It was a veritable Cornell reunion on the trail hiking down spectacular Enfield Glen gorge from upper to Lower Treman Park in Ithaca. We kept bumping into my old college friends who were attending the same wedding we were later in the day. All of us up early to get in a hike. So Glad we did. Watkins Glen is lovely but I still think Treman’s gorges and waterfalls are more spectacular, with more water cascading down high rocky cliffs and barreling through channels cut into the rock, opening into deep pools of water before yet another waterfall. (We did the two-car trick where we parked Noah’s car at the bottom of the falls and ours at the top so we could walk one way, down the falls, hop into Noah’s car at the end and drive back up to pick up our car at the top. Saved time and exertion.)
Next stop Ithaca Beer, conveniently located very close to Treman and our Airbnb on Route 13A/Floral avenue. It has a great outdoor eating area carved into farmland overlooking cornfields and a big vegetable garden. The beer and food was good too (fried chicken sandwich with a kick, grilled cheese). perfect still-pandemic dining.
Dan and Elizabeth’s wedding was held high above Seneca’s waters st the Wagner Winery on the east shore of the lake. Fortunately the weather completely cooperated with dry weather and a spectacular sunset. The guests were all bused out from Ithaca to the winery, which was very thoughtful of the hosts and saved us having to drive in the dark on winding country roads for 40 minutes at midnight. Good good, fun band, lots of dancing, great people and a lovely married couple.
I bought some excellent Thai food at a food truck and ate in the Pearl Street Triangle picnic area, carved out of a patch of street beside the massive Manhattan Bridge, with the subway rumbling by high above.. Another cool picnic area nearby is the Archway Under Manhattan Bridge.
Overwhelming and disorienting and showy and unnecessary are the words that came to mind. (Here’s a promo blurb: Hudson Yards is unlike anything ever built before — a living, breathing neighborhood that champions first-to-New York experiences. Climb Vessel, the interactive centerpiece of Hudson Yards. Visit The Shed, a new center for art and inspiration. Or take in the scene from thrilling new heights on Edge — an outdoor space a thousand feet in the air.)
Late post: I set out on a gorgeous morning for the gorges…where else? They have always been my favorite landscape feature here. After a short drive down around the lake past downtown Ithaca, I was at the grand daddy of falls, high-falling Taughanock. It was an easy 20 minute there and 20 minutes back walk on the wide dirt path through the woods lining the flat rocks of the gorge, lined by high canyon walls. Lots of water crashing down on them there falls. I noticed that the beautiful old Taughanock Farms Inn, which I used to go to for a splurge dinner with my parents as a kid, is now the Inn at Taughanock. Still there, as is the Glenwood Pines, an old roadhouse along Route 89. Last time we went there about 20 years ago, the restaurant review I did of the Pines in 1980 was still tacked up on the knotty pine wall.
Nut ridge road (to the cottage @ the lake❤️)
TakeBetsywithyou 