Better Late Than Never!....

Finally, my report on my June trip to see my three buddies -- Kay, Steph and Laurie -- in Ithaca, NY! Every year, we four get together for a weekend of nuttiness, usually either in Napa or Sonoma for wine country, but this year we ventured over to Stephani's stomping grounds. This is a cartoon on Stephani's fridge (above) -- it cracked me up.

Anyway, coming from a high desert in the west, the lushness of Ithaca and the colonial-esque architecture was very exotic. That line from "History of the World, Part I" in which the King says (after taking snuff), "Everything's so greeeen!" kept popping up in my head while I was there. And with the lush tree cover in the depths of summer, it was like living in a rain forest. Steph commented, "It's like living in a head of broccoli,"....a totally apt description! Gigantic broccoli....everywhere. Like I said....very exotic to me!

We first went to Wegmans. OK...Laurie and I were total Wegman neophytes and our jaws hit the ground when we walked in! For the hopeless foodie that I am, it was truly a kind of Mecca. Unbelievable! Anything and everything you could possibly want! The produce area (fruits and veggies I've never even seen before!)...the cheese area (cheese from all over the place -- there were roqueforts, mobiers and garrotxa galore! -- oh my -- any cheese you could imagine, they had it!)...and the ethnic food isles! They had an entire isle for goodies from Ireland and the UK! The Asian isle was...well...I got hungry really fast, lemme put it that way.

Then Steph gave us a tour of Cornell University, which was wonderful, and apparently chock-full of esoterica! What a gorgeous campus! They do not build things like that anymore. I posted some more pix of the campus in my Photobucket album if you'd like to peruse them. I love universities -- especially old universities. If I could somehow be a professional student at one of these places, I'd be all over it like green on Ithaca. Here are some highlights...OK, where to begin....let's begin here (because it seems to sum up our wild weekend)....

This is Deja, Steph's dawg. Craaazie!

The clock tower in the commons. This clock tower has quite a whimsical history! The confounding pumpkin even has been honored with a special flavor of ice cream produced by the Cornell Diary, "Clocktower Pumpkin!"

This architecture -- couldn't you just die? How cool is that?!

Here are my fellow conspirators: Kay (left), Steph (middle) and Laurie Jo (right), posing with the Big Dude, Ezra Cornell.

Then she took us to the amazing Andrew Dickson White Library (above). If there's one thing I love more than a university, it's a university library. So imagine my face when I walked in to this place.....my first thought when I entered -- "OK...how can I live here?" Can you believe it?! Incredible! In the wood cases in the isles were dozens of exquisite ceramic molds of beautiful bas-relief pieces -- so delicate and crisp in detail! And me being a bas-relief maniac...well...I went bananas. Oh the inspiration!.....

Speaking of bas-relief work...check out this carved wood panel (below)...beautiful works were all over the place in this library...I died...

Somehow, in all the library, Laurie found the one book that tends to describe our crazy weekends together (ha ha ha!)...

Then we ventured to the stables on campus and came across this little guy!...."HI!"

There also were some wonderful donkeys (and a donkey foal!), and their shots are in the album. Here's a bit o' history about the stable area.....

Then we ventured to the pond and garden area, which in a word, was "magical." And who welcomed us?....

A big, fat, blobby squirrel, that's who! Biggest squirrel I've ever seen! Huuuuge. I swear, almost the size of a Pomeranian! Suffice to say...I wanted to ooze his goo, but he was too quick. Well well WELL. Meandering around the pond, it felt like we'd wandered into a Monet painting....

I took a ton of pond and lily pad photos. I love ponds and lily pads with a passion, and I intend to use these images as reference for tile designs. Frogs, fish, dragonflies, bitty birds -- bring it on! We even saw a very fat muskrat! Heaven! The entire pond area was a cacophony of chirping and croaking, thanks to these little guys (below)! I died...again.


What a super day! Thank you Stephani! Now as for other shenanigans in Ithaca....

Here's a plate of the eggs benedict I had for breakfast one morning (above)! It looks like a goofy face, doesn't it? Delicious and slightly disturbing...yet entertaining -- now that's what I call a good breakfast. What further set this restaurant apart was this unusual stained glass window (below) -- where else are you gonna find a lobster with a refreshing cocktail? I fully support crustaceans partaking of libations!...

(Below) We also wandered around gorgeous Ithaca Falls....


And of course we had to have breakfast here, as well (below)! I mean, c'mon! Being Mystery Science Theater fans (it's the only thing that plays in my studio while I work), it was written in the stars! For those of you who don't know, the MST episode of "Manos, The Hands of Fate" is considered an all-time classic! To our great chagrin -- they didn't sell T-shirts! ARGH. What a missed opportunity!

So there ya go -- a fabulous weekend in a head of broccoli with some fellow "Manos Maidens." Speaking of fabulous weekends, Hubby and I are off next week to see AC/DC in Tacoma -- wow, that sure came up fast. I'm sure I'll have plenty of photos from that to share with you as well since we intend to tour Olympic National Park (new inspiration beckons!), so stay tuned!

"I've learned...that no matter how serious your life requires you to be, everyone needs a friend to act goofy with." ~ Andy Rooney

Better Late Than Never!....