A Night On the Town - Kitchen Theatre Company, Ithaca, New York, USA

It's dark, windy, rainy, snowy, and cold tonight in downtown Ithaca. Not an ideal set of circumstances but, I had a 15-minute walk to get downtown to see a performance at the Kitchen Theatre Company so I get what nature gives me.



"Bold, Intimate, Engaging." Great attributes to delight any theatre-goer.



The show was the "2.5 Minute Ride," by playwright Lisa Kron. The synopsis: "Flip through the Kron family archives–from the annual Ohio amusement park vacation to the father-daughter journey to Auschwitz to see where his parents were killed – as one woman takes on the big things, the little things, and the unexpected ironies that tie them all together." (Source: Kitchen Theatre Company website).



The 80-minute production featured Lena Kaminsky as the only cast member. I note from her resume that she studied at Emerson College.  Emerson College has been a source of many talented performers at my favorite performing arts venue, Priscilla Beach Theatre, in southeastern Massachusetts.



The 100-seat venue was delightfully intimate, the actress was totally engaging, and the storyline bold. Hmmm? where have I seen those three words before?  (Note: I arrived early before other patrons to make this image - they filled in shortly thereafter).



The current season offerings.



On my way back home after the show, I was drawn to this neon icon like a moth to a flame. Remember when neon signs were everywhere? No? I guess I'm dating myself.............this place has been open for 40 years.

Ithaca is Gorges, Ithaca, New York, USA

As their advertising campaign states, "Ithaca is Gorges." It is both a truism and a play on the words, Ithaca is gorgeous. And not all the gorges are big - like this riffle that flows through the Cornell University campus and joins the bigger flow......



....in the Cascadilla Creek gorge.



I wish I had been able to walk the trail beside the creek but, it was closed for the winter season.



I really like this stone bridge - I kept expecting Gollum to peek out from under the edge of the bridge and wink at me.



Here's a longer exposure view to blur the water just a bit. And also to show the safety net that prevents bridge jumpers from being successful.

I have been to many cities in my life and am still overwhelmed by the extraordinary presence of so many waterfalls both in or nearby the downtown area. Ithaca truly is gorges/gorgeous!

Gray Days of Late Fall, Ithaca, New York, USA

The sun has been hiding for a few days now behind a veil of drizzle or rain but, it is still a grand sight looking out over Cayuga Lake from the Cornell University campus. The lake is the longest of New York's Finger Lakes stretching for almost 40 miles to the north.



In this view, downtown Ithaca is in the left mid-distance, and a part of the Cornell University campus is in the foreground. Ithaca is located at the southern end of Cayuga Lake.



Gray day or not, downtown waterfall "Ithaca Falls," pours out its usual torrent of water which flows through town and drains into Cayuga Lake.



Walking farther up the same gorge gives sight of the next waterfall. The suspension footbridge that spans the gorge is for pedestrians/students/professors and connects a nearby residential area to the campus.



The students criss-cross the campus coming and going to classes, seemingly oblivious to the cold - ah, the pleasures of youthful vigor and good circulation.



Enough of this black and white world, time for some indoor color........



...... perhaps at the Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art on the Cornell University campus, or, .....



..  a delicious, homemade colorful vegan lunch of red peppers, black beans, brown rice, meatless meatballs, spinach, and pasta - all leftovers - a refrigerator surprise - always a favorite.



As always, the gray weather was temporary and got pushed out by a cold air mass leaving bright blue skies and wind - and cold. Here's the temperature when I got up that morning. It was not a misprint.

Out and About, Ithaca, New York, USA

What is it that gives a town its character? Why does one town feel like you never want to leave and others you can't leave soon enough? Except for the wintry cold, Ithaca is one of those towns that feels like I would want to stay forever.

This is a view down State Street in downtown Ithaca. The venerable State Theatre is on the left side of the street. The 1600-seat venue was opened in 1928.  I haven't been to a show there yet but, I'm hoping.



It's a walk-able downtown filled with street art, restaurants, shops, old hippies, new hippies, students, professors, tradespersons, professionals, the full spectrum of ethnicities, races, religions, and sexual orientations. It always pleasantly surprises me the energy and vibe that a "college town" can imbue in a community. Ithaca enjoys the presence of both Cornell University and Ithaca College on that point.

Ithaca College runs an FM radio station (FM 91.7 WICB) that plays an eclectic range and selection of great music just like you expect and might remember from your early twenties in a college town. As an FM radio fan, I feel at home here since the sound is much like Boston's Emerson College (FM 88.9 WERS) which runs a similar edgy, hip college music station.



There are stately grand old houses.



And this popular downtown style house is even painted in "Priscilla Beach Theatre Red." Hear that Sherwin Williams? the color should not be named "Crabby Apple." It deserves something grander - like "Priscilla Beach Theatre Red." I don't know it for a fact and I don't speak for them but, I can imagine the owners might be willing to license their name to your paint color and spread their name even wider around the big Sherwin Williams paint world. Give it a thought or - at least a smile.



I'd love to call this place home. Of course, it's not for sale and I can't afford it anyway but, it's worth a dream.



As I said, it's a walk-able town - or bicycle-able if you'd prefer to use and have the app on your phone to rent this one.



Though I haven't focused this post on the waterfalls in walking distance there is other stunning nature at every turn - like these water drops that can't decide whether to freeze or evaporate.

Yep, I like this town. And the best thing about it? My son lives here!

Fall has Fallen, Manomet, Plymouth, Massachusetts, USA

This year's fall leaf season draws to a close with the final display of the golds and russets. Soon, the white of snow and ice and the cold of winter will envelope us...........but the glorious rebirth of spring will shortly follow!!

This blog will be on hiatus for a while - please check back another time.

Boston - Out and About and Above, Part 8 of 8, Boston, Massachusetts, USA

Although I am retired, I still am usually out of bed before the sunrise every day. It's a lifetime habit that is hard to change and frankly, I somehow feel I have a jump on the day by rising early.  A reward for this, our last day in Boston, was this glorious sunrise over the Boston Harbor.



As the day gets going, I was surprised to see the bustling ferry traffic in the Harbor. At right above, two boats have just moored and two more are moving closer to their docks.



A view of the iconic North End neighborhood currently known for its predominately Italian-American culture and heritage. In its distant past, the white steeple to the right of center is the church from which Paul Revere instructed the sexton to hang his famous lantern to signify "the British are coming!" back in 1775.

It's hard to distinguish in the image but, just to the left of the steeple past the harbor is docked the USS Constitution (aka "Old Ironsides"), launched in 1797, it is the world's oldest commissioned naval vessel still afloat.



The warm sun makes for a pleasant lunch spot on the Rose Kennedy Greenway.



Also on the Greenway, these red chairs, free and available to the public, are also popular to catch a few warm rays during lunchtime as the days grow shorter and shorter with the approach of winter.



And speaking of lunchtime, food trucks are popular along and on the Greenway.  I would never have believed one could outfit a truck with a wood-fired pizza oven and make pizzas to order but, here it is!  The South Station subway access is at left, and the South Station train terminal at center.



To end where I began, a final image of the Custom House rotunda, a spot I will always remember for the breathtakingly beautiful acapella music by the Crepusculum Choir from Berklee College of Music. (By the way, "crepusculum" is Latin for "twilight.")



When we travel by car, the tendency is to take too much stuff but, I have never considered or actually brought along my own favorite chair like this fellow traveler did.  Hmmmm?

Good bye, Boston! Thanks for the wonderful memories!

Other posts in this series are:

Part 1 is at this link.
Part 2 is at this link.
Part 3 is at this link.
Part 4 is at this link.
Part 5 is at this link.
Part 6 is at this link.
Part 7 is at this link.
Part 8 is at this link.

Boston - Out and About and Above, Part 7 of 8, Boston, Massachusetts, USA

The Boston Food Truck scene is thriving on this fall day at lunch time.  In this case, specializing in Vietnamese cuisine.  Along the Greenway (and maybe in other parts of town, I don't know), there are at least a dozen or so purveyors of custom made food and treats for hungry workers and tourists alike. But this post, is about.........



... the clock high atop the Custom House Tower. Formerly, the structure was the actual Custom House to service the fleet of ships that plied the Boston Harbor with loads of goods from around the world.  Today, the entire building is under lease to the Marriott Corporation for use in their timeshare program.

The observation deck is behind the green copper cladding just above the actual clock faces.



Inside one of the clock faces (each face is more than 20-feet wide), here's what the number "6" looks like - maybe a meter or so tall.



As I mentioned, the facility is a timeshare property and this floor also offers guests various game tables in addition to a view of the clock mechanism. You can kinda see the pendulum in the background beyond the ladder.



It is an electro-mechanical clock and requires servicing twice a year to reset the time to the daylight savings changes. The three ivory colored arms on the right and one arm on the left connect to each of the four faces and keeps them all in sync. It may look a bit Rube Goldberg-ish but it works!

It's one of the charms of this great city of Boston - a touch of old and a touch of new and always wonderful things to see or do.

Other posts in this series are:

Part 1 is at this link.
Part 2 is at this link.
Part 3 is at this link.
Part 4 is at this link.
Part 5 is at this link.
Part 6 is at this link.
Part 7 is at this link.
Part 8 is at this link.

Boston - Out and About and Above, Part 6 of 8, Boston, Massachusetts, USA

Another visit to the Zakim Bridge and surrounding parkland....



....which includes these sportsmen/skateboarders enjoying the purpose-built skate park directly beside the bridge.



The Lynch Family Skatepark is a skate park operated by the Department of Conservation and Recreation and located in Cambridge beside the bridge.



This scene is heading back home for the night along this cobbled street near Faneuil Hall. Another day of nearly 15,000 footsteps according to my ever-reminding pocket phone.

Other posts in this series are:

Part 1 is at this link.
Part 2 is at this link.
Part 3 is at this link.
Part 4 is at this link.
Part 5 is at this link.
Part 6 is at this link.
Part 7 is at this link.
Part 8 is at this link.

Boston - Out and About and Above, Part 5 of 8, Boston, Massachusetts, USA

It is difficult to imagine there was a time in our history when five cents was enough money to make it part of your name and chisel it in granite on your huge bank building in downtown Boston.

Nearby, the Granary Burying Ground is one of the city's oldest cemeteries, founded in 1660 and just a block from the Boston Common.



Patriots including Paul Revere, the five victims of the Boston Massacre, and three signers of the Declaration of Independence: Samuel Adams, John Hancock, and Robert Treat Paine rest for eternity here. The obelisk left of center marks the plot of the Franklin family (although Benjamin himself is buried in Philadelphia).



A sure sign of the coming winter, this park fountain with stunning statuary on the edge of the Boston Common has been turned off and the pipes completely drained of remaining water.



It is a spectacularly beautiful fall day on the 50-acre Boston Common located in a prime spot downtown. Dating from 1634, it is the oldest city park in the United States. (And yes, that's a bird blurring through my field of view - an un-glamorous pigeon perhaps).



A chill in the air, a bench to sit, and warm sun on the skin - a hard combination to beat.



And an occasional swirl of leaves in the breeze is nice, too.



The powerful "Lest We Forget" exhibit lined this walkway through the Common. Created by German-Italian photographer and filmmaker Luigi Toscano, the 60 large-scale portraits of Holocaust survivors from the United States – including nine from Massachusetts – Germany, Ukraine, Israel, Russia, and Belarus – are part of a compelling arts and remembrance project. More at this link.



The last gasp of gold to fall from the branches.



Why walk on pavement when you can brush through the crackling leaves on the ground - a sound unlike any other - soon to be replaced with the equally unique sound of snow scrunching underfoot. 

Boston - always a world-class city!

Other posts in this series are:

Part 1 is at this link.
Part 2 is at this link.
Part 3 is at this link.
Part 4 is at this link.
Part 5 is at this link.
Part 6 is at this link.
Part 7 is at this link.
Part 8 is at this link.