So so

Honestly, June was a mixed bag in regards to meeting my goals. I did much better about not having snacking between meals and also did a better job of limiting my portions at meals...well, except for any meals that involved gravy. But with the flurry of end of school activities, school getting out and James being gone for five days, I did not do so well on the walking: I only walked ten times this month, far short of the three times per week goal.

On to July. Same three health related goals, and I have to work harder on getting the walking done in the mornings even with Aidan home from school. At least with the weather being warmer, I eat less, so the snacking and portion control should be fairly easy to achieve.

Unfortunately, I have lost my knitting mojo in the last few weeks. Once the flurry of getting gifts completed was over, I fell out of like with knitting. Usually I kick start my knitting passion with a new project but this time I am balancing it against my desire to finish a project that has been in progress for months.I bought a skein of Lhasa Wilderness yarn from Bijou Basin Ranch just to try out knitting with Yak down (the yarn is 75% Yak down and 25% bamboo). It is hard to imagine that such a soft fiber comes from such a large, fierce looking animal! I do like knitting with it and I like the pattern, so I can't really explain why the project has languished; it might be due to the fact that there was no deadline for completing it.

So I am now setting a deadline for completion: July 31. I am quite sure that I will give the scarf to a friend as a birthday gift and having it complete before the event would be wonderful. And until the scarf is complete, I am not casting on another project - that is my line in the sand to get this project done.

Gorgeous gorges

We spent this past weekend camping near Ithaca, a town on the southern tip of Cayuga Lake, which is one of New York's Finger Lakes. It is a beautiful area with deep gorges cut by the rivers flowing into the lake. The campground at which we stayed was to the west of the city near Taughannock Falls State Park so we went there first on Saturday morning.

Taughannock Falls is a 215-foot drop and is one of the largest single-drop waterfalls in the eastern part of the U.S. I took this photo of James and Aidan at an overlook on the rim of the gorge:

The water flows through a long gorge with cliffs up to 400 feet. Because the walls of the gorge are so steep and the sun intensity varies from one side to the other, each side of the gorge is a different micro-climate from the other side.

We drove down to the base of the gorge where we hiked to the falls and walked along beautiful Cayuga Lake:

We drove into Ithaca to eat lunch at the very quirky and very delicious Ithaca Bakery, which is more than just a bakery. James and I had sandwiches while Aidan chose to eat chicken that had been cooked over a grill outside. All three of us enjoyed our choices and we got giant chocolate chip cookies to go.

Our next stop was Robert H. Treman State Park, just south of Ithaca. Here is just one of the park's twelve waterfalls

We wanted to hike the Upper Gorge Trail, but it was closed due to repairs about 3/4 mile in. Even the portion that we did get to hike was stunning:

Before we returned to the campground, we went into the village of Trumansburg to Salmon Pottery, a craft gallery and studio. We admired (but did not ) Mary Ellen's beautiful textured pottery, and we were quite taken with the goldfish sculpture out front:

As we strolled through Trumansburg, I saw a sign in the window of Good to Go Market that advertised Cilantro-Jalapeno Limeaid. Yes, you read that correctly: limeaid with cilantro and jalapeno! I was intrigued by the combination and had to try it...and it was delicious. The drink was refreshing with just a little kick in the back of the throat.

We spent the rest of the day at the campground where Aidan splashed in the campground pool and made (of course) new friends. After a hearty and delicious breakfast on Sunday morning at Falls Restaurant, we drove home. We didn't get to see or do as much in Ithaca as we would have liked but since we are only about a 90 minute drive away, we will go back.