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KLMNO F6 EZ EE SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 23, 2012 The Impulsive Traveler IF YOU GO GETTING THERE Spending a few Hours in Ithaca, N.Y. US Airways offers one-stop flights from Washington Dulles to Ithaca, with late- September flights currently starting at BY MELANIE D.G. KAPLAN $324 round-trip. After summer vacation in Canada, I WHERE TO STAY briefly mourned the loss of colored bills La Tourelle Resort & Spa in my billfold. But the gloom was short- 1150 Danby Rd. lived. On my drive home, I took a detour 800-765-1492 to Ithaca, N.Y., which I’d heard has its www.latourelle.com own currency. By day’s end, my wallet About three miles from downtown, swelled again with delightfully colorful backing up to Buttermilk Falls State money. In place of notes adorned with Park, pet-friendly. Rooms from $149 images of dead presidents, there were weekdays and $189 weekends through playful bills with pictures of salamanders mid-November. and steamboats. It’s only fitting that this town — as Hilton Garden Inn Ithaca dense with brainpower as it is with 130 E. Seneca St. composting bins — would have a quirky 607-277-8900 alternative currency system. I set out, www.ithaca.hgi.com over a few days, to use the money for as Downtown, on the Commons, with a many of my purchases as possible. What I complimentary shuttle to and from the didn’t expect was the adventure I faced Ithaca airport, Cornell University and just trying to find places to spend the Ithaca College. Rooms from $179 during salamanders. the busy fall season, less starting in Ithaca, home of Cornell University and November. Ithaca College, is smack in the middle of WHERE TO EAT New York. But it’s far enough from any — which is part of the Ithaca Bakery Fine Line Bistro highway to maintain its middle-of-no- family. Its outdoor picnic tables over- 404 W. State St. where feel. I spent four years snowed flowed with students, while the Star- 607-277-1077 under at Syracuse University, an hour to bucks down the street was eerily quiet. www.finelinebistro.com the north, but never enjoyed summer in (As Steve from GreenStar had confided, A favorite among Ithaca foodies, serving the Finger Lakes region. Late summer in “A tried-and-true Ithacan wouldn’t be dinner and Sunday brunch. Entrees Ithaca blew me away: The city and its caught dead walking out of Starbucks.”) include Angel Hare Pasta (braised rabbit outskirts, filled with gorges and water- At the CTB counter, the cashier didn’t over soba noodles in spicy tahini sauce), falls, are surprisingly lush. bat an eye when I asked about paying in $17, and rack of lamb, $29. Plus, you’ve got to love a town whose Hours, but she did need the assistance of 25-year-old mayor gives up his car and a manager (wearing a No Fracking but- Ithaca Bakery turns his parking space into a miniature ton) to process the sale. It was then that I 400 N. Meadow St. park. And whose townsfolk are equally realized what Ithacans have surely un- 607-273-7110 intense about saving the planet, killing derstood for years — that consuming is www.ithacabakery.com the chain store and consuming locally way more fun when your currency looks Local gathering spot and gourmet produced you-name-it. like Monopoly money. market for artisan breads, bagels, My first stop was GreenStar Natural That didn’t, however, stop me from cheeses and more. Sandwiches from Foods Market, where I was told that I making purchases at non-Hours-friendly $3.95, soups $3.50 to $7.95. could buy some Ithaca Hours — the PHOTOS BY MELANIE D.G. KAPLAN FOR THE WASHINGTON POST establishments. I bought shoes at Fonta- Viva Taqueria & Cantina currency created two decades ago to help All green but the money: You might be able to use Ithaca’s alternative currency, na; a fedora at a shop called Evaluation; 101 N. Aurora St. promote the buy-local movement and above right, at an independent bookstore like the one pictured above. It’s one of lunch at Moosewood Restaurant (of vege- 607-277-1752 encourage community building. People four such stores in the chain-store-averse town on sparkling Cayuga Lake, below. tarian cookbook fame); and tomatoes at www.vivataqueria.com might use Hours to pay the local farmer the miniature weekday farmers market. Head to the Cantina for full-service or mechanic, instead of paying with Shopkeepers who didn’t accept Hours meals and fresh lime juice margaritas, greenbacks. And Wal-Mart and Amazon had either not heard of the currency or and to the Taqueria for burritos, nachos don’t take Hours, so it keeps the money in had once accepted it but then found and authentic, bargain-priced soft-corn town. themselves with a stockpile of bills and tortilla tacos, starting at $1.49. Super The founder has since moved away, nowhere to spend them. Businesses such burrito, $6.48. and use of the once-popular currency has as Ithaca Bakery use them to pay people declined. But I’d heard that a local busi- like their landscapers and snowplowers, WHAT TO DO nessman was trying to single-handedly who can spend them at places such as the Ithaca Farmers Market revitalize Hours and catapult them into bakery or the farmers market. 545 Third St. the e-banking era. Before leaving town, I met the Ben 607-273-7109 At GreenStar, the first person I queried Bernanke of Ithaca Hours, Paul Strabel. www.ithacamarket.com about Hours was, by chance, Steve Burke, He’s the Hours’ new board president, and Saturday and Sunday from April through a market manager who’s the former I’d expected to find a hemp-wearing, December. More than 150 vendors president of the board for Ithaca Hours. tofu-eating native. Instead, I sat down for selling vegetables, cheeses, meats, Steve sold me $50 worth of Hours (one coffee with a clean-cut Long Islander breads, wines, flowers, gifts, crafts and Hour equals $10). I marveled at the who teaches at Cornell. He has a financial jewelry. currency, including one-eighth- and one- advising and tax preparation business in quarter-Hour notes. They all said “In town and accepts Hours for his tax work. Ithaca Commons Ithaca We Trust” and “Ithaca Hours are Paul said that when the recession www.downtownithaca.com backed by real capital: our skills, our began in 2008, “Even Obama said, focus This open-air plaza is home to vendors, time, our tools, forests, fields and rivers.” on your community. So I did.” He stepped entertainers and stores including But at the moment, I was thinking more up his Hours advocacy and is working on Autumn Leaves Used Books, Angry Mom about my growling stomach. I walked an electronic version of the currency, Records, Home Green Home, Trader K’s over the railroad tracks to Ithaca Bakery, which may roll out this fall. He believes (one of the best thrift stores I’ve seen) where I peeled off a few colorful bills to that paper currency is terribly inconven- and Ithaca Hemp Co. Also hosts concerts pay for a bialy sandwich. Cass Park, where there was plenty of gins, owner of La TourelleResort, where I ient, and that more businesses and con- and festivals, such as the Annual Apple Just north of town, I stopped at Stew- activity — soccer games, a bustling mari- was staying (Hours-friendly). Wiggins sumers will use Hours when they become Harvest Festival (Sept. 28-30). art Park and took in sparkling Cayuga na, runners, cyclists and a dog park so was born and raised in Ithaca, and his virtual bills on a smartphone. He’s opti- Tiohero Boat Tours Lake. Then I drove to the Ithaca Farmers fancy that I at first mistook it for a favorite part of the day is tending to the mistic that even Cornell may accept 866-846-4376 Market, on Cayuga Inlet. The big social miniature golf course. grounds. He described the town as Hours as payment one day. www.tioherotours.com event of the week, the market is so well Back in town, I ate tacos on the patio of brainy, with a surplus of PhDs who are I said goodbye to Paul, but leftover One-hour narrated tours depart from the attended on the weekends that locals say Viva Taqueria, then strolled through the overqualified for their jobs. “A lot of us,” Hours were burning a hole in my pocket. Ithaca Farmers Market at Steamboat it’s the only thing that causes a traffic jam Commons, an open-air plaza that serves he added, “never grew out of the ’60s.” I spent the rest at GreenStar, stocking up Landing, Saturdays and Sundays at 11 (largely consisting of Subarus, I suspect). as the cultural and retail center of down- I went for a hike at Buttermilk Falls on groceries for home. Then I hit the a.m. and 12:30 p.m. $12, seniors $10, Ithaca has a fantastic, nearly complete town. At Home Green Home, which sells State Park, around the corner from the road, my back seat filled with colorful children $8. waterfront trail, which will soon connect stainless-steel drinking straws (four for resort, then tackled the short, steep hike locally grown vegetables, the contents of the market to the town’s parks. I walked $10), I bought a book and paid with along the Cascadilla Creek Gorge trail, my wallet once again monochromatic. INFORMATION along sections of it, watching about a plastic.