I said yes to a trip last week to a youth gardening conference at Cornell to see if it would reignite this burned out volunteer. I'm happy to report that it did, and that I got to go with one of my best friends. I also went on the trip because I made a promise to myself in April of this year that for the next year I'd be intentional about spending time with inspiring women. I'm doing pretty well so far. I've got a couple of other trips in the works and jumped at this chance. And funny enough, a youth gardening conference is full of inspiring people, most of whom happen to be women.
We drove for 17 hours to get to Ithaca in one day, and ended up driving through the most beautiful country along the way in the dark. At the end we were really tired, and it was really hard. I never want to drive that far in one day ever again. Luckily, we passed through lovely New York State and Eastern Ohio a few days later in the daylight. I loved Ithaca, and wished I had several more days there!
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The one sightseeing excursion on the drive to Ithaca was a pitstop at Lake Erie. Very cool stop not too far off the highway.
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Cornell. Is. Awesome. As the plumbers at our hotel said, it seems like Cornell owns the whole town of Ithaca. And it's lovely. These pictures are at the Cornell Botanic Garden. The campus is huge, and I would love to be a student there if I had a do-over. So awesome. (No offense, Truman.)
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| The conference was very worthwhile. I hadn't been to the National Children & Youth Gardening Symposium in several years and it has really grown up. I liked the feature in their schedule that allowed participants to select workshops by category and experience level. Very inspired by the stories of some energetic University Extension agents working in various states. Tucson Village Farm is AWESOME. Check it out. Slow Food is doing amazing things in the Hamptons for the kids in public school. Denver Urban Gardens has a great person rockin' it behind the scenes, facilitating great partnerships and conducting quality evaluation for that organization. And the Cornell Ornithology Lab has partnered with The Nature Conservancy to create a totally kickass amateur mapping website called Habitat Network. I want to share it with everyone I know that believes that schoolyards and community spaces matter! |
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The Commons in downtown Ithaca is really great. My neighbor tells me it's where the non-Cornell students hang out. At least they did a couple decades ago;) I really thought the red box in the pic was cool. It's a collection box for Pay It Forward, a non-profit non-profit program to help the homeless folks in the neighborhood get food and other basics from the downtown Ithaca businesses who participate in the program. Pretty cool. And there was a Lime Bike parked there.
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The restaurant that inspired many of my cookbook purchases is in Ithaca. Moosewood. Who knew?! I did not...or maybe I did but forgot. Either way, dinner here was a must. I loved every pescatarian bite.
The four seasons were adorning the walls at our first food stop on the way back home, at Tossed in Corning, NY. I don't think it's true but it feels like vegetarian restaurants are to New York what BBQ restaurants are to Missouri: easy to find and delicious. Either way, it was great fuel for the drive (which we split over two days this time, super smart of us).
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