A New Tradition?

 

Back in February, Gail really needed something to look forward to that involved getting out of the living room.  It wasn't clear if leaving the county would still be an issue so she found a sweet little cabin on Cayuga Lake in Lansing that was still available and we booked a five-day stay.  On day two we started planning next year's trip back.  It came with an equally charming boat house.

The nice thing about getting a place so close to home was how many friends were able to come visit and hang out.  Temperatures reached nearly100 degrees while we were there so there was plenty of motivation for librarians on vacation and swimmers to make the trek up the lake.

We were treated to four spectacular sunsets, and lots of passing thunderstorms.  Sometimes at the same moment.

The boat house made for a fine place to hang out, the balcony stayed mostly dry during storms, and offered shade for most of the morning.

Some former and current students came up twice.  They were eager to kayak without having to pay steep rental fees being charged in Ithaca these days.  They were more than generous in supplying us with a dinner from Saigon Kitchen one night.

Gail dressed to match the sunset, and did some reading with Taughannock in the background.

The former Milliken Station coal-fired power plant was a few miles north, I kayaked up one morning.

We were near Cornell's Lansing orchard where I picked fruit (mostly apples) for over a decade.  They cut out the Cortlands where I picked my first apples there.  Cornell is attempting to sell the land but I haven't heard anything recently about it.

We were quite near Ludlowville so we stopped to check out the falls on the way home.

I saw a mink out on the neighbor's dock.

I could barely make out Taughannock Falls when I kayaked over and hiked up to the overlook.  Some messing with the photo brought out the swollen cascade.

The turbid water from Taughannock Creek was about as distinct as could be in the lake.  That's not a shadow, it's the boarder between the creek water and the lake water.

We were able to take Nina with us.  She managed.