Aside from Passover, this week was the big father/son trip to Oswego, NY. This place is on Lake Ontario and . . . I went to college there and it’s a nice town about 5.5-6 hours away depending on how brutal the traffic through New Jersey is. Why my GPS kept sending me through NJ is beyond me? Didn’t help that it took me through the Bronx too. At least the overall trip was fun. Let’s do a daily break down:
Tuesday
The drive up was fairly quick with me only needing one stop halfway. To be fair, the worst traffic on the way up is around NYC, NJ, and Long Island. Once I get away from that area, it’s rather smooth sailing outside of some construction areas near Syracuse. Made it up around check-in time and we relaxed for a bit. Dinner was a pricey, but tasty pizza place where my son got Mac & Cheese and I got a rather big Hawaiian calzone. After that, it was Pokemon Go on SUNY Oswego campus.
Stepping foot on campus is something I should touch on. Last time I was in SUNY Oswego, it was 2013 and I was at a local convention to sell my first book. I had swag, a banner, and didn’t get anywhere because I was in a rather quiet room. Got to hang out with friends. Yet, that was still when I was married. This was the first time I was on campus after the divorce and with my son. There was a weird sense of nostalgia battling the sense of loss, which went on throughout the trip. Not a bad thing, but it definitely felt strange.
Wednesday
First of the full days and we went to the Rosamund Giffords Zoo in Syracuse. It was a little, but enough was inside where it didn’t matter. The zoo is smaller than the Bronx Zoo, so we got to walk around a few times. The highlights were nearly 1-year-old tiger cubs wrestling, seeing the 5-month-old elephant twins, golden lion tamarins, meerkats, and the gray wolves. Got some food from the café there and headed back to the hotel in time to go swimming in the pool. Spent part of the evening walking around campus playing Pokemon Go again. Not sure if that was the best move since it was cold and windy.
Thursday
MALL DAY! Seriously, we spent the entire day in the Destiny USA mall. This place is huge and allowed my son to do a lot of Pokemon Go between scheduled events. The morning was a ‘Sloth Encounter’ at the animal place they have on the second level. The place was bigger than expected and we got to go into the sloth’s enclosure to feed them. It was fun and we could gently pet their backs as long as we gave them food first. All of them were rescues too. This was the big event of the trip too, so it was totally worth it. Sloths are really soft to the touch and have the most interesting, serene faces. They can be picky eaters too.
The afternoon event was seeing ‘Spy x Family: Code White’ at the theater on the top floor of the mall. This is based on a manga/anime that my son and I read/watch. It’s about a fake family where the father is a spy, mother is an assassin, and the daughter is a telepath, but nobody except the daughter knows who everyone is. So much fun to see this kind of story on the big screen.
Getting back to Oswego, we had dinner with a friend. It was McDonalds and we just hung around talking until about 9. Nice to see old friends after so long.
Friday
This day didn’t go smoothly. I took us to some walking paths I remember hearing about, but I didn’t realize they would be muddy. Well, they weren’t until we got so far along that turning back was an issue. My son’s shoe got stuck at one point and mine nearly came off too. This resulted in us having to go back to the hotel to change shoes and then go to Walmart to buy new pairs. Oops. The afternoon was swimming and just relaxing until my friends were freed up to have dinner. Another relaxing evening of chatting.
Today
Drove home and here we are.
Definitely want to go up again one day. My son and I discussed the trips we like, which are those where not a lot is planned. We just like getting away to relax, which Oswego is really good for. Just not in the winter when the weather is terrible. Same goes for Finger Lakes, which he wants to go back to one day. I keep thinking I have to find new and exciting trips for us, but we do that on family trips with my parents. Maybe the father/son adventures could be these two areas where we can still do things.
For myself, I might try a solo journey up there at times. I always wanted to do an author getaway and thought I’d need a cabin, isolation, or a group. My ex-wife once gave me one for my birthday, but it was to a nearby motel. She meant well, but it happened right after I finished writing a book and I ended up in a room under the stairs with no windows. It didn’t work out very well and taught me that atmosphere is important. Oswego has a relaxing setting for me. I might not do any book work, but hand-editing and notebook stuff can help. Figured out a few problems with Rayne’s full journey that haven’t been sitting well for 15 years and I wasn’t even trying on this trip. Can’t do author stuff when I have my son there though, so I might go back on my own one day. Probably need a laptop I can close without it breaking too.
Spring break is still going on through Tuesday, so I won’t be doing much. Going to type in some edits for Darwin & the Halfling Hunt. Want to do a bunch of posts for June too since I have topics. Beyond that, I’ve got a busy 3 days of work. Schedule is changing and then basketball after school. Won’t give me any time to do my own stuff until next Saturday after some recovery. Guess that’s how it goes these days.
Legends of Windemere 