Day 3: Corning

Today we headed southwest towards Corning to visit the Corning Museum of Glass (CMOG). Nick was hesitant to go to the museum. He felt it would be better to start visiting the wineries. I convinced him otherwise since tomorrow we are planning on going to the Finger Lakes Wine Festival where all the wineries will be in attendance. This museum turned out to be better than the glass museum in Murano, Italy- the mecca of glass. We were both pleasantly surprised.

Above: This is a ridiculously crazy art piece. It is beautiful and perplexing. We wonder how it was made or transported to the museum.

Above: All the flowers are made of glass

The coolest thing about the CMOG is that you get to make your own glass art. The choices were a glass flower, an ornament, glass beads, picture frame or wind chimes. I opted for the wind chime.

Because the fusing it's a two day process, the final product will be shipped to our house once it's completed. Below is a picture of the glass pieces that we glued on to be fused together.

Below: Nick attempting to make the world's largest Christmas ornament. Note the concentration.

On our way back home we stopped at the Ithaca Brewery Co. again but this time we bought stuff. Nick tried a few more beer choices before choosing a couple to bring back with us.

When we got back to the hotel, Nick searched for the nearest movie theater and found out there were still plenty of seats available for The Dark Knight. The movie was long but it was good. We both felt Heath Ledger's Joker character was Johnny Depp-like because of the little intricasies and mannerisms he incorporated into the character.

Ever since we got to Ithaca we have been driving past a cooperative market named Greenstar. I've read about co-op markets before and I was curious what they were like. Tonight we stopped in and it was just as cute as I expected. Everything sold is healthy, fresh, organic, and mostly local. If you don't know what a co-op market is..." a co-op is an autonomous association of persons united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social, and cultural needs and aspirations through a jointly-owned and democratically controlled enterprise"- as described on their brochure. A co-op returns its profits to its members-not outside stakeholders. While a chain store reinvests 13 cents to the local community, a co-op returns 45 cents for every dollar spent. It was great to walk through and see all the local produce and products. Here it is easy to lead a healthy lifestyle because everything you need is available. In Orlando you have to go out of your way to find a Whole Foods, which is about the only store that offers a "wide" selection of organic and/or green products.