Watkins Glen and Ithaca

We decided to go away for a few days to do some sightseeing during Jay's days off.  

Watkins Glen State Park was simply amazing.  The view was breathtaking.  The kids are great little hikers. 

One of the amazing views in Watkins Glen

Our  second hike was Buttermilk Falls in Ithaca.  Another beautiful state park with breathtaking views of forest, creeks, waterfalls and rock formations.  

Buttermilk Falls

The kids not only hiked over 4 miles today, but also up lots of stairs and elevation changes -definitely not easy hikes! 

We visited the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and hiked through their Sapsucker Woods Bird Santuary.   The building had a really fun room to listen to all different bird songs and even let the kids play around with recording their own voices.   The walk in the Santuary was beautiful.  The trail was soft and the sounds of the birds filled the air.  

Next stop was Cayuga Nature Center.  They had a very cool 6-story tree house to climb in.  

Family selfie at the top

Taughannock Falls is the highest water fall in the eastern US.  I believe I read it was 3 stories taller than the Niagara Falls.  This is the view from the lookout point.  

Then we hiked the Gorge Trail to get an up close look. 

Relaxing swim in the hotel pool. 

Ithaca Falls was very close to the road and we were able to walk right up to it.  The water volume was very impressive.  We could feel the mist blowing onto us, which would certainly be very refreshing on a hot summer day.