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As I get to know the apartment I notice a few things. In our house there are vents in the ceiling where the air conditioner blows the air out and the hum of the air conditioner turning on and off. There isn't an air conditioner in the apartment and there are not any vents in the ceiling or floor. There are vents that line the baseboard. Apparently those are called baseboard heaters and is the most efficient way to heat a house in the winter. Who knew!
Me and technology are not getting along this morning. I have three SD cards for my camera but for some reason two of them are now 'damaged'. That means I had to reformat both of the SD cards which means I lost a lot of the pictures I took yesterday, so sad. The good news is that I have not lost everything because I have been taking pictures off the cards daily so there technology gods, I won! I still have one card that works so we are still in business.
Today we planned to visit a few parks and a few wineries.
Buttermilk Falls Buttermilk Falls was
less than 10 minutes from our apartment. When we pulled into the parking area we noticed that the lot was fuller than the other parking lots than the other lots in the past couple of days. It must be because the rain has stopped. This morning when we left the house about 10:30am the temperature was 63 degrees and it was sunny. It was a great day to be out and about.
There is a campsite within Buttermilk Falls. You can tell the campsite it pretty close to this parking lot because we saw a few families and a few people with pets. I don't know if it's my campers intuition but they looked like campers not people that were walking the trail for exercise. Either way it was welcomed site to see such an active trail.
We decided to walk up the trail a little bit but then we decided that we were not going to right way (shocker!). We did not have time to get lost so we headed back to the car to drive to the overlook portion of the trail that we saw on the map. On our way back we talked to a
lady about the trail. She recommended that we walk on the trail across the street but he said that we should park our car at the bottom of the hill and walk up then back down.
Before we got back in the car we reviewed the map again. Now that we have gotten our bearings and have talked to a few different people we now feel like we have a plan and actually understand the map. We start to drive to the overlook down the path we just got off of. Well, we get to a point in the road that is covered by the creek water. I mean your whole life you are told not to drive through water on the road and now we see a creek flowing over a road. We decided that we did no have enough time to deal with all this uncertainty so we turned around and headed to Ithaca College to pick up Kirby for his lunch break.
We decided that we will be back tomorrow to take on this park. We will not be defeated!!
Cascadilla Gorge We were going to pack lunches like we did
yesterday but since we ran out of bread we decided to stop by Subway in the Ithaca Commons on our way to walk around Casadilla Gorge.
We found a parking spot between Ithaca Commons and Cascadilla Gorge. We saw what we thought was a metered spot but just kidding. You have to download an app and then pay the meter through that app. You can also go to one the machines and pay that way. Ugh, what happened to good ol' fashion putting a quarter into a meter?!
We ate outside in the Ithaca Commons courtyard. They have plenty of tables and chairs in the courtyard. It was nice to see so many people enjoying their lunch and just hanging out. The atmosphere makes you feel part of a community. It was a nice relaxing lunch break for us all.
I found some postcards in one of the shops and then we walked back to Cascadilla Gorge. Good news, our car is still there and we haven't received a ticket yet so maybe we did something right.
According to the trail marker, the trail will take you through ancient bedrock, past six waterfalls and a variety
of plants suited to gorge conditions. Cascadilla Gorge is part of 1,100 acres of natural areas on campus that is maintained by Cornell Plantations.
As you walk up the trail you walk through sunny spots that are the perfect temperature. When you walk under a shaded part of the walkway you can feel the temperature drop due to the cool creek water getting caught up under the canopy. You know you are walking straight up the stairs but it doesn't matter because of the beauty of the gorge flowing next to you. Up each flight or stairs or around each bend is another fall. The sounds of the water rushing down the hills sounds so powerful.
We walked about 10 minutes up until we got to what looks like an older brick bridge and then we turned around. We had to get a Kirby back to the conference.
The walk down was just as breathtaking. You kind of hop down the stairs along with the flow of the water. Watching the water tumble down the rocks, the sounds and the gentle breeze created by the falls is very relaxing.
Lucas Winery We dropped
Kirby off and headed out to find a winery or two. Of course we took a wrong turn. We got back on course and headed to Lucas Winery which is about 20 miles outside of Ithaca.
The drive down 79 is a sight to see. The road follows along the Cayuga Lake. The lake is huge and there are house speckled along the lake and in the hillsides. I'm really curious how much these house cost and what people do for a living around here. We saw a plant on the lake which we later found out was a power plant. That makes sense. With so much water around here I was wondering if they harnessed any of the power created by all the gorges.
We drive up to Lucas and it looks a little busier than than the other two wineries we had been to.
We got our spot at the tasting table and picked out six different wines for $3. We also added an Iced Wine for $1. We have now become familiar with some of the grape names so we were able to pick out exactly what we wanted.
We chose a Dry
Riesling, Gewurztraminer, their signature Blue (mix of Seyval and Cayuga white grapes), a Semi-Dry Riesling and a table wine called Butterfly.
Each one we tasted we smelled the wine and tried to see what we could smell in each glass. It has been interesting smelling all the different ingredients in each wine. They are all so different.
The Lucas Winery makes Iced Wine which is different from Ice Wine. The Iced Wine is frozen after it is taken off the vine whereas Ice Wine is picked when it is frozen on the vine. The 'bar tender' told us that the Iced Wine is half the price because they freeze it themselves where the wineries that allow the grapes to freeze on the vine take a greater risk. They risk losing grapes from them falling off the vine or wildlife such has deer snacking in the frozen grapes.
She explained that some people use the Iced Wine as a ice cream topping or as syrup for pancakes. The Iced Wine is in a very slender bottle and costs about $30 (Ice Wine costs about $20 more) It is considered a dessert wine so it is meant to be
sipped.
Jeff and I smelled it and you can just smell the sugar. It smells just like cane syrup. You can see the thickness in the wine. It does have a syrup like consistency. The minute it hits your lips you can taste the sugar. Man is it sweet! It is definitely meant to be sipped. They are not lying!
We picked the Blue and the Butterfly.
At this winery you are able to order wine by the glass. We ordered a glass of Butterfly and walked outside and found a bench under a pergola to sit at. Tim played around in the field while we enjoyed our glass of wine and the view of the lake and countryside.
It was about 3pm so we had time to check out one more Winery before we had to pick up Kirby.
Twisted Owl Winery We went a little further down the road to the Twisted Owl that was also recommended to us.
The Twisted Owl is located directly on the lake and it is a sight to see. The house is set up on a hill that overlooks the vineyard and the lake.
When we walk in we are greeted by a friendly fella. He gave us a wine list and we picked out our 5 tastes for $3. We decided not to add a Ice Wine because that is entirely too sweet for our taste.
As we started tasting our wines the 'bar tender' overheard our comments about how this was too much Apple and that one was too flowery tasting. Each time he took out a different bottle and told us to try this one because it is the same type but a little less apple or a little less flowery. He also poured us a sparkling wine that he said he needed to get rid of because it won't keep overnight. So our 5 tastes turned into 8. See, another benefit to touring the wine trail in the off season.
By this time it was just after 4pm and we were about 25 miles outside of Ithaca so we needed to scoot to get Kirby but since Timmy was such a trooper we decided to take him by the Cayuga Lake Creamery.
Tim and Jeff got some ice cream and I used to the time to
catch up with a friend in the phone. Jeff had surprised me with an order of potato soup. I fell in love with Potato Soup when me and my girlfriends went to Savannah, GA a couple of years ago. I look forward eating it for dinner.
Opps it was right at 5pm and Kirby called and was ready for us to pick him up so we drove as fast as we could to pick him up.
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We went back to the apartment after stopping by the grocery store (again). The evening was just like if we were at home. We each found our designated spot and winded down from the day.
Jeff and I drank the Hosmer wine we bought a couple of days ago and turned NetFlix so we could finish our Vampire Diaries. He, he.
Tomorrow we are going back to conquer Buttermilk Falls. We are also going to take Timmy to a Dairy Farm tour.
Cheers!
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