12.05 - Day 118 - Geneva to Ithaca

Sunday 12th May - Geneva, NY - Ithaca, NY (Day 118)

A short day of driving, only 50 miles so no rush at breakfast and we also take the opportunity to plug on with schoolwork - Sienna polishing off work in double quick time whilst Seb is becoming a daily negotiation depending on his mood. 

We leave via the waterside playpark of yesterday to have a run around before skirting the north end of Lake Seneca for 10 minutes as far as Three Brothers Wineries and Estates. Three wineries and one brewery onsite plus a cafe which we mosey around till the kids complain of being hungry at which point we get the largest pretzel I’ve ever seen for us four to share and a bottle of wine for Kate and I to share. 

We clink to Happy Mother’s Day - the kids having presented Kate with a helium balloon earlier - sat outside looking over the sloping grape vines and down to the lake. Sienna and Seb are happy to run around doing ‘challenges’ and playing ‘Simon Says’ which buys Kate and I some sort of peace. There’s a good set up here, perfect for an hour on a spring’s morning. 

Thirty minutes further south and jumping one finger lake over to Cayuga Lake we pull into Taughannock Falls State Park where the parking attendant assures us that the waterfall at the end of the one mile trail is 20 feet taller than Niagara. We’ll be the judge of that. 

Along the slightly sodden well trodden path in the gorge made from thousands of layers of slate rock there are plenty of walkers, many apparent students from nearby Cornell University walking with their visiting parents. I think Niagara was Peak Waterfall for the kids, but Seb at least is happy to walk back on the exposed flat river bank, chucking sticks and stones in the river for good measure. 

Across the road we have a picnic lunch in between a playpark and the lakes edge. Not as many waterfront properties as we might expect, but dense forest of varying shades of green rising up from the water. 

Dropping our bags at the Rodeway Inn with its well manicured gardens out front, we head into Ithaca where Kate stops at Pete’s Laundry - with 55 washing machines and 45 driers, those Cornell students staying cleaner than I did at uni - whilst Sienna and Seb get more clothes dirty at Ithaca Children’s Garden, settling into the muddy sand (or sandy mud?) digging holes and moats filled with watering cans from the stream with two other boys Eli and James. Dinner is low key; soups and curry back in the motel room before more card games on the beds.