Moosewood

 Finally!  The Moosewood post!  If you're a regular "Fescoe Family" blog reader then you've probably heard (er, read) me mention Moosewood before.  I discovered Moosewood about 2.5 years ago when I decided to omit meat from my diet.  I had no idea just how much Moosewood would infect our lives...for the better.  It brought healthy, well balanced eating to a whole new level.  I absolutely love cooking Moosewood meals!  They're delicious!  MmmMmm good!  Originally, I stumbled upon the Moosewood cookbooks without having realized that it's a real restaurant in Ithaca, NY.  As soon as I realized that (which didn't take long) I decided that someday in the distant future I would visit the restaurant to have an authentic experience.  When we booked our cruise which was sailing from New York we figured that would be as close as we'll get to Ithaca for a looong time.  So we used it as an opportunity to make the culinary pilgrimage     

Ithaca, NY

Welcome to the Ithaca, NY blog post.  As aforementioned, after our cruise we hopped in a rental car and drove four hours to Ithaca, NY - home of the famous Moosewood Restaurant.  It was a pretty drive and it reminded me of driving to Blacksburg (VA Tech).  Ithaca is a cool little town with some incredible state parks.  During our visit we ate three meals at Moosewood, saw two movies (in the theater!), visited three state parks, saw seven different waterfalls and hiked six miles!  It was fuuuun :-)

     

Driving to Ithaca is serious business...

 I don't have any words for this one...

 Taughannock Falls State Park (where's Chris?)...

 Taughannock Falls...

 Chris' tree pose...

 My tree pose (much more convincing, I think)...

 Angry guy we encountered on the trail...

 So beautiful!  

 I'd like to point out that this was taken without a tripod.  *patting self on back*

 Here are some shots of Cornell's campus...

 Chipmunks are everywhere in Ithaca!!  They're so darn adorable!  I shared my snack with this little fellow and I helped him stuff his cheeks silly.  

Bermuda

Welcome to the Bermuda blog post!  

View of the King's Wharf dockyard from our balcony...

 The Summit...

 On our first day in Bermuda we hopped on a ferry and rode over to St. George.  We ate lunch and went on a self-guided tour.  There is a lot of history in St. George (hooray) and there are also a lot of touristy shops (blah).  Here are some pictures from our adventures in St. George...

(Someone burnt his head and had to buy a "Bermuda" hat in one of the touristy shops.  I think it completes his "look".)

We also got to spend some time in Hamilton and experience their weekly Harbour Nights festival.  This was a lot of fun!  Hamilton is a neat little area and the Harbour Nights entertainment was awesome.  I'd like to upload a video of the entertainment but Blogger is being difficult.  

Some of the notorious mopeds, parked on a street in Hamilton...

 (Oprah on TV in a bar.  I *heart* Bermuda.)

On the ferry back to our ship after Harbour Nights...

We explored the dockyard which houses Bermuda's Maritime Museum (former fort and then maximum security prison).

This is the Bermuda Longtail.  I thought they were cool.  Apparently, they migrate up to Bermuda during their mating/breeding season and they kick out all the seagulls in a vicious two-week air attack that the locals describe as sounding like WWIII.  I dunno, they look pretty peaceful to me (although, we didn't spot a single seagull during our visit)...  

We did a couple cool excursions, too.  We went on an eight-mile bike ride around different parts of the island (including the old railway trail).  The brochure described this as a fairly easy excursion and the age limit was 12-90 years of age.  Yeah, well, it was brutal and I'm not even 30 years old yet.  Bermuda is really hilly and it felt more like mountain biking to me.  We went off roading quite a bit.  I loved it!!  

This is a picture I took from the boat on our way out to the biking excursion - it's called Daniel's Head Island and it's the northern tip of the Bermuda Triangle.  We survived.

Mangrove Bay Beach...we stopped and admired it on our bike ride...Chris must have taken this picture because I'm pretty sure I was gasping for air and chugging water.

Me on the pretty railroad trail...

Chris on the pretty railroad trail...

World's smallest drawbridge over Chris' left shoulder.  We got to bike across it :-)

For the life of us we can't remember the correct name for this circular thing...they're all over Bermuda and I think someone important was buried under the original one and it was supposed to bring good luck to anyone who walked beneath it.  I'm sure I can look it up in Chris' trusty guide book but it's at home and I am not right now.  Anyway, here we are posing under one and our guide said it's supposed to mean good stuff for our marriage.  Chris was sweaty and we were wearing helmets so this isn't exactly a Hollywood-style kiss here... 

After our day of biking we recuperated at a cool little place called the Frog and Onion Pub where we sampled their locally brewed beers and stuffed our faces with chips (aka french fries).

As our sore butts were healing from biking we decided to work our backs and arms on a kayaking excursion!  This was so much fun I can hardly stand it.  We were in a two-person glass bottom kayak.  We got to get up close and personal with some very beautiful scenery.  

I think it was at this point in the trip when I started complaining that we'd been in Bermuda for a couple days and we were leaving in a day and we had yet to step foot on one of those Bermudiful beaches.  Our kayaking tour guide brought us to this quaint little beach for a refreshing swim before we made our way back to the boat.  I got a picture of myself, Chris and the two of us together as evidence that we did get to enjoy a Bermudiful beach during our visit (if only for a few minutes).

Note to the readers: One week is not enough time to do everything that Bermuda has to offer.

Finally, it was time to cruise back to Jersey.  We got dolled up for our last formal night on the ship...

He thinks he's funny (and he is, hehehehe)...

And, we spent some final quality time with our friends, the Sommeliers, at a wine tasting while we were at sea heading back.  YUM.