I spent the first little bit of today looking through photos and videos from the Red Rocks Tweetup. It's bittersweet - I'm so enjoying seeing friends' smiling faces and beautiful rock, but it's a little sad knowing I missed seeing them in person. I missed the tweetup for the best reason I can think of - spending time with my family in Ithaca. Anyone who knows me at all knows how much I love my hometown, and the reverence I have for the beauty that surrounds it. It's such an incredible little paradise of a town. That being said, I doubt I could live there again, and I think that makes me appreciate it even more.
Saturday was a day full of family and friends, and I went to bed feeling so incredibly lucky. The weather was beautiful all weekend. The midday Easter festivities included packing eleven of us into my Grandmother's little apartment for lunch. Despite approaching 89 years of age, Bugga (the nickname chosen by my brother when he was very, very little) can still regale us with tales of family history and names of distant relatives I didn't know existed. It always amazes me what she can remember; I have such unconditional admiration and love for her.
Dan and I spent Sunday morning out on the trails in one of my favorite places in the world - Taughannock Falls State Park. A deep gorge cuts through crumbling rock with falls as high as 215 feet, and leads directly to beautiful Cayuga Lake. I've been hiking and goofing around in this park since I was much younger, and remember gently forcing some of my Cornell friends to visit it with me on occasion!
The trail system allows you the chance to hike from the base of the gorge to the top of the falls and back down the opposite side, and to the base of the highest waterfall itself. What makes the park so special isn't just the scenery, but the fact that the trails allow you to see it from so many different angles. Not to mention its proximity to Ithaca. The incredibly steep walls of the gorge caused "I want to climb that!" thoughts and feelings, particularly in Dan. I'm sure thinking about our friends in Red Rocks climbing away didn't help! But due to the fact that most of the rock in the area is sedimentary, it's unfortunately not an option. Of course, we did find a way to get a little bit of "climbing" in.
We covered just under four miles in two hours with plenty of photo stops and a little bridge bouldering. Lesson of the day: Merrel hiking shoes and boots are awesome, but aren't the best choice for bouldering, but we did what we could with what we had.
We had a great time, and it was a perfect way to close out the weekend in Ithaca.