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I don’t like cold weather. I especially dislike snow. We have so many places in the Northeast that are spectacularly beautiful—in the summer. The Finger Lakes region (aka the Southern Tier) of upstate New York is one of them.
This area is a very long drive from Boston (about 6 hours), so I made this weekend’s graduation trip to Ithaca a “bucket list” sort of trip. I have enjoyed my many visits up here, but I doubt I’ll be back again.
In addition to the hot air ballooning, we visited the famous Corning Museum of Glass, which many people now know from Blown Away—the glassblowers competition series on Netflix.
The city of Ithaca, NY is on Lake Cayuga and I’ve seen it many times. This trip, I wanted to see the next Finger Lake over—Lake Seneca. It is equally beautiful and has the cute town of Watkins Glen at the bottom.
Watkins Glen is also home to one of New York’s most beautiful state parks.
There are many wineries in the area, but I had never been to a cidery, so we stopped at South Hill Cider after graduation for a glass of hard cider and a charcuterie board. Lovely spot and their dry, sparkling Baldwin cider was great. I bought a bottle to take home.
There’s an expression you may have heard—Ithaca is Gorges. Its deep gorges and their accompanying waterfalls are truly gorgeous, and there are dozens of them all over the region. I had seen the showstopper—Taughannock Falls—on a previous trip, but wanted to check out a couple of others before we left.
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The gorges and waterfalls are amazing! And the Corning Museum of Glass! How cool!!!
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Thank you! And thanks again for telling me about Blown Away. The gift store had works by many of the artists from the show. I was very tempted to buy something, but I just could not make a decision!
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You fit a lot into a few days! I’d love to see the glass museum too.
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We did! The glass museum is so impressive, with many large scale works and light-filled modern galleries.
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The photo you posted is nothing like what I’d expect!
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You know, you’re right. I just added another photo which reflects the modern, contemporary vibe of most of the galleries.
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Beautiful area! We have never made it to Corning, but plan it. If you have not been to Letchworth State Park, you should consider it. It’s stunning!
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Thank you! Good to know. 😀
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I always pictured America to be so very built up because of your large population ( versus our 30 million) but you certainly have many natural places of extreme beauty. Thanks for the lesson:)
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Thank you for commenting! I was thinking something similar on the drive home. The very same state that has the biggest, tallest city ever also has seemingly endless greenery and lakes.
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