ITHACA, HERE WE COME!!!

PJ and I just got back from our camping trip to Ithaca, NY. We had so much fun and a lot of new adventures. My first picture that I took just had to be this barn. I take a picture of it on EVERY trip to Ithaca. I love this barn. It tilts more and more each year. One of these days, probably 100 years from now, the barn will finally fall. I love capturing it in different seasons. There is a corn field right next to it.
As soon as we got to the area, we went straight to the Farmer's Market... always a favorite.

The weather was nice and sunny the whole week except at night. It poured every night.
We decided to take a walk through the gorge to get to Taughnnock Falls. The kids used to LOVE doing this.




The walk is about 3/4 of a mile but tales about 1- 11/2 hours because you have to go through the water and rocks and sometimes the rocks are slippery so you take it slow! It's so nice when you turn the final bend and see the falls up ahead. Beautiful!
Years ago we used to be able to swim here but in 1981, a huge chunk of rock fell from the falls. Now there's a wall blocking us.
Back at the campground, we went for a swim.
I wanted to do something different on this trip and I thought Letterboxing would be perfect. There's a ton to do in the area but I wanted to do some in areas that we were familiar with.
Our first was the Covered Bridge in Newfield, a few blocks from where the property that we own is.
This was a very simple one but good for just starting out. PJ got right into it!

Later in the day we drove to the Cornell campus to do 2 more Letterboxing adventures. Both were near Sachetts bridge. The first problem was where the heck is that bridge? On one of the clues it mentioned the Art Quad and PJ knew where that was so we drove there. Thank goodness there was a map of the campus and we found that we were in the right place! Heading towards this bridge, we took in the beauty that is right in the campus. In this picture, we were standing on the bridge.

PJ checking the hole in a stump for the Letterbox. OOPS! Wrong stump!!! We found it though.

We really had fun on this adventure. It lets you go for a hike and be out there in the natural beauty surrounding you.
We got back to the campground and we went for another swim. This time PJ had to try to get to the far side of the falls. That is everyone's quest and time after time, year after year, everyone falls off. The ledge that you walk on is at most 4" wide but in some spots it's like 2". Kids have an easier time doing it because their feet are smaller. It's rare to see anyone get to the other side. PJ got close this time but still fell off!

It's PJ's birthday so we went to Six Mile Creek to relax with a bottle of wine.
The night before we were leaving we had our favorite Burritos from Viva Taqueria. We love to sit outside and 'people watch' Across the street is "The Commons", a pedestrian mall, and let me just say, it was a good night to see the crazies!

The next morning we went to Wegmans for our usual breakfast and came back to pack up. From start to finish, we can get it all loaded in the car etc in about 25 minutes. We take great pride in that. We no sooner hopped in the car when the sky opened up! TORRENTIAL rain!!! I'm glad we're leaving today! What a great trip we had!