Our Trip - Part Two

After Leaving Farm Sanctuary, we headed into Watkins Glen to the Glen Mountain Bakery & Market. The menu is very veg friendly with 5 different vegan sandwich choices and a variety of vegan pastries.

Leenie and I had the Sanctuary Special (seitan, lettuce, tomato, sprouts, olive oil, vinegar and spicy whole grain mustard on whole wheat bread). Tasha had the Roasted Red Pepper sandwich on whole wheat. The boys had Jackson's Revenge (market made tofu burger, olive oil, vinegar and spicy whole grain mustard on toasted whole wheat bread). Jim had the Vegetarian Chili. The portions were generous and the food was delicious, although I would skip the mustard on the boys' burgers next time. The staff was friendly and they had outdoor tables where our dogs were welcome.

Our next stop was just down the road at Watkins Glen State Park, which boasts a gorge trail that has 19 waterfalls. The dogs were not allowed on the gorge trail, although there were two other, far less scenic trails they were welcome on. Since there was a parking lot at either end of the gorge trail, I started up the 1.5 mile trail with the kids while Jim drove to the other parking lot with the dogs. He started heading down the trail towards us. Once we met I continuedon to the car and the waiting dogs with the boys who were too tired to hike back down the trail anyhow, while Jim and the girls hiked back down. The result was everyone got to see all the waterfalls and the dogs were only in the car about 10 minutes.

Afterwards we headed back to the campgrounds for dinner and a campfire. The rain had begun to get heavy again and we ended up playing games indoors. Thankfully, the cabin had an air conditioner which helped us dry everything out a bit.

Sunday morning it was pouring rain. We loaded everything into the car and headed into Ithaca to the Ithaca Farmers Market, which is held in a covered pavillion. The Farmer's Market was huge and had a huge variety of vendors including fruits, vegetables, prepeared foods, wines, body care products and handcrafts. Local musicians were scattered throughout the pavillion and played a variety of music. The vendors were friendly, as were the shoppers who kept good moods depsite the pouring rain. As a mutlicultural family sometimes I feel like we stand out in a crowd, I never felt this at the Ithaca Farmers market.

We headed to The Commons in dowtown Ithaca even though the rain continued to fall heavily. Jim had been there on a business trip a few years back and wanted us all to see it. I wish it had been dry but we enjoyed it anyway. There was a playground in the center which the boys enjoyed. A record store caught Jim's eye (in fact we're listening to the Badsie Meets Bond album he bought as I type this) and a vintage clothing store caught mine. Next time we'll spend more time at the commons, hopefully indrier weather.

Our final stop in Ithaca was the Greenstar Co-op, where we got sandwiches for the road. Longtime readers will notice a distinct departure from my usual, make it myself lifestyle on this trip. Since we were entering this mecca of vegan options we decided to sample as much of it as we could and we ate luch out all three days. Unfortunately we weren't able to enjoy a sit down meal in Moosewood because of the dogs but we definitely will next time.

Tomorrow I'll share the cooking that I did in preparation for and on this trip.