Day 8 and 9 (Rest Days)

On Tuesday morning, we woke up and breakfasted, and then we went on an adventure with Sara, Ben, and Jem. We drove to Treman State Park and walked down along the water to the beautiful falls. We walked back upstream a different way, up many many stone steps to an overlook and back to the grassy area near the parking lot for a picnic.

It was so beautiful. The water ran down through a gorge
with many different waterfalls.

Brett and Ben look at the water over the side.

Such a beautiful place.

Sara and Jem walk ahead.

Sara, Jeff, Ben and Jem live in Ecovillage, a co-housing community on the top of a large hill just west of downtown Ithaca. Sara and Jenny grew up going to homeschool weekends together when they were young, but hadn't seen each other in a few years, so it was great for them to have some time to reconnect.

Sara, Jeff, Ben & Jem's lovely house.

In the afternoon, we worked on the blog, folded paper with Ben, hung out with Jem, and Brett took a nap. The evening was beautiful. (In fact, the whole day was sunny and wonderful, with no rain whatsoever.) We ate a yummy dinner with our fabulous hosts, picked strawberries with Sara, and then played frisbee for a while outside.

That evening, we also decided that it would be okay if we stayed a second day off the road with our gracious hosts, especially after looking at the forecast: thundershowers in the morning and rain possible all day.

Wednesday was a rainy day, as expected, but it didn't rain ALL day, as the weather had said, so we got to spend some time outside turning over rocks with Ben, hunting for newts and snakes, and walking around the beautiful paths and land that surround Ecovillage.

Ben leads the way to "snake rock" a favorite place to search for snakes and newts.

Brett turns over some rocks, in search of newts.

Jenny turns over some more rocks.

Ben, with a newt!

Having an extra day to rest was good for us. We were able to plan out the next few days of riding and relax a little bit. Thanks for sharing your lovely home with us Sara and Jeff!

Sara and Jeff even got to try the tandem!

Ben got out his bike and did some riding, too.

And so did Jem.

The whole family.