Sunday, June 30, 2024

NEW YORK 2024



A summer trip to New York for a wedding. The plan had been to take the Lance with us and enjoy the ride up and back by camping in new and fun places.  Unfortunately, my husband's work got in the way, and our planned 3 week trip turned into a 2 week trip, so taking the travel trailer was out of the question. What a huge disappointment. So we decided to just drive up and make it a 2 day trip instead of the 4 days we had planned for driving if we towed the Lance.

We drove all the way from Florida until we got to Pennsylvania - in ONE DAY! We stayed at the Hampton Inn in Chambersburg, PA.  It was a very long drive, but we did good. After an overnight hotel stay, we arrived at Cornell University to visit our daughter, Ahnika, during her Summer Research Experience for Undergraduates. We stayed just for the afternoon at Cornell, doing quick sightseeing and grabbing a great lunch at Collegetown Bagels. We checked out her dorm a the Von Cramm Cooperative, aslo known as Redbud Collective. Then we were on our way up to Theresa, NY.





When we take our car, I never worry about what I'm packing because I pack anything and everything since its just in the car and I don't have to be careful about my luggage. I think that is why I enjoy roadtrips so much, I think they are very freeing in a lot of ways. You don't have to worry about luggage and you don't have to have an "appointment" at the airport.

Arriving in Theresa, we started helping out with the wedding preparations. We went to all the stores in multiple towns to pick up supplies and anything needed for the wedding and reception. 


We went to Alexandria Bay for dinner at Cavallario's Steak and Seafood House. After, we headed to Clayton to have drinks with friends at The Channelside. It was lovely to sit outside on the deck and watch the ships pass by on the Saint Lawrence River. 




We also toured a very old church that was for sale, but it was in terrible condition, so not even worth trying to buy it or fix it up at all.  The interior was gorgeous, but it was not structurally sound.  



Finally, the day to depart has arrived.  The wedding is over and it was beautiful and a big success. We're going to head back to Cornell to visit Ahnika before we head home. We got a hotel room at The Argos Inn, it was very cool and a beautifully restored massive, old house. A boutique hotel. We had dinner at a restaurant on the Ithaca Commons and had drinks at the hotel bar of the Argos.










In the morning, we walked around and had breakfast at Paris Baguette - yum! We hiked around and looked at the Cornell Botanic Gardens, looked at some small waterfalls and even hiked up to the Observatory. We met up with Ahnika and she gave us a longer tour - I finally got to see the library I was dreaming of - The Uris Library! It was very cool, but a lot smaller than I expected.  We saw the outside of her building, The Carl Sagan Institute in the Space Sciences Building. We shopped at the gift shop and got a couple small trinkets. I got my obligatory Christmas ornament! We had lunch at the Amit Bhatia Libe Cafe inside the John M. Olin Library and then got on the road to try to make it as far as possible. I think I got food poisoning from my lunch! A long stop at a gas station restroom was, unfortunately, in order.















We stopped in Harrisonburg, Virginia for the night, staying at the DoubleTree by Hilton Harrisonburg. The next day, we drove all the way back home. It was a long drive and we were both so happy to be home! The new Ram truck gets amazing gas mileage and has a huge gas tank, so we rarely had to stop for gas. We were so relieved to be home when we arrived! My mom watched the pets and the house and had some food prepared for us - joy! 

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