Long Weekend in Finger Lakes

What a joy! At the moment, I'm sitting on a sunny patio in the Liberty Village (Toronto), sipping cold cider and trying to recall all the details of the last weekend in Finger Lakes.

We left Mississauga around 6AM on a cloudy Saturday morning with 4 hours of driving ahead of us. Crossing the US border was much quicker this time (compare to previous time we drove to NY) and soon we were driving on American soil. We stopped at the very first petrol station because we were driving on fumes rather than petrol - the yellow warning light was blinking ferociously...

We met our friends on the outskirts of Ithaca and after hugs (man) and kisses (girls) headed for the Robert H. Truman State Park. The park was everything you could expect from a state park: immense and very green! We were quickly given a key to our cabin.

After unpacking and drove 5 minutes to the upper park to do hiking and take a glimpse at the Old Mill and the 115-foot Lucifer Falls (catchy name).

Later that evening, we made (vegetarian) BBQ and headed to Ithaca to explore the city. Ithaca is a home of Cornell University and the Ithaca College (according to Wikipedia, with almost 20,000 students) so there was abundant night life to satisfy even the most hardcore clubber.

The following day we walked the walk! After cooking and eating (our friends were well prepared) late breakfast we soldered the Rim Trail (2.25 miles), the Red Pine Trail (½ mile) and the Gorge Trail (2.25 miles), not without incidents.

On a way to Upper Park (that would be the Rim Trail), girls were obsessive about cameras and lenses.

They literally took picture of everything that moved, grew or just happened to be in the park, and that included a beautiful red gecko.

On a way back, they had a chance to take a photo of two fat snakes (I think those were Mississauga snakes) that happened to be on our path but instead they demonstrated their vocal abilities (yeah... screaming on top of their lungs). 

Later that day, we drove (again) to Ithaca to stroll on the waterfront promenade, quick visited Cornell University and finished our day with a very nice dinner at the Boat Yard Grill restaurant (http://www.boatyardgrill.com/).

On our third (and last) day, we have decided to rent kayaks. After a morning discussion of Russian foreign policy and whatever Latvians are too nationalistic (there is nothing like politics for breakfast), we headed to Puddle Dockers (http://www.puddledockers.com/rentals.htm).

Our friends took a single kayak each and we decided to share a tandem version. Of course, after the excitement died out, I was the only “engine” to put that kayak (which was big enough to be called a “barge”) across the lake. It was sunny and we have managed to sneak two bottles of apple cider and cherry beer... IT WAS FUN! Then followed locally sourced, organic, non GM lunch and we headed home. This time the border crossing was 2 and 1/2 hours long, but who cares...