Inseparable Nomads

Last weekend Andrew and I took a long weekend to head out to Ithaca, NY for a mini-vacation.  Our #1 reason for going was the wedding of a friend from college, Allison.  We also figured we’d get a few of our own wedding details figured out while we were there.  Obviously, there is also the excitement of visiting with the friends we still have in the area as well!

As per usual we headed over to Chris’ house Friday night and were greeted by two other out-of-towners, Casey Justice and Julie!  They were in town to cheer on a friend, Lauren, who was competing in the Ithaca Triathlon for the first time!  It was a great surprise to find out that they would be in town the same weekend we were!  We all had a blast catching up, always a great time when they’re around, for sure!

Father Daughter Dance

Father Daughter Air Guitar

Our main event, the wedding, took place Saturday.  The ceremony was outside at the pavilion area of Taughannock Falls State Park.  It was an absolutely beautiful day, couldn’t have asked for better weather!  The ceremony was short and sweet, just the way everyone likes it.  I was trying to pay attention to as much as possible since it will be the only wedding I will attend before my own!

Andrew and the Vineyard

Us and the Willow Tree

On our way to the reception we made a quick stop out at the Ovid Airport so Andrew could see his old skydiving buddies.  Everyone was really happy and surprised about our sudden visit.  Admittedly, I don’t know everyone out there very well, but they are all very nice and it was great to chat with them for a bit.

Glenora Vineyards, NY

Glenora Vineyards, NY

The reception took place at Glenora Wine Cellar in Dundee, NY.  Such a beautiful venue!  The dining room for the reception had a whole wall of windows with a specatular view of the vineyard and Seneca lake.  The dance floor and DJ was located out on the huge deck on the other side of the windows.  Perfect weather for the perfect event.  Andrew and I made friends with some other IC alumni that we were seated with and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves (not in a drinking way, though, since it was about an hour drive back to Ithaca).  I took a lot of mental notes during the whole event and must admit that I feel a lot more relaxed about my own wedding now that I’ve been to one.  All the small details are very nice, but simple and subtle really is nice and that’s how I’m trying to keep it.

Fondling the Grapes

Grapes on the Vine

Saturday night we meet back up at Chris’ for a little get-together.  We played a fun game called “Flip Pong” or something of the sort.  It’s a hybrid of Beer Pong and Flip cup and was a lot of fun, but especially challenging because we had extra small cups and a warped table!

We got a really late start on Sunday but once we were up and running we had an amazing breakfast at Sunset Grill near IC’s campus.  We met up with Dorreen to go swimming at Taughannock since Treman was closed, which was truly a shame since it’s our favorite.  We’re not as young as we used to be, though, because we swam for about 30 minutes before we decided to call it a day because we were tired!!

Taughannock was followed with an amazing dinner w/ Jason, David, Christina and Joyce at the Bandwagon Brew Pub.  Wow, what a great little place.  Delicious homemade beer, delicious food, great company.  Andrew, Christina, Joyce and I all headed over to Purity for dessert since no trip to Ithaca is complete without some Purity icecream (even if you’re too full to finish it)!

We parted ways with Christina and Joyce and headed back over to Jason and David’s where we were spending our last night.  Dorreen joined back up with us and we spent the night drinking, singing and watching tons of fun programs.  I stayed up waaaaay late w/ Jason, but it’s always such a good time I can’t help but try and squeeze as much time out of it as possible.

Although we hadn’t gotten much sleep, we had to get up bright an early on Monday to make a meeting with our cake baker.  We finalized most of the details for our cake and put down our down payment.  Ithaca Bakery is so fantastic, I’m certain our cake(s) will be as good looking as they are delicious!  Very exciting!!

Having that extra day in Ithaca really made all the difference.  Rushing around trying to get everything done and see everyone in the typical Friday evening to Sunday afternoon time slot is always so hectic.  I have always loved spending the summer in Ithaca, it’s such a fantastic time of year to be there!  So relaxing, so fresh, so beautiful!  It was really hard to leave and got those wheels in my head turning trying to figure out a way to get back there again!  I think my heart will always be in Ithaca.

This entry was posted on Saturday, July 17th, 2010 at 8:52 pm and is filed under Nature, Party, Wedding, friends, ithaca. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.