I thought that Garrick’s tour was a lot of fun and quite informative as well.  From an actual learning experience standpoint, I actually liked the opening talk about Cornell’s history the most.  I had no idea that the origins of Ithaca had to do with its accessibility from the ocean via Cayuga’s connection to the Erie Canal (I did know that you could reach the St. Lawrence Seaway from the southern tip of Cayuga, but that’s only because I was looking at a rather large map of the area down at the sailing center a couple of weeks ago).  I had never before pictured the trade origins that contributed so heavily to Ithaca’s establishment, in addition to the abundance of harvestable energy in the form of waterfalls.  The image in my head of people sailing goods down Cayuga Lake is a rather cool one.  I actually instructed in one of the small boat sailing PE classes this semester, and having spent a lot of time in the same body of water (albeit in a much smaller boat) was rather cool.

The other highlight for me was the War Memorial room.  As a member of Naval ROTC, I have a lot of appreciation for everything that goes into that room, the memorial, and Cornell’s connection to the military.  Fun fact for anybody who’s curious about the War Memorial: there are 264 names of Cornellians inscribed there.  There were actually 265 to die in the war though–one went home and fought for Germany.  His name, unsurprisingly, is not there.