, into the woods behind the Engineering college. Less spectacular water features but more relaxing too. (No steep winding stone staircase.) I did notice nets under some gorge bridges, presumably to catch jumpers.

On the way back to the lake, I stopped at the Ithaca Bakery outpost in the odd Triphammer mall for bread for dinner. Nice to have. And I drove through the hidden hamlet of Ludlowville to see if anything was going on and was pleased to see that nothing was.

With my GPS turned off, yes off, I drove a lovely backroad north, over a few one lane metal bridges spanning creeks (salmon creek rd) and then west (the aptly named Hill Road, that turned into the now-familiar Atwater Road, just north of “the cottage.”)

I am so thrilled to be back in my favorite place in the world, certainly my sentimental favorite. Ithaca is so full of memories that go back to my childhood when my parents– who met in Ithaca in college and loved this place — took my siblings and me here as kids to Cornell alumni university for a week each summer during the 1970s.

Then there were my own college years here (1977-1981) and then the wonderful summers I spent in the 1990s and early 2000’s with my husband and kids and my dear former college roommates.

After a 10 year absence, I’m back in a sweet cottage high above Cayuga’s waters that our dear friends now own, near the cottages we rented for several summers. Love it! We went to some of my touchstones- the Ithaca Farmers Market, Wegmans (best super market) and cream at the top (best ice cream stand cut into a cornfield: tonight’s flavors White lightening; Guatemalan Ripple).

And I feel particularly fortunate to be here because I almost ended up in Buffalo, a last minute possible diversion after fog hampered our initial landing at Tompkins County airport. our flight almost got diverted to Buffalo at the last minute.

As we were preparing to land the plane suddenly seemed to be on the slowest landing possible . The pilot finally told us the fog had reached a level that did not permit landing so we were circling the airport in hopes it would clear. If it didn’t clear in 15 minutes we would be diverted to buffalo. (Why buffalo and not somewhere closer like Syracuse?) anyway we finally landed in the dark and still foggy night. Couldn’t be happier to see my old pals!!!