Sunshine in Syracuse!
Hi friends! Hope everyone had a lovely Thanksgiving! This is truly my favorite time of year, the blend of coming home and the holiday festivities kicking in. I love the Christmas carols on the radio, the smell of holiday baking, the parades and lights and countdown to … 2024? I hope all of it is as magical this year for all of you as in years past, and then some.
Today, I am so excited to share my experience with visiting my best friend Donna, who lives in Syracuse, NY. If you’re wondering what that is, it's the part of New York you don’t think of when you think of New York, somewhere upstate where the winter tundra is hard at work. I break up the reason I took this trip into three parts 1.) travel makes my world go round, 2.) I missed Donna, and 3.) She has a CAT. Miku is such a little firecracker, always ready for a cuddle but very aware of his worth so he makes you give him attention in return. I always say I love cats because dogs will accept any amount of love; cats need you to earn their love. Us people should be more like cats- know your worth and be appreciative of the small things, whether its licking a human toe or having a new litter box to shit in. If any of us were as excited about our day-to-days as Miku is about his, then we would all enjoy life just a little bit more.
I spent six days here, which was enough time to get a lay of the land and give Miku LOTS of attention. On day 1 (debatable since I flew in around 9pm after a 12 hour layover in Chicago which meant I got very little sleep), we went stargazing near Jamesville Reservoir, which was truly gorgeous. Jupiter was truly the brightest star in the sky, and though I at first made the obvious assumption that it was the North Star up there, Donna quickly straightened me out with her star compass app, which is a pretty epic thing I will have to download myself. I think I have been in Seattle for too long, because even though Washington is stunning, the light pollution really gets in the way of the mind-altering stargazing I used to relish while in Champaign, IL. Even though WA gets stunning sky displays like the visions of Aurora Borealis (Northern Lights) that it is prone to, they are often only visible three and a half hours away in the middle of Buttfuck, Nowhere State Park. So I was elated to visit Syracuse, which has significantly less light pollution, and immediately see the sky lit up with bright stars and unique constellations. We saw Orion’s arrow so brightly right above us, we gazed at the North Star, and Donna (whose vision is 10x the quality of mine) saw five shooting stars zip by too. All the while, Donna and I caught up on the tea, talked about love languages (because what else would we talk about), and chatted about horoscopes - because we are a gemini and a leo, so that is our real love language.
On Friday, we had a chill day, walking around Donna’s lovely suburban neighborhood (there’s something alarmingly special about being around driveways and dogs and even road rage again), looking at her many, many crochet projects, and chasing the cat around to try to kidnap him and take him back with me. We closed the day out by heading to Dinosaur Bar-B-Que, which stole a piece of my heart along with a very reasonable, affordable bill (I forgot what those looked like in Seattle). I recommend anyone with a hearty appetite to come here and try their pulled pork and ribs - they will blow your mind. Saturday was a day for exploring Syracuse’s nature, which is definitely a shining point of this city. Living in WA, I always forget that we aren’t the only state with the ability to take your breath away, but a visit to Great Lakes State Park definitely proved me wrong. With Donna’s exceptional navigation skills and FREE admission, we enjoyed an afternoon of walking around Round Lake and Green Lake, featuring two beautiful landscapes with shimmering, crystal-clear water and stunning fall foliage. We also took a short stint downtown while the sun was shining (I soaked in ALL the vitamin D to counteract the lack of it I’m getting in Seattle) where we strolled around Clinton Square, which features a beautiful ice skating at the center of the city which comes alive in December, and saw the beautiful Christmas tree. Most importantly, I picked up a bagel from the Water Street Bagel Co., which features a line out the door and delicious smelling wood-fired bagels. Unfortunately, while it was delicious and far better than anything I can get in WA and IL, I did realize that upstate NY bagels < the typical New York Bagel the state is famous for. So I guess this calls for a trip to NYC sometime soon?
Sunday was a good old-fashioned mall day, where we took a trip to Destiny USA (me, Donna, and her roommate) and shopped until we dropped. Before beginning our shopping escapades, we stopped into Escape the Mystery Room, an escape room experience within the mall, to do a fun escape room for the three of us. If you know anything about me, you know that I LOVE escape rooms, so we had a lot of fun with the “Special Agent” themed room. If you ever find yourself in Syracuse, I can’t recommend enough heading over there - and they give you a free escape room experience on your birthday if you sign up too, so definitely a great find. Destiny USA is a HUGE mall, so we spent the next five hours shopping the stores and finding all the good Black Friday finds (anyone else annoyed that Black Friday has just become an excuse for stores to put things on a 30% off sale for the entire month of November? Whatever happened to the 5am waiting outside of stores for insane deals? Take me back to 2008). My golden ticket was that I purchased my first ever designer item, a coach tote that is now my favorite thing in the whole world.
Monday-Wednesday was a time for decompression and more exploration. Some of my favorite activities/finds include trying out Luna Cat Cafe, going out to play Bingo - of all things- with Donna’s roommates’ coworkers at Wolff’s Biergarten, checking out some bookstores on James Street, and getting delicious gyros at King David’s. And another shoutout to the best grocery store I’ve experienced in a while - Wegmans. It’s like Haggen in Seattle with its luxury ready to eat items Costco with its amazing quality stuff…. But the best part is that it’s ¼ the price of literally EVERYTHING in Seattle. Sharon stamp of approval for sure.
It was a trip that was sweet and short, but Syracuse was really a lot of fun. It’s also a hop away from many other incredible parts of upstate NY - Rochester, Buffalo, and even Niagara Falls (I’ll save that for when it’s a little warmer) - and a hub for university students and families. I probably won’t be back, but I am super duper glad I made the trip. Plus I got to pet a cat and see my best friend. Donna won’t be reading this, but on the off-chance that she is, thanks for making my trip special in all the ways you make my life special. I really think Thanksgiving is about stopping to take a pause on what you’re grateful for in life, and this was exactly what I needed to remember how lucky I am to have people like her in my circle.
And thanks for you. If you are reading this, I’m also super duper grateful to have YOU in my life.
More to come soon!