Day 13 | Cortland, NY and Waterfalls
Bit of a late start this morning with a combination of the continuing light snow and a bit of a disrupted night. We set off to check out the waterfalls in the next town along, Ithaca.
As some of us have missed breakfast we stopped in at McDonalds, an okay experience. They’re actually doing sweet and spicy barbeque tenders, what’s the world coming to.
The drive to Ithaca is only about half an hour and the snow is almost gone there. Over in Cortland the carparks all have 2m piles of snow that the ploughs pile up. The drive is through serene snow-covered countryside. Some of the farmhouses and barns have red or other coloured stars on them. Apparently they are for luck and commonly on buildings in the German American community.
Ithaca is the home of Cornell University, the Ivy league College of about 25,000 students and the location of the Triphammer Falls right in the middle of campus. There are some other big Colleges in Ithaca making it a major educational town. The weather is a little grey but it is worth a look at the falls. Ithaca the town has some amazing dorm rooms and lecture theatres from its establishment in the 1860s. We carried on up the west side of Cayuga Lake (one of those finger lakes).
We stopped in to have a look at the Taughannock Falls. We saw some lower falls which were impressive but with the lateness of the day and with O’Regan napping in the van can’t really hike the 2 km upstream to see the higher falls.
We stopped in for a late lunch at the Saigon Kitchen in Ithaca for some Vietnamese food.
There it gets dark before 5 and are lots of deer signs. On the way back to Cortland we saw the result of the collision that didn’t end well for the deer or the car.
Stopped in at Walmart to look for some shoes – seems McKay has only the one par with him and we’ve been lucky to keep them dry so far. Couldn’t find anything he liked, but wait what’s that, Shoe Dept, one pair of weather suitable boots acquired.
Back to the Country Inn – ooh, free cookies at reception oh and a coffee, don’t mind if I do.
Highlights:
Angus | Cornell University buildings
Rosie | Waking up to the snow falling and waterfall hunting
Jemmz | Vietnamese lunch
O’Regan | Passing through the University
McKay | Looking at the crazy houses up the Cayuga Lakeshore (not the feet-fish)
