48 Hours in Ithaca (Part 2)

Yesterday I shared just half of what we did during our long weekend in Ithaca and today I'm sharing the rest.

We were seriously blessed with delicious weather. Thursday evening, it stormed really hard, thunder, lightning, the works. The rest of the weekend was gorgeous with picturesque blue skies, fluffy white clouds, and most importantly, low humidity.

I already shared about our hotel, Buttermilk Falls, and the Cascadilla Gorge trail. Today, I'll be talking about Cornell (sunset over Libe Slope and the Plantations) and the Ithaca Farmers Market.

Cornell University

Oh, Cornell. You are the greatest! Seriously, this is a great school. Sure, it's a little rural but it's got an excellent architecture program, engineering program, agriculture program; heck, we've even got a fashion school. To everyone calling it a safety school: you'd be singing a different tune if you actually attended and understood how difficult the courses are!

One of my favorite pastimes as a student was to watch the sun setting over Libe Slope (yeah, that's "libe" as in "library").

We headed over to campus around 19:30 since the internet said the sun would be setting around 20:30. In the meantime, we sat in the Arts Quad where a free outdoor concert was taking place.

The best part of watching the sun setting is that you can also see a glimpse of Cayuga Lake.

Cornell Plantations

The Plantations are another gem on this campus. It's a gorgeous collection of plants and flowers spread out over several gardens and fields.

The best part is that it's completely free. There are several parking areas, some of which are free and some of which are metered but the metered parking areas are free on weekends.

I know this is a bit of a photo overload but you should understand that this is me holding back. If I could, I'd be sharing all 100+ photos that I took whilst wandering around the Plantations.

We picked up lots of ideas for our own backyard garden.

Ithaca Farmers Market

The farmers market is great. There's tons of fresh, locally grown produce, delicious food, and live entertainment. We went there on Saturday and Sunday for lunch. Traveling with a dog limits your dining options but since the market is outdoors, we could enjoy our meal with GM sitting right next to us.

When the weather is nice, it gets incredibly crowded so I recommend getting there early. Parking can be bothersome if you're heading there at lunchtime so I suggest pulling into one of the side streets just before the market or just taking the bus.

It's also really nice because the pavilion is right by the water so the view is lovely. Plus, all of the seating is right in the shade, which is perfect.

It was an awesome weekend. Our only complaint was that the drive back was crazy hot because the sun was shining too beautifully.

xoxo.