Bye bye New York City, Hello Ithaca, New York

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We woke up about 8am to start our day of packing and driving to Ithaca, New York.

We enjoyed the apartment in New York. It was not 5 star accommodations but it was the place we needed for this tip. The location in Times Square was fantastic, the beds were comfortable and the apartment was neat and clean. The drawbacks were how many stairs we had to walk up, the painting of the stairwells, I didn't like the kitchen and the apartment could have used a few touchups to make it look a little more inviting.



Super Shuttle

Yesterday as we were waiting for the Statue of Liberty boat to return us to Battery Park I made our reservations with the Super Shuttle. It was so easy. I just went online, ordered the type of van I wanted and chose the time. We chose a 10:35 pick up time because we were renting a car just for one day and our reservation stated that we needed to return the car by 6pm.

I cannot say enough good things about the Super Shuttle. It is really a great service and reasonably priced. For the shared van from JFK to our apartment the ride cost $75 for all four of us. For a private van from the apartment to Newark Airport was $159 (including tip) for all eight of us.

The driver dropped Cheryl, Carrah and the girls off at their departure gate and then he took us to the car rental place. If he would have left us at the departure gate we would have been so confused. The fact that he took us directly to the car rental place was above and beyond what he needed to do. The car rental place is on the same property as the airport but you have to take a train to get there. If we had to lug our luggage around up and down and around we would have been worn out by the time we got to the rental place.

We thanked the driver and picked up our car.



Rental Car

Since we will be driving for the next 10 days from New York, New York to Ithaca, New York, around Ithaca, to Niagara Falls, Canada and to Buffalo to catch our flight back to Florida I looked at several different rental options. I decided to rent the cars through Expedia. The prices were lower than booking directly through the rentals website and regardless of what company I used I received points through Expedia.

Our first rental will be from New York to Ithaca. We will return the car to Ithaca the same day and pick up the car we will be driving around for a week. On Saturday we will drop that car off and pick up the car we will drive to Canada an back to Buffalo. By breaking the car rental up into three segments I was able to save $600.

We went to the Budget counter and before I knew it we were out the door and headed towards our car. When we were leaving Timmy asked if we needed a car charger. Since we had been in New York for 3 days and managed to keep our phones charged almost the entire day Jeff and I decided we didn't need one. We could manage without chargers for the 3 hour drive to Ithaca.

The car we received was a Chevy Impala. Not too big and not too small. Timmy's luggage broke when we arrived to New York so we had placed his belongings throughout our bags so we only had three big bags, three backpacks and two bags of dirty laundry. Everything but one backpack fit in the truck. That was exciting.

We are spoiled! We drive a pretty large car at home so even though the Impala is large it is still small. Poor Jeff hit his head getting into the car. We might have laughed at him.

As we explored the car we found a couple of USB ports that we could use to charge our phones. Happy day! Once a phone was plugged in the radio would automatically sync to ApplePlay (had no clue such a thing existed). The cool thing about this feature was that the directions from your phone would show up on the screen where the radio normally does. That was handy (until we got in a spot without Sprint service).

Down the road we go.



The ride

We exited the car rental lot and headed towards Ithaca. Ithaca was 3 1/2 hours from the Newark airport.

The rolling hills and beautiful green trees lining the interstate was a welcomed site after being surround by a bunch of tall buildings. The interesting thing we saw was how it looks like the interstate cut through mountains. As we were riding down the road we would see a large black slate wall and a sign that said 'falling rocks'. They aren't lying. There were bits and pieces all along the shoulder of the interstate. Oh, and there were dear. We had to see at least five dead dear on the interstate. INTERSTATE! Those deer aren't the smartest up here apparently.

We were not aware but the directions took us through Pennsylvania. When we stopped at a rest area Jeff was nice enough to pick up a Pennsylvania map so that I could add it to my collection. I do love a paper map.

When I was little my dad would take me to road races and I would be the navigator. In hindsight I am pretty sure he knew exactly where he was going but I felt like I was really helping out. I always loved turning down a new road and seeing that road right there on the map.

While we were in New York I would try to get the boys interested in following a map but they weren't very interested. While we were driving through Pennsylvania I followed along with the paper map. I tried again to get the boys interested but they weren't. Kirby pretended to be interested. Tim just blew me off. Oh well, I'll keep trying.

The drive wasn't bad and we were able to find our apartment pretty easily.



Apartment

I found an apartment through AirBnb that is right outside of Ithaca. It is a cute two bedroom apartment that has been recently refurbished. It is very roomy and has Wifi. Yeah!! We are not getting very good cell phone coverage around here so we do like Wifi!

We are having a few issue with the television. They do not have cable or an antenna. It is a smart tv but it doesn't have apps like Netflix or other options so basically it is a digital picture on the wall.

We decided once we got into town we would look into buying on of those Roku boxes.



Getting to know Ithaca

The main reason we are in Ithaca is because Kirby will be attending the International Society of Double Bassist Conference. They have a youth track so he will be in class Tuesday - Friday and will have a concert Saturday morning.

As we found our way to Ithaca College we drove past this walking bridge. It was gorgeous. The bridge was so high and the flowing river under the bridge was so beautiful. I had never seen anything like that so Jeff stopped and we walked across the bridge. I do not like heights so I got a little light headed. I did not mind walking on such a high bridge because the view was just that awesome.
We got Kirby checked into the conference and we headed to explore more.

We headed to Downtown Ithaca. There was a festival going on so there were vendors and a stage with a band playing. We wandered around there and found a restaurant that had an outside seating area.

After dinner we found our way to Target. We bought a Roku and a few groceries for the week.

We settled back into the apartment a little after 10pm and tried to watch a movie on the Roku. Well, that didn't work out. For some reason the television kept timing out after 6 minutes. It would turn off and then turn itself back on. After three times of doing that we gave up and went to bed. I have a feeling we are going to fight with this tv for the next couple of days. We do not need the tv but I do like to catch up on the news in the morning and watch a little before going to bed at night.

Tomorrow we go exploring.

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Comments

[Delphine]

Love it!
I've said it before I love your travel blogs. I feel like I'm right there with you guys. Enjoy your stay and please keep us posted on your day to day activities and adventures. I'm thoroughly enjoying the trip with you!?