We can drive from our home outside of Washington, DC to Ithaca, New York surprisingly easily. All it takes is about six hours in the car over some pretty scenic roads. I’ve loved New York’s Finger Lake Region for many years, one of the few places I’ve ever returned to for repeated vacations. We didn’t stay up there long though, just four nights over the 4th of July weekend. Because of that, I’ll spare the Twelve Mile Circle audience the usual long string of articles. Instead I’ll split this topic into two, the first covering the preponderance our travels and the other focused on all of the waterfalls we saw. So, do we have a deal?
Cornell University
Readers might be wondering why we took such a short trip to a place we loved so much. I blamed it on my older son. It seemed like only yesterday he enjoyed things like inventing his own town and attending the annual bring your kid to work day. When did he become a rising High School senior, just one year away from graduation?
We won’t be taking any big vacations this summer. Instead, we’ll focus on several short trips to colleges and universities. One name kept coming up as we compared our son’s interests against the specialties of various academic institutions; Cornell University (map). So we headed towards Ithaca, home to Cornell, to take a closer look. We’ll probably see another dozen-or-so places by the time we’re finished. Nonetheless, this initial trip led us towards the Finger Lakes.
County Counting
I won’t claim to have been completely altruistic. Of course I found a way to alter the route ever so slightly both coming and going. That allowed me to grab three previously unvisited counties in Pennsylvania: Bradford; Sullivan and Wyoming. More importantly they filled an unsightly doughnut hole on my county counting map.
No interstate highways crossed their borders either. In fact I’m pretty sure only 2-lane roads went through any of them. I never would have gotten those counties ordinarily so I had to go out of my way. Fortunately, I hit them during lightly traveled times and I didn’t get stuck behind too many locals. I love county counting although I hate driving well below the posted speed limit down remote farm roads.
My total now stood at 1,497 counties visited. That’s going to really bother me until I find three more and hit a nice, round number.
Keeping Intellectual
We stayed busy during our brief time in Ithaca. My son loves animals — birds in particular — so we had to visit the Cornell Lab of Ornithology (map). Many 12MC readers from the United States probably spent their 4th of July at family gatherings, or the beach, or getting ready for the evening fireworks. Not us. We took the 90 minute behind the scenes tour at the lab looking at drawers of dead bird specimens.
A couple of days later we found ourselves at the Paleontological Research Institution’s Museum of the Earth examining fossils (map).
Around Town
We still had plenty of time to pursue non-academic activities too, of course. One afternoon we strolled The Commons, a pedestrian mall downtown where the city didn’t allow vehicular traffic. We also enjoyed the Farmers Market (map) on a busy Saturday morning, and appreciated stunning views of Cayuga Lake from several different vantages around its southern rim. I wondered what it must be like during the school year when the local population essentially doubled.
Outdoor Activities
I needed my regular exercise. Fortunately I woke up earlier than anyone else in the family (as I always do) and could explore on my own. One morning I went for a 5-mile run on the South Hill Recreation Way (map). This rails-to-trail path seemed to be the only relatively flat surface in a very hilly Ithaca. I didn’t really feel like pushing myself too hard in the stifling humidity so this route seemed perfect.
The next morning I took a walk through the Mulholland Wildflower Preserve (map). I can’t say I noticed a lot of wildflowers although the natural beauty along the paths more than made up for it. I felt relaxed and rarely saw another person during these quiet times by myself.
Breweries
I would be remiss if I didn’t pursue a few breweries and brewpubs along the way. I added three new locations to my lifetime list: Scale House Brew Pub; Liquid State Brewing Co., and Hopshire Farm & Brewery. I also went to Lucky Hare Brewing Co.’s taproom in Ithaca. Technically, that didn’t count. By my bizarre rules, brewing has to actually happen on-premises for me to claim it as a “brewery” visit. I liked the beer but it came from a brewing facility in Hector, about 20 miles away.
I also recorded a repeat visit. We first went to Ithaca Brewing in 2006, a small storefront operation at that time (photo). We were surprised to see how much it had grown when we returned in 2019 (photo).
See Also: The Complete Photo Album on Flickr
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