I spent two days in up state New York with my family. We spent the first day in Ithaca and the wineries around the Finger Lakes. It was gorgeous there, fall was the perfect time to go. The blues of the sky and lake mixed in with the bright fall colors was beautiful.
I took about a gazillion pictures. Due to this over abundance of pictures, I'm separating the trip into two posts. Both of which will probably be mostly pictures. Oh well.
This post will discuss the wineries, Finger Lakes, and Ithaca. The next will cover Watkins glen and the Buttermilk Falls.
Standing on the dock and taking pictures with my phone.
When we got to Ithaca the first thing we did, besides find a Walmart to go pee in, was visit a little bakery simply called the Ithaca Bakery. I got an everything bagel with cream cheese and lox. It was phenomenal. I have no idea what the rest of their food was like, I assume great as well, but my bagel was perfect. This might be slightly influenced by how hungry I was after the three hour car ride.
Mmmmmmmm. Look at that bagel!
After we were satiated food wise, we went to the wineries! The wineries in Ithaca are so cute. The wine is about average I think, but the views are wonderful. All the wine tastings were cheap too. Two of them were three dollars for six wines, and the other was five for five but our favorite wine-tasting-helper-person (what is the name for that job???) gave us way more than five tastings.
On the way to the winery trail we spotted a huge waterfall, apparently taller than Niagara Falls, though obviously much thinner. I absolutely adore waterfalls, so of course we had to stop for tons of pictures.
Taking selfies with the waterfall.
The viewpoint was pretty far away, so it's hard to grasp how tall and impressive the waterfall was.
The first winery was called Americana Vineyard Winery. It was in a cute building that was super halloween-y and adorable on the inside.
See? Cute and all the lights and spiderwebs!
The second winery was our favorite! This is because our favorite wine-person was there, and they had the magical dock where I took ALL the pictures. It was called the Sheldrake Point Winery. It is totally worth going there just for the best wine-person. His name was Will, I think, and apparently he is my future husband.
Will mentioned that he was happily married pretty soon after starting our tasting. This is due to the fact that my family was four women and we were joined by another group of two women as well. He had all the ladies. He was joking around with us all and cracking everyone up. At some point he pulled out his cellphone to look at something and I noticed he had the same phone case I used to have (it looks like an old gameboy case). When I told him this he said "maybe not married for long" and winked.
So now my family calls him my future husband. Sorry YC :P Kidding!
The best winery!
The view from inside.
There's my favorite dock! So much blue!
The last winery was the only one where we bought wine to take home. We got this sparkling wine to combine with a strawberry wine. It was delicious. The lady totally won me over with the combo. That winery also had cute little gifts. My mom got me a magnet that said "Fight like a girl, drink like a lady". Perfect.
The view from the porch of the last winery.
Yeah, you guessed it. The name had goose in it. I believe it was the Flying Goose actually.
On our way to the hotel after the wineries, we stopped at the same waterfall from the beginning of the trip. This time we wanted to walk to it from the bottom, but it was getting dark and starting to rain. So my mother, she's a saint for putting up with me, and I powerwalked and jogged to the base of the waterfall. All so I could snap a picture for this blog. Sorry not sorry, mom.
The picture I made my mom run through the rain and dark for. She thought we were going to get killed by a serial killer.
Also the picture was so dark I had to touch it up tons. Oops.
Afterward we went to downtown Ithaca for dinner. I love college towns, they tend to be safe and have a good range of food.
We went to a place called the Mahogany Grill. My pasta was yummy, but the best part was the truffle fries. Dear god, best truffle fries.
I recommend it just for that. TRUFFLE FRIES.
See those truffle fries in the corner? GO EAT THEM.
So in a couple days I'll write another post detailing (i.e. expect lots of pictures) the Buttermilk Falls and Watkins Glen.
Until then, here are a couple more pictures from the first day!
Posing on the lovely dock.
Obligatory travel shoe picture.
More of the lake! And my eye.
Have you ever been to Ithaca or the Finger Lakes in general? Have you done a winery tour? Where do you think has the best truffle fries?
-Alisa
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