Coming Clean

I have saved this story for several years, but I believe that the statute of limitations has expired. In the summer of 2022, we took a family trip to Niagara Falls, Toronto, Rochester, and Ithaca. Niagara Falls is absolutely stunning, and there’s so much to do in Toronto. We went to a Cirque du Soleil show, Blue Jays game, visited the Hockey Hall of Fame and Toronto zoo, and checked out a few museums. In Rochester, we saw some friends and went to The Strong National Museum of Play which is worth it particularly if you have younger kids. We went to Taughannock Falls outside Ithaca and toured my alma mater, Ithaca College.

Let me double check with my lawyers if I’m allowed to continue. Please hold.

I got the okay. We visited Ithaca on a summer weekend when the campus was completely empty. This was the first time my kids had been to Ithaca, so I was excited to show them around the campus. The bookstore was closed and many buildings were locked. I saw the Athletics and Events Center for the first time which made me a little jealous since that facility wasn’t there when I was a student. Maybe I would have actually gone to the gym to try to counterbalance late night Rogan’s pizza and D.P. Dough calzones. There were one or two staff members there, and we got kicked out since the building was closing. 

Finally, we wandered into the Whalen Center of Music. And we heard music. In one of the main concert halls, there were maybe 25 adults on stage. We didn’t know who they were, but we felt like we were intruding, so we listened from the outside for a few minutes before moving on. Except that I noticed a table with bags and coffee mugs. I figured this was nice memorabilia for people visiting the building, so I took one of each. 

I later learned that there was some sort of IC Band reunion with a performance later that night. So were the mug and bag for me? Probably not. Does the mug get used in our kitchen four years later? Yes it does!

I’ve included several pictures from the trip that have been saved for nearly 4 years. For example, you can enjoy this Canada Dry can on the ground close to Niagara Falls where it definitely is not dry!