Mercer and Pop joined Mommy on her 4.5 hour trek north to Syracuse for some weekend work. We managed to squeeze in a little bit of fun, though. Above is a view of Syracuse University and downtown from
Woodland Reservoir, which is west of the city. The weather was windy and rainy for most of the weekend, so we didn't get to walk around town like we normally do when visiting a new place.
Here is Mercer looking off of our hotel balcony in East Syracuse. For him, the high point of the trip was spending time in the hotel room and indoor pool. He also loved the hot tub, which he jumped in without any hesitation. Our hotel was in an industrial area, not downtown. We drove by the headquarters of companies like Carrier and Bristol-Myers-Squibb everyday on our way into town.
On Saturday, we took Mercer to the MOST, Syracuse's very nice Museum of Science and Technology. For some reason, Mercer became terrified upon arrival after seeing the giant poster of the T-Rex on the building. He thought it was just a movie theater showing a terrifying movie and his mood was ruined for the rest of the day. He didn't even appreciate Pop's fantastic parking spot right in front of the museum.
"OR IS IT?" A sign by the lockers at the museum. Mercer enjoyed helping with putting our jackets away, but that's about it.
The museum had a very cool dinosaur exhibit with lots of realistic, robotic dinosaurs. Here, Mercer is operating just the skeleton of a robot dinosaur on display.
In a helicopter simulator. That was about all Mercer would take of the museum. A shame, really, because it had so much to offer.
For lunch, we headed north to
Dinosaur BBQ, Syracuse's world-famous rib-joint. We had been to their offshoot in Harlem, but wanted to experience the original. It was delicious. And crowded. So many popular restaurants tend to mail it in after they develop a reputation, but not Dinosaur. We ordered a rack of ribs with some sides and went to town. Mom had some great cocktails while Dad sampled some local beer from
Empire Brewing. Mercer was still in an awful mood and ate absolutely nothing; not even corn bread, which he normally inhales.
After lunch, we took a drive to the aforementioned Woodland Reservoir. The temperature suddenly dropped to about 45 degrees and Pop could only stand outside in the whipping wind and rain for a few minutes to take pictures of the city.
Mercer woke up from a car nap and was starving, having not eaten lunch. Luckily, we were in Liverpool, just north of Syracuse, checking out a local park. Because right across the street from the park was
Heid's hot dogs. The "i" in their logo is a hot dog, so, yeah, they have good dogs. Mercer was a happy little boy. We went back to the hotel for more swimming and questionable late-night hotel food. Pop fell asleep to the sound of steroid-fueled Yankees bats pounding the cover off of Detroit Tigers pitching.
The next morning was the day of Mom's big work event. Mercer and Pop dropped her off downtown and had breakfast, returned to the hotel and lounged about watching Spongebob. It was raining all morning, but when the bad weather passed, Mercer and Pop packed up the
rental car and checked out of the hotel. Above is a picture Pop had to take. It's the office of
Oberdorfer Aluminum Foundry, a company amazingly still in business given the state of their factory on Thompson Road.
Here's Mercer in the Armory District in downtown Syracuse.
Syracuse has some amazing architecture to take in. It's unfortunate the weather wasn't nicer so more buildings like these could be admired. This is Clinton Square.
All in all, a fun family road trip to Northern New York. New York, by the way, is huge. A friendly hotel worker asked Mercer and Pop where we were from. Pop responded "New York," forgetting that we still were, in fact, in New York. It reminded him of the time he asked for "American cheese"
on a sandwich while in
Mannheim, Germany. Anyway, it would be great to visit again someday. Syracuse reminds Pop of a smaller city set in the Pacific Northwest. It's dominated by a university and is surrounded by nature. There's a decent arts and restaurant scene with some good breweries and great people. There are plenty of smaller neighborhoods to explore and tons of old industry. Wish we had a little bit more time there and some better weather, but it's also good to be home with our feet up on the couch.
Mercer and Pop joined Mommy on her 4.5 hour trek north to Syracuse for some weekend work. We managed to squeeze in a little bit of fun, though. Above is a view of Syracuse University and downtown from Woodland Reservoir, which is west of the city. The weather was windy and rainy for most of the weekend, so we didn't get to walk around town like we normally do when visiting a new place.
Here is Mercer looking off of our hotel balcony in East Syracuse. For him, the high point of the trip was spending time in the hotel room and indoor pool. He also loved the hot tub, which he jumped in without any hesitation. Our hotel was in an industrial area, not downtown. We drove by the headquarters of companies like Carrier and Bristol-Myers-Squibb everyday on our way into town.
On Saturday, we took Mercer to the MOST, Syracuse's very nice Museum of Science and Technology. For some reason, Mercer became terrified upon arrival after seeing the giant poster of the T-Rex on the building. He thought it was just a movie theater showing a terrifying movie and his mood was ruined for the rest of the day. He didn't even appreciate Pop's fantastic parking spot right in front of the museum.
"OR IS IT?" A sign by the lockers at the museum. Mercer enjoyed helping with putting our jackets away, but that's about it.
The museum had a very cool dinosaur exhibit with lots of realistic, robotic dinosaurs. Here, Mercer is operating just the skeleton of a robot dinosaur on display.
In a helicopter simulator. That was about all Mercer would take of the museum. A shame, really, because it had so much to offer.
For lunch, we headed north to Dinosaur BBQ, Syracuse's world-famous rib-joint. We had been to their offshoot in Harlem, but wanted to experience the original. It was delicious. And crowded. So many popular restaurants tend to mail it in after they develop a reputation, but not Dinosaur. We ordered a rack of ribs with some sides and went to town. Mom had some great cocktails while Dad sampled some local beer from Empire Brewing. Mercer was still in an awful mood and ate absolutely nothing; not even corn bread, which he normally inhales.
After lunch, we took a drive to the aforementioned Woodland Reservoir. The temperature suddenly dropped to about 45 degrees and Pop could only stand outside in the whipping wind and rain for a few minutes to take pictures of the city.
Mercer woke up from a car nap and was starving, having not eaten lunch. Luckily, we were in Liverpool, just north of Syracuse, checking out a local park. Because right across the street from the park was Heid's hot dogs. The "i" in their logo is a hot dog, so, yeah, they have good dogs. Mercer was a happy little boy. We went back to the hotel for more swimming and questionable late-night hotel food. Pop fell asleep to the sound of steroid-fueled Yankees bats pounding the cover off of Detroit Tigers pitching.
The next morning was the day of Mom's big work event. Mercer and Pop dropped her off downtown and had breakfast, returned to the hotel and lounged about watching Spongebob. It was raining all morning, but when the bad weather passed, Mercer and Pop packed up the rental car and checked out of the hotel. Above is a picture Pop had to take. It's the office of Oberdorfer Aluminum Foundry, a company amazingly still in business given the state of their factory on Thompson Road.
Here's Mercer in the Armory District in downtown Syracuse.
Syracuse has some amazing architecture to take in. It's unfortunate the weather wasn't nicer so more buildings like these could be admired. This is Clinton Square.
All in all, a fun family road trip to Northern New York. New York, by the way, is huge. A friendly hotel worker asked Mercer and Pop where we were from. Pop responded "New York," forgetting that we still were, in fact, in New York. It reminded him of the time he asked for "American cheese" on a sandwich while in Mannheim, Germany. Anyway, it would be great to visit again someday. Syracuse reminds Pop of a smaller city set in the Pacific Northwest. It's dominated by a university and is surrounded by nature. There's a decent arts and restaurant scene with some good breweries and great people. There are plenty of smaller neighborhoods to explore and tons of old industry. Wish we had a little bit more time there and some better weather, but it's also good to be home with our feet up on the couch.
No comments:
Post a Comment