I complain about this place pretty often, but the truth is there’s plenty to love about Central New York. Like, for instance, the beautiful and historic town of Ithaca – home to a great non-profit salvage store, the Ithaca Hour currency system, and as of a few months ago my brother Cody.

Whenever I get bored with our little town, in about an hour I can be dipping my toes in this waterfall:

It’s hard to tell from this photo, but Ithaca Falls is very big and impressive in person. For reference, you can just barely see a person standing in the lower-right.

This is one of many waterfalls in and around Ithaca. The city is famous for its gorges and it’s Ivy League tenant, Cornell. (Every time I think of Cornell, I think of Andy Bernard singing acapella with Here Comes Treble and it makes me giggle a little.) The Cornell campus is truly amazing – it’s in the middle of the gorges and surrounded by the most beautiful landscape imaginable. It’s also very hilly; you could easily avoid the Freshman 15 just walking to class and back.

Cody and his lady showed me around their new hometown, and then they let me pet the goats that live in their backyard. Yep, goats. 3 of them in fact. This is very “Ithaca”… it’s a quirky town, in a good way. They also have a doggy obstacle course. Both the course and the goats owned by the landlords, who must be interesting people.

We’ll be visiting again soon – now that the leaves are starting to change, my camera keeps whispering to me about a photo shoot.