Manda's '30 by 30' Project: Back To The Big Orange

It's hard to believe I hadn't been up to Syracuse since my graduation in May 2004. That all changed this weekend! On a whim I decided to make the most of a regularly scheduled 3-day weekend (thanks to Redskins playing Monday Night Football) by conquering a few of the '30 by 30'. I convinced (again, quite easily) my girl Liz to come along. Since we planned it very last minute (like, Thursday) there was minimal expectationy pressure and more room for spontaneous fun. My goals for the trip were simple. 1) Go to the Toledo-Syracuse game and 2) Eat at Dinosaur BBQ. Anything else would be icing on the orange cake.

We left around 11am on Friday. If you factor in the usual morning trip to Dunkin we really got on the road closer to 11:15. It literally rained the entire way up to Syracuse. Figures, right? The frequently monsoon-esque rains led to a few extra pit stops. They turned out to be quite entertaining pit stops, including a Halloween themed bathroom in a Hess gas station (pictured) and my 1st ever M-T-O at Sheetz (for me, not Liz, she doesn't do carbs). We finally rolled into Syracuse around 5:45 on Friday evening. A bit long for my liking but understandable considering it rained, hard, the entire drive. We drove straight to Dino and let me tell you it was freaking amazing. I'll do a separate post for Dino but yeah it was ridiculously great and lived up to everything I remember. From there we hit up the Wegmans (not sure anyone other than Rochester-native Liz could love Weggies more than me) for some Genesee Cream Ale and then basically called it a night. Kickoff for Toledo-Syracuse was 12pm so we started Saturday with another trip to Wegmans (shopping list included Dinosaur BBQ sauce and chocolate chip cookies), a trip to Dunkin, a stop by my old Syracuse house (pictured), a t-shirt purchase on Marshall Street (2 for $15, score!) and a stroll to the Dome. We bought tickets from a nice dude outside. $20 total for 2 tickets. Can't beat that. In some ways it was kinda weird being back in the dome for the first time in 8 years, but in other ways it was kinda comfortable like I never left. Game was a blast (helped that we won)! We ended the Syracuse adventure with a walk into Newhouse 3 (which was just a dream last time I was there), a quick trip by my favorite professor's office (too bad she wasn't in town, but I did leave a note) and then we hit the road. Less than 24 hours in the big orange but had a blast and was ready to call it a mini road trip.

Turns out there was one last ridiculously fun surprise waiting for us. While stopped in a Dunkin/Citgo in Cortland, Liz found Dunkin Ground Pumpkin (pictured). I'm convinced this is counterfeit coffee considering we frequent lots of Dunkin and have never ever seen the Pumpkin flavored grounds. Just had some though and it is delicious so whatever it is and for whatever reason it's only in 1 Dunkin in the world, I'll take it. The drive home was a very easy 5 hours. And now I can cross Syracuse football, Dinosaur, and road trip off my '30 by 30'. I'll call that a very successful 32 hours.