Category Archives: 2) Frequent Destinations

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❤️)

As forewarned, the Ithaca Commons is rapidly being dwarfed by modern high-rise apartments which I gather are designed for wealthy foreign students and remote-location tech workers. Not good. There are still some old brick buildings along what was once a street, some with good little shops, including an excellent craft gallery with some very good local ceramics. Just south of the commons, I chanced upon an amazing shop that sells “not quite perfect” (NQP) Eileen Fisher clothing for a fraction of the original cost. We are talking dresses and jackets for $29, shirts and pants for $19. I cleaned up!

Myra at their cottage!

I did a quick drive through Collegetown, at the foot of the Cornell campus and saw that our old house at the bottom of steep Williams street is still standing, still beating the odds (and gravity). The suspension bridge over the gorge was closed (boo) so went onto the little hidden hamlet of Forest Home north of North Campus and sat on a flat rock, dipping my feet in the surprisingly warm water and watched somewhat wistfully the young kids riding the gently rushing water over the slippery flat rocks. Those days are over for me. Don’t need a third broken arm. I stopped briefly for a late light lunch (chicken soup) at the new general store in an old building in King Ferry and then drove a little further past lovely old white farmhouses and dairy farms high above Cayuga’s waters to check out Aurora, a sweet little town with some well-maintained old buildings (thanks to a philanthropist who went to Wells College there). Some businesses have closed sadly but still a pretty place. Didn’t make it to Mackenzie Child’s, the pricey home goods company based a mile north of Aurora.

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!!!