Taughannock Falls (Vacation Continued)

 
 
 
 

After we left Buttermilk Falls, we went to Taughannock Falls. I believe they said this was Indian for "between the trees". Let me also say, that we got an early start and had no clue that the state parks charged after 10am, so we were able to see the Buttermilk Falls and Taughannock Falls for free--added bonus.
We were standing on the platform looking across at this amazing 215 foot waterfall. It is the biggest, as far as height, in NY. We could see that there were people on a walkway at the bottom looking up. We thought that would be awesome and were told that you could take a road that would get you part way there.

Well, we got confused as to what road and ended up turned around. We parked and followed a path to no avail. As we were going back to the car and George saw a road going up to a bridge. He said he was going to check it out and I decided to stay back (it was nearing the 90 degree weather). Well, in less than a minute more he summoned me. There we were at the TOP of the falls looking down--Wow! I could barely look but so much wanted a picture--though even looking at it now I get the creeps--it was pretty scary. Well, I asked George, who is supposedly afraid of heights--can't prove it by me after this vacation.

I had to instruct him specifically to put the camera strap on his wrist as in situations like this I have a flashback to 1967 when I was on a class trip and I saw one of the boys in my class accidentally drop his camera in the ocean. I felt so badly for him and have always remembered that and learned from that hard lesson. George bravely took the picture. I did look down with nothing but this chain link type fence between me and a 215 foot drop. And to think we were there all by ourselves.

Anyway, we gave up trying to find the road that led to the bottom. If we ever went back I would go see this again from the platform and try to go to the bottom. I would not go to the top again. Once is enough.

Ithaca & Buttermilk Falls

These pictures aren't quite in the order that I had wanted, but the first is of the layers of rocks that we saw over and over again at all the falls.
This is the first waterfall that we saw in Ithaca. It's called Buttermilk Falls. We got an early start in the morning and we did not know that the state parks didn't start charging until 10am, so we went to two state parks for free--you know what they say about the early birds.
There was a path along side that you could walk up. It was steep and I was glad when George and I looked at each other and totally were on the same page that we didn't want to do it. The falls were just beautiful from where we were.
The last two pictures are a couple more of Ithaca Commons.

Ithaca, NY

First let me say to anyone on facebook, that I do not make these large entries to facebook rather, my blog is set up to automatically download to facebook. That being said, look out as a lot of entries will be coming your way as I blog about our vacation.
Our home base for most of our vacation was Ithaca, NY. Ithaca is the home of Ithaca College and Cornell University. These pictures are of Ithaca Commons. These are some of the sculptures throughout. The commons is a nice area just for walking with plenty of places to sit and even a stage, that I could picture being used by the students for debates or expressing their opinions. There are stores on either side that are obviously aimed at college students. If I were a freshman going to Ithaca to school, I think it would be very hard to focus just on studies. It looks like a fun place to be.