I'm a local -- live a few minutes north of Watkins Glen, and my husband works in Ithaca. You can take your child to the Moosewood -- we had a family dinner there last year and took our niece (somewhere around the 18 month mark). It was fine, and although Moosewood is popular, the restaurant is not at all uppity.

Your itenary looks great -- if needed, you can add Taughannock Falls -- the trail is wide, even (last weekend a motorized wheel chair made it to the falls), and gorgeous! I think this would be a better way to spend time vs. driving all the way around Cayuga...not sure what you will get out of it if you are not eating in Aurora (the town, although beautiful, goes by in a blink). If you're big into Women's Rights, then Seneca Falls is good to visit, but I don't see any other reason to go there (sorry, SF lovers!)

Market Street in Corning is great to walk around -- about half mile from museum of glass -- tons of options for lunch and window shopping. At the very least, please drive down Market St just to see it.

On your way into Watkins, you will pass Burdett. There is an awesome cafe called the Grist Mill. Cash only, and has amazing food. They are closed Sun/Mon. Great for lunch (no dinner). Burdett is about 10 minutes from the Gorge in Watkins.

Have fun! SG

Go to Skaneateles lake and try either the Sherwood Inn for ritzy dinning or Doug's Fish Fry for good food and busy / good seafood. The first Doug's Fish Fry ever and they have a good selection there is one in Cortland too.

We ate in the Sherwood Inn Tavern a few weeks ago..nothing to rave about. Both our meals were very salty ...pot roast and an Italian dish. The "home made gravy' with the pot roast sure tasted canned to me. We were quite disappointed. Perhaps the dining room is better.
Doug's is very popular and had a long line out the door! It would have been worth the wait.

Thanks for all the great suggestions. My wife, 11 month old son, and I had a great time in Ithaca the last week of August, despite overcast skies and a couple of rainy mornings.

We visited a friend who invited us to stay at their lake house, halfway up the west side of Cayuga. Sheldrake Point was a lovely winery - we bought a couple bottles of 2005 Luckystone Red, and presented one to a family that hosted us for dinner. Taughannock Falls were gushing forth in the rain, and the overlook was nice.

The Hampton Inn on Rte 13 was clean, baby-friendly and conveniently located near Wegman's, but not very romantic. Highlights from our trip included:

1. Watkins Glen State Park - the gorge trail is an absolute must-see, esp. with kids. Hiking behind a waterfall was fun.

2. Lamoreaux Landing - this pretty winery had a very good 2005 semi-dry riesling. A bit too sweet, but an ideal complement to spicy Asian dishes (i.e. Thai, Korean, etc.)

3. Corning Museum of Glass - I had low expectations of what could have been a boring science museum. The collection of glass and sculptures were superb - not to mention the kid-friendly hot glass-blowing demonstrations. It turned out to be a great way to spend a rainy morning! The cafe was also kid friendly and a nice place to stop for lunch.

4. Purity Ice Cream - on Rte 13, was delicious and very reasonably priced.

The only lowlights were (a) the visual blight of industrial plants on the east side of Cayuga Lake, and (b) driving by the Cargill rock salt plant in downtown Watkins Lake (and getting "pushed" by a truck barreling down Route 79 west from Ithaca). If we didn't have the baby, we would have visited Simply Red in Trumansburg, and stayed at the Henry Miller Inn B&B instead.

Glad you found Purity. I miss their ice cream so much!

RE: Industrial blight: Are you saying you didn't enjoy the beautiful view of Milliken Station? ;-) Close up some of the old mill buildings & mill works over there are delightfully creepy at dusk. We used to explore over there as teenagers. But I can see why they're not exactly a tourist attraction.

Motorgirl, formerly of Trumansburg/Ithaca

Glad you had a good time. Yes, the industrial parts aren't pretty to look at, and us locals wish they were out of the way too -- but I've come to realize that those places are part of our ecomony and employ a lot of locals with good, steady jobs. So, take the good with the bad, right?!

Everytime I go behind the waterfall at the WG State Park, I make sure I get good and wet!

Thanks for the report...SG