I first arrived in Trumansburg blindfolded, about 43 years ago. It was my 19th birthday and new friends in my freshman dorm at Cornell kidnapped me for a celebration. They blindfolded me in my dorm room, walked me into a car and we drove for about a half hour. The blindfold came off inside The Rongovian Embassy, an atmospheric bar in the small village of Trumansburg on Cayuga Lake’s western shore. The Rongo is gone but not forgotten. The name is etched into a stone plaque embedded in the pavement at the entrance to what is now Garrett’s Brewing, where we duly had a beer.
Before that we shopped, people-watched and listened to a folk band play inside a gazebo at The Trumansburg farmers market (Wednesday nights). Dinner was fantastic at Hazelnut Kitchen. We had an 8 p.m. reservation, thankfully or we would not have gotten in. Low-key atmosphere with mismatched plates and napkins, hardwood floor and very ambitious food. No room for dessert after sharing a hearty appetizer with crispy fried polenta w/ chicken confit, roasted shiitakes, moochego and entrees (steak with frites, apple cider-braised pork shoulder with spaetzle.) We contemplated getting the “Let the Kitchen Decide” entree but chickened out.
I also managed to find a dress to wear for a NYC bar mitzvah at Sundrees, a gift shop with a few well chosen clothing items and work by local artists. Next door is The Gemm Store, resale and vintage stuff (not gems) that was worth a wander.
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❤️)
Blue green algae is the scare de jour on Cayuga Lake but no one has been able to adequately explain what the health risks are. And I have thoroughly enjoyed my late afternoons swimming in the lake which is warmer than the gorge pools but still very refreshing. Tonight myra and I went to a wine tasting at a new winery, Bright Leaf, just up the road. We listened to live music, sipped wine, nibbled on crostini and couscous,and admired the sunset over the lake, an orange fireball slowing dropping into the pale blue water.
Maybe it’s because I am old enough to aspire to be a birder or maybe it’s that I never realized what a cool place an ornithology lab can be, but I was pleasantly surprised by my visit yesterday to The Cornell Ornithology lab at Sapsucker Woods. I arrived as a free lab tour was starting and it was great, about 18 visitors from all over (including a guy from Wales who mentioned living for a few years in Ottumwa, Iowa and loving it) and a very engaging guide who led us into the areas normally off bounds for visitors. We saw some very interesting stuffed birds, bird feet and bird wings in the specimens lab (or some such) and learned all kinds of interesting tidbits about the life and study of birds. (See Notes below) I also walked on one of the sawdust paths in the woods around the attractive modern lab building with a borrowed pair of binoculars (which an 8 year old girl tried to show me how to use) to try to find some noteworthy birds. Next trip I’d like to go on one of their early morning free guided bird walks on Saturday or Sunday.
TakeBetsywithyou 