Thanksgiving Weekend

We are finally home and now I can update you on the rest of our Thanksgiving weekend in New York. Friday was our caching day. The majority of our day was spent finding caches in and around the Syracuse area. Syracuse caching is so much fun because there are so many areas that are just so quaint and there are lots of interesting history. Steve and I also felt "at home" as we recalled several spots that we came across when we lived there. In fact, there were so many places that we remembered that it was difficult to believe that we only lived there for 10 months.

After eating lunch at Heid's, an awesome hot dog place in Liverpool that is famous for their long line of customers, we met one of our caching buddies, Rick, and we did a few caches together in the Onondaga Park. Rick adopted our cache we hid, when we moved and has been taking care of it ever since. It was so nice catching up with Rick. We shared lots of new caching stories and he took some photos for us since we were without batteries. So since we have no other photos, I will just post all the photos Rick took here while I'm discussing the remainder of our weekend.
For dinner, we went to the same restaurant, where Steve and I first took Tyler after coming home from the hospital. We remembered how we just couldn't believe he slept through the entire meal in his car seat because the place was so noisy. We were reminded of how time quickly passes by as we look at how big Tyler has grown and he certainly did not sleep through dinner this time. He was busy colouring and talking to the people passing by.

Saturday morning we did some caching on the way to Aunt Carol and Uncle Bernie's house. Two of the caches brought us to a park where there were tons of geese. Steve picked up Tyler and they ran towards the geese making them fly. Tyler laughed so much at that and continued saying "geese" most of the day.

When we arrived at Carol and Bernie's house, we were delighted to see cousin, Kimmie and her beautiful daughters, Kaitlyn and Emily. This was the first time for us to meet Emily as is just 9 months old.

Our last day in New York, we called up Grampa and Ann. Grampa had just turned 85 the day before. We drove over to their house in Elmira and had a lovely visit with them. Ann made us yummy milkshakes and we chatted while eating some cookies. Tyler had some fun exploring their house and playing with their dog, Lilly. It was absolutely wonderful spending some time with Grampa and Ann.

Then it was back to Carol and Bernie's again. We wanted to say one last goodbye to them and Bernie had some lumber to give to Steve to bring back home. Before heading back home though, they treated us to a delicious home cooked meal that included the best pumpkin pie that I have ever tasted. It was about 6:30pm before we got on the road, which meant a long dark drive back. Bernie suggested a shortcut which took us through some really interesting old towns. We even stopped at a covered bridge dated back to 1850 to get a cache that was hidden there. It was spooky but lots of fun!

Being a military family, we move around a lot. You just never know where they might send us whether we like it or not. However we are so blessed that our son was born in such a wonderful city. We not only just lived there, but we have a connection that will last forever. Steve and I love Syracuse so much. The people are friendly, the places are interesting, and the food is fantastic...which reminds me, I didn't even mention how good the apple cider is. Steve and I were saying on our drive back home about what a terrific weekend we had and that we really wished we had more time to spend in Syracuse. We'll be back, Syracuse!!!