Ithaca

So this past weekend I took a flex trip to go see my brother who's doing his PhD at Cornell. It was a good weekend. I love the 4.5 day work week that comes with traveling. Fridays are practically half days and low stress, so it makes the weekend feel long and relaxing. I can't remember the last time I felt that I had so much time on my hands I didn't know what to do with myself.

Anyway, there was plenty to do in Ithaca and the town has already grown on me. It takes about 10-15 mins to get anywhere you want to go, and you can pick from star gazing to farmers markets, to downtown. It's that small and complete. You can walk down the street to get food and ride your bike out your front door. I didn't do a good job taking pictures, so you'll have to be satisfied with photos from google images.

I think the visit did a good job stabilizing my mental health. I liked the small community feel, the intelligent conversation and the green culture. Not to mention being able to ride out the door for a good hilly ride.

Now these hills are not like Austin at all. Think a mixture of the Bechtel challenge and Austin city hills. Then double the height of those hills. There was also one really really steep hill. I didn't go on that one but it was there inviting me to. All the other hills were manageable, just tall. My brother's friend lent me his Felt, which thankfully had a triple chain ring. His lab mates took me out for a 20 mile ride complete with a tall hill and some nice flats. It was a good ride. Before that was pretty crazy tho, I had a flat the day before while riding the bike back to my brother's apt and then two more flats before we really got on our 20 mile ride. 3 flats! on my back wheel! so now I'm much better at changing flats. Woo!