A Very Full Day Off

Well, today was my day off, and what a day it was!  I slept in this morning until a gloriously late 9 a.m.  Then I made myself some buckwheat pancakes and waited on my friend Meghan to arrive.  Meghan, who is one of my best friends in the whole wide world, was my roommate when I lived in Albuquerque.  She had to come to Albany for work this week, and when she realized she was going to finish a day early, she rented a car and drove down to see me for a few hours!  I was so excited to see her and catch up - it's been almost 2 years since my last visit out west.  I lent her some boots and we tromped around in the pastures, chasing sheep and horses.  We managed to catch one little lamb who was very patient and cuddly while we passed her around.  Then we went to the Three Bears Inn, which is an inn with a restaurant in nearby Marathon, for lunch.  We had yummy sandwiches and some sweet chilled wine called  - Labrusca? Lambrusco? I'm not sure which - for lunch - Megs is a fan, but the locals supposedly think it is a terrible substitute for wine.  Apparently the grapes are not very high quality.  It was a little sweet for my taste, but if I thought about it like juice, it was kind of nice!

After Meghan left to go catch her flight, I decided to go to Ithaca to explore.  Well, the first place that I went was the Cornell Lab of Ornithology.  This magical place is the home of fantastic bird research, and they have a great website with all kinds of resources on birds and bird songs.  I've used their recordings of bird audio at home when I'm trying to identify a new bird, and I use their eBird application to record birds I see around the house.  When I realized how close they are, I almost started jumping up and down.  It's 35 minutes from my door to the visitor center.  When I got there, I felt like a pilgrim arriving at Mecca.  I just wandered around with my mouth open for a while :)  I told the receptionist that I just moved here from Georgia and I was so excited to be there, and she was really friendly and helpful.  When I asked her about a bumper sticker I had seen in the parking lot (it said "Do you eBird?"), she called 3 people until she found someone to go track one down for me and bring it down to the lobby!  There's a sanctuary there called Sapsucker Woods, and there are lots of trails through it.  Unfortunately, I got there kind of close to closing time.  I know where I'm going to be bright and early on my next day off!  I almost couldn't resist the pull of that trailhead...  Apparently they also have a sound lab where you can play with audio tools, and they have a few webcams on nests that are right there in Sapsucker Woods - I saw the herons in person! (http://www.allaboutbirds.org/page.aspx?pid=2433).  I got a CD in the gift shop, and I tried to buy Jon Young's new book that just came out, What the Robin Knows, but they didn't have it in stock yet.

After that I wandered around downtown Ithaca, which is a cute little town.  I played around in a music store, went to the health food co-op and bought all kinds of yummy stuff that I probably didn't really need, and drove around near the lake.  Looks like there are some really nice hiking spots around here, so I'm going to have to check them out too.  Overall, I had an awesome day.  I feel very blessed to have good friends and to be in such a beautiful, culturally and naturally rich area.  Hope you guys are well...

Love,
Aura