Courtyard By Marriott Ithaca-Lansing

Well, today we leave the only home I have known. It is a wonderful city and I am proud to have been born in such a beautiful place and to have been welcomed to the world by the great friends here. Clearly my parents loved it here as they have been rather sad about leaving. My good friend Nadya even came by so say good ...

We arrived at M&T's cottage on Seneca Lake Friday evening after a nice dinner with my Dad and Lorraine. Evidently we followed the rain all the way from Cleveland because we had very little rain on our drive and the visitors from the East had rain ...

... Falls which we heard was only about a mile from the inn. It was fabulous! One of the bumper stickers in Ithaca says that "Ithaca is gorges" and they are everywhere.

Ithaca is a college town with both Ithaca College and Cornell University finding their homes there. It is a town of hills in much the same way that San Francisco and Seattle have hills only they have snow and ice in the winter. We were told the story of a ...

... br> - Walked down the street to the site of the Seneca Falls Women’s Convention (the big one for the right to vote…remember?).
- Visited the Women’s Rights National Park. This was FAR more interactive and attention grabbing than the Women’s Hall of Fame. Therefore, Christen paid attention and actually learned some things. As Robie noted, it is incredible how many rights women had to fight for ...

Our first evening of driving was a breeze! We made great time from Downers Grove to Grand Rapids. Saw some cute little pigmy type donkeys in the field. We stayed at Deanna's house on a lake. Deanna is Laura's sister and her home is beautiful. Enjoyed a glass of wine on the deck and watched the sun go down.

The next morning began our official road trip and the longest ...

... In my case I didn't want to determine the impact of my entire life, just my travel emissions. This includes taxis, buses, water taxis, motor scooters, minivans, and the big whopper when traveling around the globe: flights! I went with carbonfootprint.com because I liked their options for where your offset money goes. Many of the flashier sites put your money into a general pot or fund that provided for various programs ...

Drove out to Ithaca today to attend the graduate fair at Cornell. I am really beginning to enjoy my "tour" of the Ivys...All I need now is a visit to Harvard and Brown and I think I have visited them all! Today was an especially long day - the fair at Cornell this morning, the drive back to Syracuse for that evening fair and then dropping the rental car off ...

... that they were working there in return for housing, and that we should go inside to get situated with "Sage". We were warmly greeted at the door by Grandma Pat, the eldest of this "Family". She took us upstairs and showed us our room. It was a quaint little country style room with posters of Fairies, shelves of crystal, and a bear foot tub. When we were all situated we returned outside to explore a little bit more. We took a stroll ...

... suite in one of the older buildings. Score: 3 out of 5. Academics: Apparently great academics, with lots of big-name professors, including the two men who head the US Mars Rover project and the man who invented the power-nap theory (and who tests on students). But ultimately, not much that I'm too interested in, though I'd thought ...

... have been eroded into shape, looking for all the world like spa pools. As the stream trends down, you come to the falls, and see them drop the next 60 or so metres down into deep pools, which then flow on, at the foot of these 160 - 180 metre slate cliffs. This was certainly one of the most impressive and uttterly beautiful natural sites I have ever seen. If ant of you ever come to New York, you simply must make the trip to Ithaca. This is place that is a wonder. It must be seen.