OUR ITHACA GET AWAY!!!

We had a great time in Ithaca as usual. We went to the Chili Cook-off at The Commons where we enjoyed tastings of chili and wings. Some were really weird, almost like dog food (I threw those out) and some were just delicious. We bumped into Donna Duncan who was a real estate agent that took us around a few times in the past years. Her sister is a caterer and had a booth at the cook-off. It's called hope's Way. We had too many tickets so we found a homeless person (at least he looked that way) and gave him our extras. He literally grabbed them from our hand!
We looked at land where a farm was being subdivided into 23 parcals. That was lots of fun. PJ had a great time in the 4 story 100 year old barn. There were antique gardening tools still in there.

That night we went to Sunset Park (a park specifically made to look at the sunset. It's set in a neighborhood of mansions. There's a stone wall that you sit on and just watch). EVERY time we go there we meet someone that is very interesting. This time the only guy that was there approached us and introduced himself. His name was John Hylas. He was tall, thin, long blonde hair and very tan. He looked like a surfer dude until he got closer. As it ends up, he's 50 years old. He worked at Cornells Synchrotron which is an atom and partical smasher or something like that. He was just laid off after working there for 26 years. He was just sooo interesting. He was telling us about how water won't freeze up high in the sky unless it's 55 degrees below zero because the hydrogen bond is curved etc. So when it snows, the snow particles are forming in between the rain. Therefore you get snow from raindrops. I didn't get it but PJ did. He talked about how he met someone that was a navy officer in a submarine doing manuvers in the waters off of L.I. He said that they shot 3 missles out to hit a bouy 6 miles away. Two hit where they should have and the other boomeranged and hit a plane. That was flight 800 above the Hamptons. He said that the navy quickly cleaned up what they needed before the coast guard got there to cover up. A lady walking her dog on the beach saw something come out of the water and hit the plane. She told the news and within 12 hours, you never heard from her again. Years later he was in Seattle and was at a seminar and the guy next to him was also a navy officer. John told him what he had heard and the guy said that's exactly what happened. So that is what we all thought but the navy covered it up... if it's true. John invited to take PJ and I to Cornell the next day to see this Synchrotron thing. PJ wrote down his phone # but when we went to call him the next day we couldn't read a few of the numbers. The pen was frozen so it didn't work well. So we never got to check it out. It was so much fun chatting with him though. From what we understood, he was really an interesting guy that was just so bizarre you had to stay and listen to more! As he was talking I kept thinking of how was I going to get his picture so I can use it in my scrapbook. I started taking pictures of the sun and then I said, "John, stay where you are. The sun is shining through your hair really nice". He loved that idea probably as much as he loved his hair!!
The next 2 days were fun. We went to King Ferry Winery to get a bottle of our favorite wine , Treleaven Dry Riesling. We met someone who grew up in Massapequa so that was interesting. We took a ride to see Otisco and Skaneateles Lakes. We never knew that they were part of the Finger Lakes. There's actually 11 lakes in the Finger Lakes. We learned something!
We had a great dinner at our favorite dinner spot in Ithaca, Maxie's Supper Club and Oyster Bar. Funny how PJ and I usually end up ordering the exact same thing wherever we go. We had Crab and Corn Chowder, Fried Green Tomatoes and Crab Cake Po Boys. PJ eats the butter with a spoon that's put out to have with the cornbread. He can't get enough of it. It has orange juice and honey added and then whipped together. YUM. It was the perfect ending to a great 4 days.