I recently spent a day with Hank Stark and his wife Cher. Hank is a world traveler and Food & Beverage critic and author. After considering anyplace in the world to settle, they chose Ithaca, NY [ALMOST as cool as the StoryBook Village] and now Hank writes a travel column for the Ithaca Journal. Below is a snip from the email he sent me:
"Of course the lake is clean and pretty, there are many restaurants with varied cuisines, blah, blah, blah. I liked the fact that there were few chain merchants, no big box stores, and lots of small shops, European style.
Most importantly, I liked the naturalness of the people. They seemed unaffected and real. Even those who didn't know me seemed extra friendly and sincere. We conversed with people on the street who seemed to have let their guard down just because they were so happy to be in town. A carefree spirit seemed to reign. It was kind of like being in a fantasy land - all of the usual buildings and commercial establishments but the inhabitants and the merchants seemed, to the outsider anyway, to have shed the normal preoccupations with everyday business concerns.
It was like I shed my everyday clothes when I arrived in the village and donned garments that immediately imparted a casual air to my psyche. Maybe it's because I'm a native New Yorker (Manhattan) and Skaneateles seems to be at the exact opposite end of the spectrum.
What a relief!
Wow, Hank. I couldn't have said it better!
Saturday, September 02, 2006
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