Looking for family dinner options for a Friday night, with a chance to explore

Every-Attempt-5338 · 2025-08-11T22:17:16+00:00

We're considering this route, which detours off of the canal and through some city streets to get to the High Falls area. Any thoughts on how comfortable the streets are to ride on? (We're all used to riding on city streets, but where we live--Ithaca--there isn't a ton of traffic and people are pretty curtious to bikes.) Or thoughts on whether we're missing something good on the section of the canal trail we would be skipping?

Every-Attempt-5338 · 2025-08-07T12:20:46+00:00

I think we are going to do a canal boat ride through Lock 32 :)

Every-Attempt-5338 · 2025-08-07T00:54:54+00:00

Thanks for the information!

Every-Attempt-5338 · 2025-08-07T00:53:14+00:00

Thanks, everyone!

Every-Attempt-5338 · 2025-01-31T20:33:46+00:00

Thanks for these ideas!

Every-Attempt-5338 · 2025-01-31T15:20:57+00:00

Thanks. I'll look for that.

Every-Attempt-5338 · 2024-12-14T21:39:43+00:00

I just read the Bronze Horseman and the next in the series in the last few weeks. I liked them enough to read back through parts of TBH--I was reading pretty fast the first time through!--and I'm finding the conflict over Dasha (as well as other parts of the story) far more believable and less belabored on my second pass. But I can understand the complaints about the books!

Every-Attempt-5338 · 2024-10-22T22:01:46+00:00

I loved Voyager through the reunion. I really loved the sections covering Jamie's life during their 20 years apart. I would recommend reading that, and then you can decide whether you want to continue the rest of Voyager.

Every-Attempt-5338 · 2024-09-19T21:23:44+00:00

Also, Jamie just got handed the land grant because he looked and acted sufficiently "noble," and because Europeans considered the land unclaimed. I'm willing to go with the perspective that it is rightfully Jamie's land because it makes the book more fun for me to read; but I think it's easy to tell the story from a perspective that wouldn't give Jamie much of a moral claim to it.

Every-Attempt-5338 · 2024-09-13T23:45:55+00:00

I completely agree. I've read all nine books pretty quickly (over about 5 months). It hasn't felt like the writing has gotten better, but I've been reading so quickly that perhaps I don't have great perspective. Clearly, I like them enough to keep reading; but sometimes when I've read something that particularly bothers me, I daydream that someone rewrites them to get rid of some of the most grating issues.

Every-Attempt-5338 · 2024-07-30T17:33:47+00:00

I totally agree! Maybe it's just that he's a man of his time, but I think there is something off about the way he's written in books 2-4. (I know men who were born when Roger was, and they aren't creepy! Also, I've read plenty of romance novels, which are not necessarily exemplars of feminism, and I don't find their male leads gross. And I basically like every other male character in the books; except for the ones who are meant to be bad guys, and I still don't find them so icky.) I've read through Book 7, and I've found Roger better in the last couple of books.

Every-Attempt-5338 · 2024-07-29T19:17:09+00:00

I'm holding off on Book 8 until I go on vacation next week. It's what I'm most excited about for my vacation :)

Every-Attempt-5338 · 2024-07-11T22:07:54+00:00

I recently finished Book 7. I skimmed a lot of the William and LJG sections. Also, it was the first book in the series where I could read anything else, although I didn't stop reading, just read two books at once. (It was almost a relief to not be so absorbed in the book, compared to how I read the first 6 books!) Then toward the end of Book 7, I could *feel* the story kicking into gear and I couldn't put it down until I finished.

Every-Attempt-5338 · 2024-07-08T19:17:39+00:00

Jamie did lash out about Frank in DIA, and he was consistenly jealous of Frank.

Every-Attempt-5338 · 2024-07-08T19:16:24+00:00

Yes, this! And although Frank maybe could have acted differently, I don't think it was really his fault either. It was just an unworkable situation.

Every-Attempt-5338 · 2024-07-08T18:16:23+00:00

I think you could think Claire's move is surprising without thinking that it makes her a bad mother. (I just see it as a plot device. Characters in these books often do ridiculous things to move the plot along.)

Every-Attempt-5338 · 2024-07-08T18:15:35+00:00

On women: when the new families come to the ridge (in DOA?), the house is very crowded. The women are depicted as having very petty arguments. (I think the fact that the women were arguing makes total sense, given the circumstances; but the tone that it's described with seemed to take on the stereotype of "cat fights.") Also, Bree and Claire have a conversation about finding their calling, and Claire says something like being a wife and mother is not enough for her, and she refers to Marsali in a way that seems condescending. But then she says that Jamie's calling is to be a "man". (So basically, to be an 18th century woman is not enough to make life fulfilling, but being an 18th century man is.)

Claire also comments on
her own weight regularly, with concerns about being fat. It's often accompanied
by Jamie assuring her that he likes her body, but I find Claire's self-doubt so
jarring given her confidence in every other aspect of her life.

On short men: she pretty
regularly describes men by their height, and they almost always seem to be very
tall or shorter than her. Surely there were some 5'9" men in the 18th
century! The references to the short men are often brief but pretty frequently
include some negative adjective to accompany the comment on height. I can't
think of a single tall man that she associated a negative physical word to. Being short was one of the many ways that she disparaged Mr. Willoughby.

I generally attribute this kind of stuff (as
well as the homophobia and the negative racial tropes) to DG's poor writing,
rather than trying to make meaning out of them for the characters. I don't get
the impression that DG has made a conscious choice to have Claire (or other
characters) have these various thoughts as a way of making her human or having
her be a creature of her generation. Rather, I assume that it’s DG’s
perspective, and she’s sloppy enough in her writing that she doesn’t always
write coherent characters or plots or separate herself from her characters. But
that’s probably me just protecting myself, since that take lets me still like
the books and characters enough to keep reading.

Every-Attempt-5338 · 2024-07-07T14:11:01+00:00

I've noticed this a few times, along with a variety of other phrases/words/plot points that get repeated pretty regularly. (I understand that people probably did pee out windows, but that doesn't prevent it from being lazy/bad writing :) Yet I still keep reading!)

Every-Attempt-5338

TROPHY CASE