Second Week in the Finger Lakes

---

Sunday-Tuesday were spent working and doing pretty much nothing. I knew the rest of the week was going to be full of activities so it was time to rest a little bit and get caught up on all kinds of annoying tasks that come with being an adult and full time traveling. Ew. I also worked on getting myself caught up on some recent movies and tv shows 😊

Wednesday: My mom arrived late in the evening for a week long visit 😊

Thursday: Started the day off with doing the Ithaca highlights. Started at Ithaca Falls- the largest waterfall in the region and the most accessible since you don't need to hike at all to see it. Of course no day would be complete without a quick stop at the Ithaca dog park- surprisingly busy for a Thursday morning. Then we hiked the Cascadilla Gorge trail which is about a mile long but passes by 6 beautiful waterfalls and you are truly hiking right along the water's edge. There's a railing to protect you from going into the water if you trip, but if there wasn't you are right there along the water. Unfortunately the weather was a little on the warm and humid side, but some of the waterfalls gave a refreshing natural "A/C". Cascadilla Gorge trail is a through hike in that there are trail heads on both ends of the trail- one is in downtown and the other at the top at Cornell's campus. This is the spot of delicious Collegetown bagels which makes amazing sandwiches and coffee- a perfect lunch spot.

In the evening we headed out and had some happy hour margaritas and wandered around the Ithaca Commons shops. We had planned to attend the summer free concerts in downtown but unfortunately they were moved inside a bar (due to weather? not sure) which was unappealing for several reasons so we decided to head home and make cook some curry.

Friday: We headed to the "Finger Lakes Cider House" which is a beautiful farm that does Farm to Table food. On Friday evenings in the summer they have live music performing too. This evening was a father/daughter folk duo. The farm is setup with cider, beer and wine for sale along with pizza cooked in a brick oven for sale outside. Inside you can purchase other delicious food faire. We ended up getting several items and sharing it all, while sitting at a picnic table with Copper under a large tent. Great atmosphere and attendance. Enough to feel like it was an event but not crowded and no difficulty finding a table or anything. The weather was perfect into the evening- with about 5 minutes of random rain. What a delightful evening.

Saturday: The weekend was some time for exploring activites that were not dog friendly while Copper played for 48 hours straight at a home dog day care. We started off by going to the Ithaca farmers market which came highly rated. They did have quite a variety of booths and things for sale but given how much it was hyped up- it was pretty small. It had a lot of character though with an open air roof to protect from rain but still give the outdoor feel. We did get some coffee and an early lunch of some Chilean empanadas and dumplings which were delicious.

In the evening we had tickets to see a play at an outdoor theater in town but the show got cancelled 20 minutes before showtime due to potential highwinds. The prediction was for wind gusts over 20 mph and the stage is under a tent which can only withstand 20 mph. The wind never got anywhere near that all evening so it was quite a bummer- especially since their policy says under almost all weather conditions the show will go on 😞 So instead we went and saw the newest pixar movie "Lightyear" in theaters which was quite entertaining! Go see it if you haven't yet 😊

---