The Collected Traveler

My husband and I recently spent a too-short weekend in the Finger Lakes (or FLX as seen on the utility box cover in Ithaca seen in the photo to the left).  But short as it was (Thursday to Sunday), every minute of our time there was great and relaxing.

The Finger Lakes are named for the eleven, narrow lakes between Rochester and Syracuse that, when looked at on a map, resemble long, skinny fingers.  The five largest lakes are Canandaigua, Cayuga, Keuka, Seneca, and Skaneateles and they're all quite deep.  The entire region covers about 4,000 miles and many of its towns and villages, and all of the lakes, have names that are derived from Native American languages.  According to Life in the Finger Lakes magazine, for more than 10,000 years before any Europeans arrived, the Finger Lakes were home to the Haudenosaunee (Ho-den-o-SAW-nee), a group of Native American tribes that the French called the Iroquois Confederation and the British called the Five Nations.  The nations later became six when the Tuscaroras joined the Senecas, Cayugas, Onondagas, Mohawks, and Oneidas in the early 1700s.  Aside from its Native American heritage, the Finger Lakes region is famous for the town of Seneca Falls (the possible inspiration for the fictional village of Bedford Falls in Frank Capra's 'It's a Wonderful Life' and where the first Women's Rights Convention was held in 1848); Cornell University and Ithaca College (almost 30,000 students swell the population of Ithaca during the academic year); and the Summer Jam held in Watkins Glen on 28 July, 1973, which once held a Guinness World Record designation of 'Largest Audience at a Pop Festival' -- 600,000 people came to see three bands (the Grateful Dead, The Band, and the Allman Brothers) versus 500,000 at Woodstock in 1969.

The biggest reason our trip was so great is due to where we stayed, the Thomas Farm B&B, about 10 minutes from downtown Ithaca.  While we've stayed at a great number of B&B accommodations in many places around the world, many of them have missed the mark or have been disappointing experiences for a variety of reasons (uncomfortable room, insubstantial breakfast, boring or unfriendly fellow guests, not enough privacy, not a good value for the price, etc.).  After our second night, we tried to think of a B&B that we liked better, and we were unable to come up with one, so Thomas Farm is currently at the top of our list.  The owners, Nancy and Rich Belisle, are exceptionally welcoming and have led quite interesting lives before November of 2018, when they became owners of this lovely inn, formerly a private home dating from 1850 and built in the Central New York Greek Revival Style.  Nancy and Rich are doing everything right here, offering superb, plentiful breakfasts and paying attention to small details in the guestrooms (lavender eye masks and flashlights on the bedside tables, which I really appreciated as I always have to get up in the middle of the night).  The decor throughout the inn is true to the history of the house but stylish, too, and very much has a sense of place.  We thoroughly enjoyed meeting and chatting with the other guests, all of whom we would be happy to see again.  Plus, it's really quiet, and while there are some distinctive accommodations in Ithaca (Argos Inn and the William Henry Miller Inn, for those who want to be within walking distance of restaurants, waterfalls, and unique shops), we preferred the pretty countryside outside of town and we would choose it again.     

Updated paragraph: after my original post, my husband pointed out that the slogan 'Ithaca is Gorges' was coined long before 1986 -- he knows this because when he saw the legendary Grateful Dead show at Cornell's Barton Hall on 5/8/77, the slogan was widely in use at that time.  I saw 1986 in the Visit Ithaca Official Visitor's Guide but I believe the year is a typo and perhaps should have read 1968, though a brief online search did not reveal the exact year that Cornell University alum Howard Cogan created the slogan.  Regardless, Cogan, who owned a small advertising business in Ithaca, never trademarked the slogan for himself.  In his 2008 obituary that appeared in Cornell's alumni magazine, Cogan's wife, Helen, said that the slogan "was his gift to the city.  He didn't want to make any money on it."  In any case, the slogan is completely apt as there are a number of gorges and waterfalls, small and large, set within the city and outside of it.  According to Visit Ithaca, it's estimated that over 150 waterfalls have been carved within ten square miles.  A long weekend isn't sufficient to see them all, but we visited Businessman's Lunch Falls, Enfield Falls (in the Robert Treman State Park), Horseshoe Falls (on the Cornell campus) and Taughannock Falls (as in, don't panic, it's Tuh-GAN-ick; it's the tallest single-drop waterfall east of the Rocky Mountains).    

Then there are the hiking trails, among them Cascadilla Gorge Trail that connects Cornell to downtown Ithaca and the gorge trails in Robert Treman and Taughannock Falls State Parks (trails are open from May through October; browse all the options at www.ithacatrails.org).

Both the Ithaca College and Cornell University campuses boast great views over Lake Cayuga and the surrounding area, but Cornell also has a gem of a botanic garden (pictured at right).  There are some gentle trails, a lake, and an arboretum within 150 acres -- be sure to make it to the Newman Overlook and strike the gong!  This Overlook is also a great spot for a picnic.

We didn't get to Ithaca's renowned farmer's market (on Zagat's list of '8 Must-Visit Farmers Markets in the U.S.'), but we ate and drank very well at several places in town: Just a Taste wine and tapas bar (we liked it so much we went twice); Red's Place (gastrobar named after Cornell's dominant school color, red); Mercato (for superb Aperol Spritzs); 15 Below (for Thai-inspired ice cream; no website but located on the Commons); and, of course, the Moosewood Cafe (note that while Mollie Katzen -- author of the hugely bestselling Moosewood Cookbook -- was a founding member of the Moosewood Collective in the early '70s, she left in 1978; she doesn't live in Ithaca and she is not a strict vegetarian).  Visitors who want food to be at the center of their itineraries may be interested in Ithaca Foodies, which offers guided culinary walking tours. The Downtown Ithaca website is quite useful and includes a section on getting around town (note: parking is free on weekends inside all the garages and on the street; during the week, free parking on the street starts at 6:00 p.m. and ends at 9:00 a.m. the next morning, and in garages, parking is free from 11:00 p.m. to 2:00 a.m.).  Visit Ithaca's Official Visitor's Guide is among the very best of its kind, and is far more substantive than a guidebook. It's jam-packed with practical info and favorites (10 Must-See Waterfalls, Top 3 Biking Trails, etc.) and there's an excellent pull-out road map of four areas in the center -- far easier to use than a map on a small smartphone and far better for an overall visual understanding of the area.

It's impossible to ignore all the wineries (14) around Cayuga Lake, which claims to have 'America's First Wine Trail.'  Breweries abound, too, but we didn't visit any of them (next time!).  However, we did visit the Boundary Breaks winery on Seneca Lake (which has its own trail with 31 wineries) at the recommendation of friends Andy and Karen, who are fortunate to have a house on an elevated plot of land with an uninterrupted view overlooking the lake.  Visitors to any winery in the Finger Lakes quickly learn that Riesling is the signature grape (and wine) of the region.  A few wineries also produce some reds, but it's Riesling that thrives here, despite cold winters (as a comparison, the Finger Lakes region is a little south of Bordeaux and a lot further south than Germany, Luxembourg, and the Alsace region of France, all notable for Riesling).  Riesling was first planted in New York in the 1950s, and it's available dry, sweet, or as an ice wine. Boundary Breaks takes its name from the gorges on the northern and southern edges of the vineyard.  The gorges -- or "breaks" in the landscape -- are the boundaries of the property (I love that the winery's slogan is "Be a boundary breaker!).  Stuart Pigott, author of The Riesling Story: The Best White Wine on Earth, says that "Boundary Breaks now belongs in the first league of Finger Lakes and North American Riesling producers."  In our tasting (5 wines each), my husband and I particularly enjoyed the Extra Dry Riesling, Ovid Line North Riesling, Reserve Riesling, Bubbly Dry, and Dry Rose.  The reason Riesling is held in high regard among wine professionals (and a growing number of consumers, like me) is that it is an incredibly versatile white grape, which can be made into a range of styles from bone dry to sweet dessert wines.  There are still too many people who think of Riesling only as a sweet wine, and too many others who don't realize how perfect a semi-sweet Riesling pairs with spicy food -- it's unfortunate that some spicy nibbles aren't included in the tasting so that people can experience this delicious match. Tasting some Rieslings at Boundary Breaks or elsewhere in the region often means you'll be in a lovely spot with great views -- even if you don't love the wines, the locations of many wineries are worthy of a detour.

After leaving with two bottles to take home, the sky darkened dramatically and we were driving through a thunderstorm so we stopped at the Lost Kingdom brewery in Ovid to wait out the storm. The brewery is in a former fire station and has a great decor, the bartender is knowledgeable and friendly, and the beer selection is quite unusual.  Ovid -- named after the Roman poet by a town clerk who was interested in the classics -- is on state route 414, which runs from Corning to Huron between Seneca Lake and Cayuga Lake for 83 miles.  The route passes through some small villages like Ovid but mostly runs through a bucolic, rural landscape.  There seems to be a certain amount of local pride in the state road as witnessed by this sticker I saw below:

We passed through Trumansburg a few times while in the area and there is an interesting self-guided walking tour with 21 stops that's very worthwhile -- it includes some noteworthy buildings on the National Registger of Historic Places and the R. A. Moog Company Building -- did you know that the Moog synthesizer was created here in 1964?!

There is much more to explore in the Finger Lakes -- there are 9 other lakes in the area! -- and 2019 marks the 100th anniversary of the Finger Lakes Tourism Alliance.  If you plan a fall visit, thee is no better companion reading to bring along than James Fenimore Cooper's The Last of the Mohicans, The Pathfinder, or The Deerslayer as they center around the general area of upstate New York that was formerly the home of the Iroquois.