Saturday, September 15, 2012

The Nook Does New York: Day 4

Saturday!

We wanted to go back to Taughannock State Park and hike to the waterfalls there before the wedding later in the afternooon, but the forecast was predicting Doom and Terror in the form of Tornadoes and Apocalyptic Hail, so we decided to play it safe and not go. This was a tremendous bummer for me because I really wanted to see the falls and we'd been trying to do so for two days and it just kept not working out.

Dejected, I sat around in the TV room at the inn and played around on facebook for awhile. I decided to post on the wall of one of my best friends from high school, Hope, who I knew lived somewhere in New York State. She'd gone to college at Cornell and so I knew she'd lived in Ithaca at some point, and last I heard she had been working at a farm somewhere upstate, but then she'd gone to India for several months and we'd lost touch. I had no idea if she was even in the country at the moment, let alone in New York, let alone in the region of New York where we were, or if she'd even been on facebook in months, but I nonetheless said:

"Hey! I'm at Cayuta Lake right now! Where are you?"

Magically, she responded within a few minutes: "What? I'm at the Ithaca Farmer's Market! I'll be here until 3 - come visit me!" I later learned that this was indeed exceptionally magical, because she didn't have a cell phone and had randomly borrowed her boss' and checked her facebook right at that exact moment.

Well, going to the Ithaca Farmer's Market and seeing one of my very good friends certainly sounded much better than twiddling our thumbs in a giant storm and mourning the loss of our hike, so we headed out, looking up directions on the way. It started to rain pretty hard as we got there. There were no tornadoes or blizzards or anything in sight, though, and we were feeling adventurous, so we pressed on; traffic was ridiculous, but we finally made it to our destination. We parked in the shallowest mud puddle we could find which was, inevitably, on the absolute opposite end of the parking lot from the market, and started wading toward the building. Occasionally we'd stop and take shelter beneath one of the several ivy-covered archways that led toward the stalls.

I bought this awesome stretchy Columbia rain jacket when I was pregnant. Baby C fits nicely inside of it both in- and ex-utero! (Note: This post is not sponsored by Columbia. But it should be.)
Everything about this picture is made of win.


The farmer's market was extraordinarily awesome. It's in a big covered building - like the Pike Market of the East! - only it has permanent stalls, which is even cooler. Granted, it's much smaller than Pike Place, but much bigger than most farmer's markets and far more rad. Every stall had a wooden sign posted above it, which lent a distinctive old-timey-yay-I'm-a-peasant-here-to-do-some-bartering sort of feel to the whole place. Loved it. The variety was great, too - of course you had your standard produce, crafts, cheese and meat up the ying yang, but there were also unique gourmet goods and agua fresca stands and even hot food stalls with everything ranging from Italian to Japanese to Cambodian cuisine We opted for the latter for lunch, and got some sort of sweet rice, banana and jackfruit concoction wrapped in a banana leaf, a mung-bean-and-carrot fritter with sweet chili sauce that was outrageously satisfying, and some kind of spicy chicken dish with rice. Why have I never had Cambodian food before!?? My life until now has been a complete waste! Dramatic sigh!


Between the Cambodian food, the balmy air, the rain, the green foliage, and the festive market feel, I felt like I was in some tropical Asian country.

We did eventually find the stall of the farm Hope works for - and, with it, Hope! Hooray! She was absolutely astonished to see us - she had not at all expected us to show up despite her invite, and of course it's always strange to see people out of the context in which you're accustomed to seeing them. Our reunion was a very happy one. It's so nice to see old friends! We bought some cherry tomatoes from her which are without question the best, sweetest, most flavorful tomatoes I've ever had in my life. They were as sweet as grapes and the perfect texture and we ate an entire pint of them in one go. If you're ever in upstate New York, I beg you, go find Blue Heron Farm and buy all of the cherry tomatoes you can get your hands on. Your life will never be the same.

Astonishment! Slightly posed! But we'll pretend it's not!


Baby C, meanwhile, had a grand old time. At first she was sleepy:


And then she woke up:



And then she got bored. :-)

"Yawn... Please, I'm such a seasoned world traveler. You can't impress me."
  

So yes, that was the Ithaca Farmer's Market and our wondrous experience there. :-)

After that, we swam back to the car and returned to the B&B. We had just enough time to relax for a few minutes and then get dressed before it was wedding time! It was still a little drizzly but the rain had for the most part dried up by that point. When the time came, we walked from the inn on a path through the woods to the beautiful old stone chapel where the ceremony took place. The ceremony itself was quite lovely, and just the right length, and afterward we walked on back through the woods to the reception hall at the inn. It was such a perfect wedding and reception, with whimsical but classy decorations, lots of incorporated inside family jokes, hilarious wedding party speeches, great music, and an open bar that served, among a gazillion other things, a pretty decent IPA. It was wonderful chatting with family and friends, eating whoopie pies (the Maine family's dessert) and half-moon cookies (the New York family's dessert) and wedding cake, and dancing into the night. The last dance of the night was Piano Man. The entire assembly of guests spontaneously formed into a ring, swaying together and belting the lyrics at the top of our lungs, while Jake and Nora danced together in the middle. It was classic and the most romantic and heartwarming thing ever, I thought.

Anyway, while this trip was tiring and had many stressful moments, I am so, SO glad we came! It was wonderful to be a part of these family memories, and it would have been so sad to miss out on that.


All dressed up and no where to go. ...Oh wait. I mean, all dressed up and ready to party!

Max looking sharp, and knowing it.
walking to the chapel

Max and his new sort-of-cousin-by-marriage. Max was the assistant ringbearer and did a fantastic job! He made a point of doing a parade wave down the aisle.

She may have spent too much time enjoying the open bar...

Thumbs up!



1 comment:

  1. oh suspenders and bow ties! i just love little max and his outfit :)

    ReplyDelete