We’d had been talking about driving down to Ithaca for a week or more. Every day there was some obstacle that prevented us from leaving town. Finally we saw an an opening and took it. Weather is always a concern in mid January. We will never forget the experience of driving back from there with our car doors open so we could look down and see the road. The visibility was below zero.
We stopped in Geneva and had coffee at Opus, a cool coffee shop on Exchange Street that doubles as a sandwich shop and wine bar. The place was hip by international standards but as comfortable as an old shoe.
In Ithaca we parked in the lot near the library and of course stopped in there right off the bat. We walked through the Commons where there is some kind of serious remodeling job going on and stopped in the book store. We would always find something here but it feels more like a junk store now. Simeon’s was still boarded up after the out of control truck smashed through the front. And the newsstand, which had a great magazine rack, fresh ground coffee and rolling papers was now some sort of outdoor store.
From there we began our ascent up the big hill to the Johnson Museum on Cornell’s campus. I took this photo of the netting that is now on all of the bridges in town. I’ve read that one of the families of a recent suicide is suing the town for not protecting their offspring from a jump into the gorge.
Cornell’s campus is like a medieval city with giant castle-like fraternity houses and it looks even more oppressive when the students are on break. But some of those very same Ivy League students go on to make a fortune and endow the Johnson Museum with its fabulous collection.
Giacometti’s “Walking Man” alone is worth the drive. And then there’s Geneva’s Arthur Dove, Otto Dix, Marden Hartley and Philip Guston!
It was snowing by closing time and the walk back into town was beautiful. We stopped in the health food store and the drum store where we suspected new ownership. Nothing stays the same except the Moosewood Restaurant.
Instead of settling in for dinner while the snow came down we drove out of town and stopped n Geneva again where we had a fantastic meal at Red Dove (a nod to Arthur). Geneva is the new Ithaca.
2 Comments
The Red Dove is usually a worthwhile stop especially when they have Old Speckled Hen on tap. I always leave smiling.
Yeah, Moosewood is just same as always- bad. Sounds like a lot of things changed since you were there last…