Weekend in Ithaca

Firstly, this post would have been done last night, but Liz and I came home from work and grocery shopping to find our street cordoned off. We drove to another street entrance and it was also blocked. Driving down a third street found a tree on the road, which had taken down power lines. We ended up driving through the cordon about an hour later after assessing we could get to our place and lived without power. Power was back on by about 1AM. Adventure.

OK, weekend in Ithaca.

Ithaca is where Andrew goes to school. It's in the middle of New York state, in the Finger Lakes region. It is about a 4 hour drive (well, 6 hours back) from Stamford. Once we had unloaded all of Andrew's stuff at school we went to Taughannock Falls State Park. It is home to a 215ft (65.5 metre) single-drop waterfall, which is 33ft (10 metres) taller than Niagara Falls. After parking in the ice-covered lot we put on multiple layers and walked the 3/4 mile trail to the fall. It was a cool walk along the stream that flowed to the lake that Ithaca is on (Lake Cayuga). There was a lot of ice and snow along the trail and river, owing to the fact that Ithaca is generally cold and windy and that the stream flows through a large gorge. The main fall was cool, it is the first photo below:

At the base of the fall was a pile of snow and ice. The water from the fall would then flow behind this and out underneath it. Along the trail you could see water flowing beneath the ice which looked really cool - like when ice cube trays aren't completely frozen but on a really large scale.

Here are Liz and I at the fall. This should prove to everyone that I am still alive and well.

We were there late in the afternoon, so the sun started to go down and I got cold, my hands especially. By the time we got to the car my hands were shaking and hurt to the point that I thought I was going to throw up. After about 10 or 15 minutes my hands calmed down (they stung a little still a few hours later) and the feeling of being sick passed. It was a good thing that it passed, because dinner was the highlight of the weekend!

If ever you're in Ithaca, who knows, you might be one day, you owe it to yourself to check out Maxie's Supper Club. It's where we had dinner, and it's the only place I ever want to eat dinner in Ithaca ever again. Period.

Maxie's is a New Orleans style restaurant, so they serve a lot of southern food. The atmosphere was bar-like in parts, casual restaurant in others. We had quickly looked at the menu outside and all decided that we could find something to eat there, but it wasn't until I sat down and fully read the menu that I saw what I wanted. It is called the "Piggy Platter", and it's description reads "pulled pork and rib combo with creamy slaw, bbq beans". Andrew also ordered the Piggy Platter and Liz got a bowl of gumbo. We also got a bowl of Sweet Potato fries for the table.

When the food got brought out the plates were huge! There was a massive collection of beans, an enormous pile of coleslaw, mounds of pulled pork and then 3 giant ribs. I felt like Adam Richmond (from Man vs Food) must feel when he sits down in front of one of his challenge meals. Everything on the plate was so delicious. The sauce on the ribs was the best barbecue sauce that I have ever had. Excess sauce dripped on the pulled pork, adding wonderousness to every bite. I thought about it afterward, and I think that when pigs are rolling around in mud, eating slop from a trough and wondering if life gets any better than this that some of the great thinkers of pig kind must consider the Piggy Platter. They know that if you're a good pig that's where you can end up.

As big as the plate and meal was, the taste just kept me going. The look of pride on Liz' face when I ate the last bite was something I will remember and cherish forever. The surprise in the waiter's voice when he came over at the end and said "You got through it" still rings in my ears. Unfortunately the smell of barbecue sauce on my hands only lasted a few hours after the meal was gone, but it will live on in my memory. There are no photos of the plate or my victory, but I did claim the sticker that they put in with the check (bill). I was told by Liz that I had earned that sticker.

To top it all off, Maxie's had really good pineapple juice.

Not being able to do much for the rest of the evening owing to my meat coma, the next morning we went for breakfast at our usual (we've been there twice) breakfast place in Ithaca, The Sunset Grille. A waitress there decided to get funny with me. She said "I detect a bit of an accent... are you from New Jersey?" I tried to look indignantly at her, but the fact that I was trying not to laugh probably twisted my face incompletely the wrong directions to get that across. Lost for words, she left the table, calling me "Pumpkin". Breakfast was good as usual (I had ham, you know, so I felt I could conquer more of a pig), but the pineapple juice at Sunset Grille isn't as good as Maxie's.

So, if you're still reading this, let my fun time in Ithaca be a lesson to you all.

• If it's winter, wear thick gloves.
• If you need dinner or pineapple juice, go to Maxie's.
• If someone at Sunset Grille says you're from New Jersey and calls you "Pumpkin", make sure your comeback is better than mine.

All that was left was the drive home, and you all know how that went. I was told by a reader that the posts while coming home from Ithaca were painful to read. I'm glad to hear that, because I was hoping to share our pain and create a sense of empathy in all of you. It's nice to know that I achieved that to some degree.