Day 2: Ithaca is Gorges

No, I did not misspell gorgeous. The title phrase is the tagline for Ithaca since it is surrounded by gorges.
Today's Agenda:

1. Buttermilk Falls State Park

2. Ithaca Brewery Co.

3. Robert H. Treman State Park

4. Taughannock Falls (again)

5. Lake Cayuga Beach

6. Cornell University

For breakfast we had some continental breakfast. I pulled a "Ron Guittar" and took a bagel and jam for the road.

Buttermilk Falls

You can actually swim at the bottom of these falls. However, it was closed for the day due to some water testing.

Robert H. Treman State Park

This park is located just a few miles down the road from Buttermilk Falls Park. It was actually more impressive than Buttermilk Falls. As we walked along we came across about 10 falls (have you noticed our obsession with waterfalls yet?)

Lucifer Falls...the next 3 pictures are the same waterfall and they are supposed to be sequential. The Fall is so high it didn't fit in one picture. It took 3 frames to capture it.

Taughannock Falls (again but this time from the bottom gorge trail)

After Robert H. Treman State Park, we made our way down to Taughannock Falls Park so we could walk along the creek that led to Taughannock Falls. They were more impressive as seen from above (yesterday's picture). You couldn't really appreciate how large and open the gorge is from below. These falls are 215 ft high; the largest freefalling falls in the Northeast- taller than Niagara Falls.

Cayuga Lake Beach

This is the beach right next to where Taughannock creek empties into Cayuga Lake. It was strange to see grass at a "beach". If you can see the barge in the water- people could swim up to the barge and dive into the 12' deep water.

Cornell University

Referred to as the "first American University", Cornell University is considered the most versatile school out of the eight universities that make up the Ivy League. To give you an idea, the campus is about 150 years old. The buildings look historic but the interior are still quite modern. One building looked like The Haunted Mansion. The campus is huge. We did get to see the gorge that runs through the middle of it. Below is a picture of what I believe is the library.

Early in the day we scouted out Ithaca Brewery Co., which is the most award-winning micro brewery in NY. We didn't take any pictures because I knew Nick was going to take me back tomorrow to taste more samples. This is definitely Aaron's kind of place. The beer flows like wine.

On our way to Treman Park we stopped at a produce market where they sold local fruits and vegetables. I tried a plumcot. It's a hybrid of a plum and an apricot. Delicious. I forgot to take a picture of it. It's plum size with a yellow and purpley skin- plum color close to the skin and more apricotty in the middle. It was perfect. I'm going back tomorrow for a bag full.