On the road again

We are deviating from your normal Cooking Librarian content for about a week. I'm currently on a trip visiting my brother and wanted to document it, and figured this was the best way. I will be making daily posts with my travel experiences, so if you wish to skip all that then check back after June 9th. Otherwise, if you're interested, read on. I do have my brother's permission to mention where he lives.

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I had a rather tedious and frustrating time getting to Ithaca. Things started out just peachy. My red-eye flight to my first layover was on time. However, I was very nervous flying out for some reason. I'm a well-traveled person and have traveled by plane many a time, but the last time was almost 4 years ago--perhaps part of the reason for my nervousness. I actually started to feel claustrophobic as I got on the plane and filed down to my seat. Not good. It was better after I got in the air. I think I may watch too much news.

My first layover was short, barely long enough for me to grab breakfast and run to the restroom so I could avoid using the one on the plane. Breakfast was a nod to a trip I took with my best friend K in 2008. We stopped at a Dunkin Doughnuts at the same airport as my first layover and got Bavarian cream donuts--my first time having them. They were just as good this time as I remember them. Everything continued to go swimmingly until my second layover. There I hit a bit of a snafu. My third and last flight was canceled due to maintenance issues on the plane that were not fixed quickly. So I had to rebook for another flight. Lo and behold, the next flight was already booked and the best I could get was a seat request. Great. Long story short, I barely managed to make it on the flight and only did because someone did not show up. They paged him several times, and he never came so lucky me I got his seat.

So I get to Ithaca and find out that my luggage didn't make it with me--which I kind of figured would happen since I was let on the plane only as they were shutting the door behind me. Not a lot of notice for the baggage crew. I'm told at Ithaca that a flight later that night would be bringing in and a claim for the bag was made. They said I should get a call around 7 or 8 in the morning to arrange a delivery time. I picked up my rental car with no hassles and head to my brother's apartment. Next morning, no call. I wait 2 extra hours and call them. Guess what? The luggage didn't come in last night, but they're not sure why. I was assured that it would very likely come in on the afternoon flight. So once again I wait (note I'm still wearing the clothes I flew out in at this point) hoping to get it within a few more hours. At 2pm I call again only to find out that it had supposedly been delivered, with a mysterious note to "leave it in the garage." My brother's apartment has no garage to leave the luggage in and not once did I ever say the word garage when speaking with anyone at the terminal; I'm still scratching my head over this. A couple of minutes after I got off the phone with the gentleman assisting me, my brother's phone rings with a call from the delivery guy who is waiting outside. So in the end, I did get my luggage--and a hot shower with my toiletries and a change of clothes. I finally felt human.

Regardless of the rocky start to my trip, I have to say that I'm having a lot of fun. I'm falling under Ithaca's spell. This place is beautiful. It's almost as if the people who settled here decided to build their homes in the middle of the forest without clearing the trees. For a girl that's grown up in the suburbs, it's so different from what I'm used to, but I love the melding of nature and civilization. My brother truly has the best view from his bedroom windows. They both look out into lush green trees, and a glorious chorus of birdsong fills the air as soon as the suggestion of the rising sun can be seen. I don't get to hear anything like it at home.

My first meal here was an early dinner; after not getting much sleep for 24 hours prior to my arrival, I didn't have the stamina for much more than that. My brother called in a pizza at a local pizza place and we went and picked it up. Apparently the kitchen is on the floor above the dining area. Our order came down on a dumb waiter--now that's character! An early bedtime followed some truly excellent deep-dish pizza.

Today was spent at the Summer Festival. Ithaca only has about 30,000 people and they must have all been at the festival with their friends from the surrounding areas. The festival itself spanned several blocks in every direction and every craft, food, and entertainment you can think of was there. The crush of people was unbelievable. Everybody who's anybody must have been there. These are people that like to have a good time. Even in my hometown, which boasts a population twice that size can't turn out even half as many people to our festival in the fall. It was amazing. There was a booth of beautiful hand-made embroidered linens and the woman who ran the booth does all the work herself. She had a piece there she was working on. I saw booths with jewelry made of crystal, bone, and silver. I saw pottery with animal tracks, wooden carvings of every shape and size, glassworks for your garden, and white oak hand-crafted garden furniture. As for entertainment, there were magicians, hula hoopers, and a group dancing a reel dance to live music. There was so much to see, and my eyes drank it all in.

Dinner tonite was late. I was Belgian for a night and ate around 10pm. My brother took me to this restaurant that has a different menu every day. The food was really good and the cuisine combined some really interesting and tantalizing flavors together. We shared an appetizer of coconut and panko-crusted shrimp with orange marmalade dip. My entree was a cardamom-and-something chicken with a creamy tomato sauce. It was so good, there were no leftovers. Desserts looked equally as fantastic, but we opted to have some of the fudge we bought at the festival instead.

So now I'm finishing this first post of the trip and it's super-late and I can't wait for tomorrow. Ithaca Bakery for breakfast (yes, he's taking me there sis!) with more fun things to do. I don't think we're going to make it to New York City while I'm here because we have too much planned to do around Ithaca. But that's ok. I'm very much looking forward to getting to know more about this charming and enchanting place.