May 27 2008
Things to do - Binghamton and Ithaca, NY
Michael and I left on Friday for Binghamton, NY - where we would be staying with my family and then driving the hour to Ithaca to watch my youngest sister graduate from Cornell University.
Since Michael and I drove separately, we had our own vehicle and made our own plans for sight-seeing. On the agenda: Cornell Ornithology Lab, Taughannock Falls State Park, and Recreation Park in Binghamton.
We stayed at the Binghamton Regency, which looks mostly unchanged from its past grandeur in the 1970’s. We had an okay cup of coffee in the lounge while waiting for my family to make it through the traffic on 81 in Pennsylvania. The hotel itself was busy with groups - first, a high school prom and then a meeting of The Way of New York.
Binghamton made an impact at first sight on Michael and I. It is an old rail city, but many old buildings are still in use, rather than being torn down. The history of the city is on its face, and while some people might look at it and feel depressed, it was welcoming to me. There is something honorable about maintaining old buildings for new uses, in my opinion.
We ate dinner across the street from our hotel at The Lost Dog cafe the first two nights. The food was all very good (The first night I had spinach pesto and the second night split a port-o-shroom with Michael) and the coffee was also good.
On Saturday morning we set out before the rest of our group to the Cornell Ornithology Lab. I can’t go far without my birding dorkiness. The lab has plenty of paths and benches, wetlands and lakes and feeders and the birds love it. The interior of the building looks out on a couple feeders and the lake, and there are several telescopes there for your enjoyment. There is also a gift shop, and plenty of interesting and gorgeous photography of birds that were shot at the laboratory. Michael and I saw plenty of boring birds, and took a nice walk. It’s free and really gorgeous, so if you’re close by, I recommend you check it out.
Then Michael and I headed towards gorgeous Cayuga Lake to Taughannock Falls State Park. We ignored the side of the park on the lake and instead headed up the gorge trail (about a mile) to Taughannock Falls. The walk was lovely and shaded, and the creek bed was large and flat, several people walked out onto it because it was mostly dry when we went.
Taughannock Falls are the tallest Falls in the US east of the Rockies. They’re very pretty and the gorge trail is short and open all year (apparently the Falls are amazing in the Winter months).
Then we headed into Ithaca proper to eat and wander around the Commons. One of the stores (Andes Homemade) I loved last year is gone, and the artistic co-op is undergoing renovations after a fire. Despite my disappointment, we had a positive experience in several shops including Volume Records, where we bought Coltrane and Captain Beefheart albums on vinyl.
On the ride back to Binghamton, we stopped at Recreation Park for a little Twilight Zone geekiness. Recreation Park inspired “Walking Distance” as Serling had grown up in Binghamton and spent time at Recreation Park. He had carved his name into the bandstand before they renovated it, and they put a plaque in for him. Next to the plaque were some drawings in chalk, including this one:
How many kids do you know who even know who Rod Serling is? It’s pretty touching his memory lives on in the park. There is also a working carousel at the park, but it’s only open in the Summer and is locked into a building for protection. We peeked through the windows at it, and I wish it had been open. It was beautiful.
The next morning, we headed to Cornell University for graduation. The commencement speech was awful and boring and I got some bad sunburns. Afterwards, each school had a separate ceremony. I really loved that idea, and my sister’s graduating food science class was only 29 people. They let family come forward to photograph graduates with their diplomas. Plus, they served us lots of food, and very bad coffee. Bad coffee is better than no coffee.
I don’t usually post pictures of people other than Michael and I, but I’m proud of my little sister. Her red cords are for being a Resident Assistant. She did really well at University and always seemed excited about her classes, besides, we went up there for her - even if we did plenty of other fun things.
Finally - on Sunday night we ordered pizza from a local chain- Nirchi’s. We got mushroom and chicken spiedie toppings. Spiedie is a regional food from Binghamton - Italian marinated and grilled meat. Never have I had a tastier chunk of chicken. I cannot recommend Nirchi’s or spiedie enough. Michael and I way over-ate the pizza because we didn’t want any to go to waste. MMM… spiedie.
I would go back to Binghamton just for spiedie.
the pizza smelled SO GOOD. I was glad I was craving ice cream or i would have had to eat a piece.