Things to Do in Ithaca

At Create Art Studio, owner and instructor Karyn equips prospective paint-slingers with the instruction and inspiration to realize artistic dreams during step-by-step classes, private parties, and open-studio sessions. The studio seamlessly combines two of Karyn's greatest passions, drawing on both her art-education degree from Purdue University and more than 10 years of classroom experience as a teacher.

During the two-hour step-by-step sessions, she and other instructors equip aspiring artistes with all of the necessities to create an original masterpiece, including smocks, easels, canvases, paints, brushes, and haughty French accents. In addition to the instructors' aid, creatively challenged participants can glean clever ideas from the inspiration wall, which helps pupils explore art-worthy subjects beyond traditional bowls of fruit and sunsets. Like conscientious speakeasies, the studio invites guests aged 21 and older to bring along their own snacks and alcohol.

In the brick-lined subterranean showroom of Wise Guys Comedy Club & 201 Bistro, nationally touring rib ticklers ply their craft. The intimate comedy den comfortably seats up to 110 revelers and allows for prime viewing of top-notch comedians from every angle. Tableside cocktail service allows guests to stay seated throughout the shows, and Wise Guys doesn’t require standard drink minimums. The bar beckons with sterling woodwork and bar-side tarot-card readings. Before or after the side-splitting comedy shows, 201 Bistro satisfies guests with a hearty menu of steak, pasta, and seafood entrees.

While some artists gravitate toward certain media, Ilene Layow—or “Eye” to her friends since childhood—unabashedly loves them all: glass, pencil, clay, pastel, metals, acrylic. Her body of artwork is staggeringly diverse. She has designed murals for both homes and businesses, painted family portraits, created silver jewelry, formed intricate candleholders out of clay, and fused glass to form night lights perfect for scaring off closet monsters that hate beauty. She has even developed her own art form she calls “formscapes,” which combine the gentle contours of landscapes with abstracted shapes. In flexible classes tucked into a tidy ranch house, she introduces many of the crafts she loves to teen and adult students.

Located in central New York, just off New York State Thruway exit 40, midway between Rochester and Syracuse, sonorous moos and sloshing tins of milk once echoed across this idyllic nine-hole course, which James and Dee Ball converted from their family dairy farm in 1968. Since then, Meadowbrook Golf Club has seen a slew of proprietors, each of whom have added their own distinct touch by installing automatic watering, improving the drainage system, or building a 40’x80’ pole barn to house equipment and botched Dorf clones.

In May 2008, PGA golf professional Trey Walewski and his wife, Tina, took over the Meadowbrook. The golf club remains a family owned and operated business with Trey and Tina, and their daughters, Taylor and Sydney, taking on the operations of the course, practice facilities, pro shop, and bar and grill.

Clasped between Saguaro National Park and the Ironwood Preserve, Double R Ranch appears as though it were plucked straight from the frames of an old Western movie. The windswept grounds stand as a gateway to the thousands of untouched acres that quietly stitch together the Northwest side of Tucson. The ranch gives visitors a chance to explore that land with horseback rides and birthday parties. It also offers weekend getaways and RV hookups to city-dwellers in need of an escape from the crowds and door-to-door minivan salesmen that come with urban living. Double R also accommodates guests who have their own horses with overnight stabling services.