Syracuse, The Worse Part

After our fun dinner with Mary, we headed to the Syracuse Chiefs' stadium.  It was a nice night and we were looking forward to another game.  I hadn't been to this stadium since 1999 when I interned for the Buffalo Bisons and another intern and I chaperoned a booster club trip there, and Craig had never been there.  It all started simply enough.  We parked and I got this picture on the way in...

After we took that picture and started walking toward the box office, a guy stopped me and asked if we needed tickets.  He had free tickets as part of being a shareholder or something, and offered them to us.  So, of the six tickets in two days that we would have had to buy, we only paid for one!  Nice people are still out there!

The stadium looks pretty impressive from the outside, with a full blown upper deck and this tower...

 

But honestly, that's about where it ends.  There is no fancy signage outside, and the inside is just lacking pizazz and decent amenities.  It's fine, but it pales in comparison to Rochester and Buffalo. 

 

Once we got in, we wandered through the concourse and headed into the store.  We looked around and while we were there, one of their mascots, Scooch, walked in.  Carter was checking him out, as usual, and as I pulled out my camera and turned it on to try to capture his face, the camera whipped out of my hand and landed on the carpet-covered concrete floor.  That's happened a couple times, but this time something went horribly wrong because the pieces covering the lens were messed up.  The lens wouldn't retract, and as I tried to unjam it, some of the pieces came off.  So...my camera is officially dead.  It was only 2-1/2 years old.  The whole thing just makes me sad.  And in the middle of a vacation, I was extra upset, because I sort of feel like if it's not on camera, it almost didn't happen, you know?  I was heartbroken.  And cranky.  And as we sat there in our seats, Craig checked his phone and saw the news about Robin Williams.  Not a good night at all. 

 

The only good news in the mess was that Craig keeps our old digital camera in his car for work, and once we got through that game, I'd be able to use that for the rest of the trip.  Small consolation, but better than nothing.  So, the next few pictures are from Craig's phone.  Here was our view from our first set of seats (we had to move around, which I'll talk about in a bit)...

Here's a rare sighting of me, sitting with a cookie-eating Carter...

We had to get up and walk around because Jacob wanted to get down to their kids' area, which was free but total chaos!  He wanted to do the pitching thing, and then we did an inflatable version of skee ball. 

We wandered back up to the concourse, but by that point all Carter wanted to do was wander off.  We tried to sit but he refused.  He was a major handful.  By the 7th inning stretch I took him to the bathroom to get him changed and in his jammies so we could leave and plop him in bed right when we got back.  Jacob was unhappy we were leaving, but it was the best thing for all of us.  And Carter actually did stay asleep (which is nothing short of a miracle, seriously--that kid never stays asleep getting out of the car!) and we were all in bed before 10pm. 

I slept pretty lightly since Carter was still a little restless.  The next morning I woke up to the sound of rain.  The forecast was terrible and we had planned around it.  We were going to go back to the SU campus and visit Manley Fieldhouse, which has a lot of Syracuse's sports hardware.  It's an unassuming round building flanked by some office wings, but inside was pretty cool.

Right inside were displays with equipment and memorabilia of the various SU sports teams...

...and beyond that some selected trophies were featured on pedestals.  In case you're wondering, there was a giant trophy case with the rest!

Here's a closer view of the lacrosse team displays...

One of the more impressive features of the building is the Carmelo Anthony wing...

 

The wing highlights all of the successes of the men's and women's basketball teams...

 

Notice the championship trophy below...and interestingly it's in a display case that's visible in the practice gym, too.  Talk about motivation... 

The practice gym was set up for volleyball.  Nice facility.

The visit wouldn't have been complete without a photo with the giant "S".

We also saw this cool sculpture featuring Gary Gait, one of the great SU lacrosse players and a former Knighthawk.  It's him scoring a goal from behind the net, which was almost unheard of back in the day.

On our way out we snuck a peek at the field in the fieldhouse.  We saw some soccer players walking through the building and some cheerleaders practicing on the one side.  This picture is hard to see, but the low ceiling was just as you walked into the field area before you hit the track.  It looked really nice, though, with workout equipment on the far side. 

We finished up at SU and braved the rain back to the car.  We decided to go to Destiny USA, Syracuse's giant mall, to grab some lunch and run into a few stores.  It actually worked out well, as the Pizzeria Uno in the food court had a great deal on gluten-free pizzas through the quick service window.  Carter and I shared some Popeye's chicken.  We did a little shopping and I stopped into Best Buy to start my camera shopping.  The mall is huge and intimidating, so we didn't venture too far in.  We had to keep the time in mind as we had to get back to Rochester for my office's summer outing, a night at the Red Wings game.  And yes, that would make three games in three days.  And this one included free tickets, too.  So, three games, one ticket purchased.

The weather was iffy, but the rain stopped for most of the drive and cleared up through the beginning of the game.  We had a nice meal under a tent on the patio at the game, including gluten-free pizza for Jacob.  All was well until shortly after the game started, when the rain began.  We hung in there for a while, just hanging out under the tent and chatting with my co-workers and their families, but when the game went into a rain delay, we headed to the team store.  I looked at the radar and it looked bad, so we headed out into the rain and called it a night.  The game got called sometime later.  They only got a couple innings in, so the good news is that we get free tickets to another game.  The bad news is that just as we were getting Jacob into bed, the power went out.  And it stayed out, so we went to bed early...again. 

The rest of the week has mostly been time at home.  Lazy mornings, the kids tearing the house apart, and me digging into my to do list.  It's been quite the week of organizing hand-me-downs, logging donations, scrubbing the kitchen floor, and organizing as much as possible while my brain isn't cluttered and my energy isn't depleted.  I still have so many things I would have liked to get done, but alas, now it's off to Buffalo for a family wedding on my side.  The progress was good while it lasted!  Back to reality in a couple more days :(

Syracuse, The Better Part

We woke up on Monday, took some Chocolate Chex down to breakfast for Jacob while the rest of us squeezed into a table and sampled the continental breakfast, then headed out to the Rosamond Gifford Zoo.  We'd never been there, which seems silly considering how much we enjoy zoos and how close this one is to home!  But then again, that was sort of the point of this trip.  Since Carter's not at a good place to tolerate long drives (he's too old to sleep through, but too young to enjoy a movie), we figured we'd just stay close to home this year and do something more exciting next year.  We'd talked about doing a couple things in Syracuse recently, so this trip just sort of fell into place once we confirmed that we could hit up a couple baseball games, too.

The entrance to the zoo was much grander than our zoo in Rochester, which sort of surprised me.  The first part of the zoo is inside, which was another surprise.  The first indoor section was a miniature aquarium, including an octopus.  I think they're so cool, and when we came back through on our way out, he was even moving a bit more.  They're so weird, but awesome.

I just love little poison dart frogs.  Their colors are so amazing.  I loved this shot with four different ones...yellow, orange, black and blue, and white, blue, and black. 

The second indoor section was an aviary.  I get nervous about exotic bird poop, but I love funky birds...

There was a set of nocturnal animals, including the most active sloth I've ever seen!  This picture does not do it justice (though I did take some video that I hope to upload one of these days), but you can see the sloth's arms and legs as he crawled down the branches.  I swear, I thought sloths were just a ball of fur for the first couple decades of my life.  I never saw them move!

One of my favorite parts of this trip was seeing Carter react to the animals.  He still doesn't entirely get it, but he genuinely responded and it was fun to see.  Here he is checking out the lions...

He also loved the meerkats and loved when one kept running toward us...

We saw some monkeys and finally headed outside to a giant monkey enclosure.  The best part was that one of the monkeys had a baby clinging to it!  Later on the baby popped off, which was pretty cute, too.

The whole first part of the zoo was spent listening to Jacob demand to see the penguins.  He loves his stuffed penguins, and a recent viewing of Mr. Popper's Penguins refreshed his interest.  When we got there, the penguins were swimming and looking cute.  We walked over to the dry land portion of the enclosure, and suddenly one penguin took an interest in us.  Then he was joined by two others, and the original one was totally digging me.

Never had a staring contest with a penguin, but this one was totally game!

And I don't think it gets any better than these penguins...

The picture of the day was actually taken by Craig.  They had this photo op tiger, and Carter wouldn't go on it without me, so I had to be in the picture.  I didn't realize until after Craig took the picture that Jacob was pulling on the tiger's tail.  Awesome!

When we got to the wolves, we hoped Carter would like them because he loves dogs right now.  He did get a kick out of them, and apparently Jacob liked them enough to base his souvenir choice on them. 

Really pretty!  After this picture he walked over to another one and they both took a snooze in the sun.

They had this strange breed of deer.  They were huge, and there were two that liked the mud pit directly below us!  There was another one sitting in a different spot that had a giant antler.  I swear it was a good three feet high!  His other antler was broken off at less than a foot.  He looked like he had a tree branch growing out of his head.

They also had Asian elephants, and the trainers had this one walking back and forth across the enclosure for food.  So cool.  Carter liked him, especially when I reminded him of my elephant sound!

Here is Jacob with an elephant skull...

And here he is "milking a cow" in the farm section.  Craig has a hidden talent, by the way :)

It had been a hot morning and we were all ready for a break by the time we finished at the zoo.  Unfortunately, we couldn't eat there so we had to find somewhere else...only the kids fell asleep almost instantly in the car.  We ended up picking up some Arby's while the kids slept and eventually found a spot to eat it until the naps were sufficiently long enough.  Next on our agenda: the Syracuse University campus!

Craig went to SU for his master's degree, so it holds a special place in his heart, despite the fact that those years were pretty tough for him.  We've been to the campus before for lacrosse games, but we hadn't really had a chance to wander around.  We parked on Marshall Street just off the main part of the campus and found a spot for the boys to eat their lunches.  We walked back down Marshall St. and stopped in a couple SU apparel stores.  One store was buy one get one free on most stuff, so when Jacob got a pair of lacrosse shorts, I got a free long sleeved t-shirt, my first SU apparel!

The first building we saw was Newhouse, the Communications school that Craig graduated from.  He spent a lot of time in the brown building in the back, but the fancy modern part in the front is newer.

The architecture on the campus is really interesting.  Lots of different eras and styles, presumably from lots of different benefactors.  Here's a sampling...

 

 

In the one courtyard, there was a statue that I recognized right away.  There is a picture of Craig and his brother (I believe from Craig's graduation day) where Craig is next to it, Brad is up on Abraham Lincoln, and some random Chinese kid is sitting on the opposite side.  It's just a funny picture and I remember it sitting on Craig's desk for years.  The guys posed for their own version...

 

We were all pretty hot by this point, so we wandered back over to Marshall St. in search of some sort of slushie.  There were yogurt places and a cookie shop, but nothing that seemed safe for Jacob or appealing for what we really wanted.  We walked up to Starbucks at the far end of the view below, just to see if they had anything, but then gave up and headed back to the car. 

 

We made our way back to the hotel, and had an accidental, fortunate detour that dropped us off at a Taco Bell during their drink happy hour...so three slushies later (Dr Pepper Vanilla for the boys, Mountain Dew Baja Blast for me), we were back at our hotel to cool off and get ready for that night's baseball game.  We also had to figure out our dinner plans, which we were hoping would include my college roommate Mary.  We had to work around Jacob's issues, her work schedule, and trying to get to the stadium easily, but we finally worked out a plan--Jacob ate a peanut butter sandwich at the hotel (he was OK with it, I swear), and the rest of us ate at Quizno's, where he could also snack on some chips while we ate.  It actually turned out pretty good and it was great to see Mary.  She's so fun to hang out with, and it's so awesome to have a friend like her, where no matter how much time passes, we're still fine (I'm actually blessed to have two--my oldest friend Heather is the other, and I desperately owe her an email!!).  And...I get to see Mary again in a month!  For an entire 24 hours!  Without kids!  For a concert!  That is the only redeeming quality of September at this point, actually.

 

So...after dinner we headed off to the Syracuse Chiefs game.  And it was right about then that things went downhill a bit.  We'd had a good, productive day without any major issues...but that was about to change...

Auburn

On Sunday we got up and went to church as usual.  We came home, had lunch, and then I ran around like a maniac trying to get packed.  In the meantime, Carter was overtired but I really wanted him to nap in the car.  We actually got going on time for a change, and off to Auburn we went.  Since they told me they didn't have any gluten-free dinner-type foods at their concession stand, we opted to stop at a nearby McDonald's to grab some dinner before the game.  It was actually a really cool McDonald's, with a fun 50s theme (a bunch of kids got to the fancy car booth just before we did--bummer) and a huge Playplace.

 

After Jacob finished up his food, he was eager to go play basketball.  It was free, so he played a ton!

Once Carter finished up his food, we headed in as well and he wandered around a giant Happy Meal box...

Eventually we headed off to the game.  The 5pm start was a little weird for dinner, but it was perfect for the rest of our schedule.  The game would get over early enough to get us back in the car and to our hotel at a reasonable time.  It cooled down a little from the heat of the day, but was warm enough to not need jackets.  It was just a beautiful night.  It was actually hot in the sun, but knowing the cooler weather that was coming later in the week, I tried not to complain. 

Auburn has a small stadium, much like Batavia, which we've been to a lot more.  In fact, they're nearly identical.  Perfect for small kids.  We ended up with general admission seats because someone gave us two free ones as we walked toward the box office!

We haven't been to Auburn since Jacob was two.  Batavia is so similar that he confused the two a lot when trying to remember, but the hat and shirt he had were both products of that trip that have been hanging out ever since.  Once we got there, Jacob wanted to spend a lot of time in the kids' zone, of course.  He loved doing the pitching...

Note the fake batter and catcher...and in case you're wondering, he threw around 20 mph!

 ...and he really liked that the batting was free and unlimited!

He had a heck of a time, though, because the ball was a little high and I think he's getting a little caught up in "style" instead of functionality.  He'd rather imitate other people right now than rely on the fundamentally sound practices he used in-season.  Oh, well.

As usual, Carter had his eye on the mascot, in this case a guy with a crazy mustache named Abner.  The Geico gecko was also there.  Carter spent a lot of time that night wanting to wander, and a few times he'd chase down Abner, only to turn and flee when he got too close.  He finally got to high five him when I was holding him. 

Eventually we gave up trying to sit in the seats because Jacob wanted to play and Carter wanted to walk.  We went back to the kids' zone, got a snack, filled up cups with water, and pretty much just wandered a lot.  We settled down under a tent to snack...

Thank goodness for naturally gluten-free peanuts!

Jacob was really good for most of the day, though he started to get a little annoyed about the big kid that kept running into this area for the half dozen-plus foul balls that fell there (again, small park!).  He camped himself out there for a while late in the game, but no luck...

The game finally ended and we made one last walk down to the kids' zone because that was the setup spot for kids to run the bases postgame.  We were standing near the opposing team's bullpen watching a guy work out, and just then an umpire walked by on his way off the field and handed me two game balls, one for each kid!

Both were excited, despite Carter's indifference in this picture!

After that it was off to run the bases!  Jacob is an old pro now...

And this was Carter's first time...with help from Daddy!

Whenever we do this, we can't help but reminisce about when Jacob ran the bases in Pittsburgh when he was two, and he committed the cardinal sin of running into the infield right before he hit home plate, and before Craig could grab him.  The workers nearly had a heart attack!  At least minor league parks are a little less crazy about that!

A successful night was had all around, and we loaded into the car to drive another half hour or so to Syracuse to find our hotel and settle in for the night.  Along the way, I somehow managed to capture this picture of the crazy moon from a moving car!  It was so pretty...and so big!

It was a fun little drive through a lot of countryside and our hotel was right off the Thruway.  We got settled in pretty well, though neither kid really wanted to go to sleep.  Carter had picked up a bit of a cold over the previous 24 hours, and he had a hard time settling into his pack-and-play.  Jacob is always beyond hyper in hotels, but at least now I'm prepared to just turn out the lights at 9pm and sneak in a few minutes on my iPod Touch under the covers if I can.  Hence why this blog post is many days later than I'd like it to be, but whatever keeps our sanity, right?  All in all it wasn't a bad start to the trip.  A couple moments, perhaps, but generally really good for being off our usual schedule. 

We got a good night's sleep in preparation for taking Syracuse by storm the next day...