Vaughan to Syracuse: the Dome, the mall and the canal by chauffeured car

Syracuse, three ways

Syracuse is the crossroads of upstate New York — I-90 and I-81 meet at it, the Erie Canal ran through it, and its university's teams fill the JMA Wireless Dome with a crowd that Vaughan basketball families have joined since the Big East years. It is three trips in one city: the Orange game weekend, with the Dome's thirty thousand for a basketball Saturday and the Carrier Dome's — now the JMA's — football autumn; the Destiny USA weekend, at the six-storey mall on Onondaga Lake with its Canyon Climb ropes course, its go-kart track, its indoor amusements and the outlet stores, the closest thing to a West Edmonton Mall east of Toronto; and the university weekend, when a Grade 12 student tours Syracuse's campus on the hill and Cornell's in Ithaca an hour south. The Erie Canal Museum in the old weighlock, the Great New York State Fair's thirteen days in late August, and Skaneateles's lake town twenty minutes west fill the rest. The Visit Syracuse site has the city; the border guide has both bridges.

Two roads

The western road is the QEW, the Lewiston–Queenston Bridge and I-90 east past Buffalo and Rochester to Syracuse's exits — five hours by the estimate and five and a quarter with the booth — and it is the road for a family that wants Rochester or the Finger Lakes on the way; the northern road is the 401 to the Thousand Islands Bridge at Ivy Lea, I-81 south past Watertown to Syracuse — about the same time, with the Alexandria Bay stop on the way and a quieter border — and it is the road for a family that wants the St. Lawrence and a Kingston lunch. The chauffeur picks by the day's waits and the family's stops; the SUV or Sprinter does either.

The Dome, for the Orange

The JMA Wireless Dome on the university's hill is the largest on-campus arena in the country for basketball — thirty thousand for a Duke or a Georgetown game — and a Vaughan basketball family's weekend is a Saturday game with the tickets from the Orange's site, a Marshall Street lunch, and the Sprinter in the university's lot; football's autumn Saturdays are the tailgate version with the Dome's roof keeping the Central New York weather out. The Syracuse Crunch, the AHL club, play at the War Memorial downtown on the nights the Orange do not, and the Syracuse Mets, the Mets' Triple-A club, play at NBT Bank Stadium in summer.

Destiny USA, for the children

Destiny USA on the lake's shore is the state's largest mall and the children's reason for the trip: WonderWorks' upside-down house of science exhibits, the Canyon Climb Adventure ropes course hanging over the atrium, the RPM Raceway go-karts, the 5 Wits escape adventures, a bowling alley, an indoor mirror maze, the Apex Entertainment arcade, and the outlet and full-price stores — Lego, Apple, Nike, the Cheesecake Factory — around them; a Vaughan family's Saturday is the amusements from ten to two and the stores after, with the Sprinter in the garage and the bags to the bay. The mall's site has the attractions' hours and the CBSA's 48-hour exemption applies to the two-night weekend.

The Erie Canal Museum and the fair

The Erie Canal Museum in the 1850 weighlock building — the only one left — has a full-size canal boat to board and the story of the canal that made New York the Empire State; the Everson Museum of Art's ceramics and the MOST science museum in the old armory are the downtown hours, and Armory Square's restaurants are the dinner. The Great New York State Fair, thirteen days ending on Labor Day, is the country's oldest state fair — the butter sculpture, the livestock, the midway, the concerts — and a Vaughan family's late-August weekend does it as the Saturday with the Sprinter in the fair's lot and the children on the midway until the fireworks. The fair's site has the dates.

Skaneateles and the quiet night

Twenty minutes west, Skaneateles sits at the head of its Finger Lake — the village's Genesee Street shops, the lakefront park and gazebo, the Sherwood Inn on the water, the Mirbeau spa, the Judge Ben Wiles boat cruises in summer, and the Dickens Christmas weekends in December — and a Vaughan family that wants the city's day and a lake's night sleeps here with the travel desk holding the inn; the Finger Lakes post has the region.

The university visit

Syracuse University's hill — the information session in the Schine Center, the tour of the Quad, Newhouse's journalism school and the Dome — and Cornell's Ithaca campus an hour south make a two-campus weekend for a Grade 12 student; the SUV drops at each, the parents walk Marshall Street and the Ithaca Commons, and the Ithaca post has Cornell and the gorges. The admissions pages' visit calendars are booked weeks ahead.

The weekend, in shape

Friday at 2 from Thornhill, the Lewiston bridge at 3:40, the Thruway, the Armory Square hotel by 7:15, dinner; Saturday Destiny USA's amusements at ten, the stores at two, the Dome at seven for a basketball game; Sunday the Erie Canal Museum at ten, Skaneateles for lunch and the lake, the road home by the northern route with the Thousand Islands Bridge at 4:30 and the 48-hour exemption, Thornhill by 7:30. Two nights, the SUV as a return with a Saturday on daily hire, one number in the booking engine.

What the chauffeur replaces

Five hours each way on two interstates; the bridge as the driver; the Dome's lot on a game night, which empties slowly; Destiny's garage with a family and the bags; and the choice of two roads home, which the chauffeur makes by the waits. For a couple the trip is a car's; for a family of five or a group of eight for an Orange weekend it is the Sprinter's one fare.

Seasons

November to March for Orange basketball; September to November for the football Saturdays; late August for the State Fair; summer for Skaneateles's lake and the Mets; the Canadian March break for Destiny's indoor day; December for Skaneateles's Dickens weekends. Central New York's snow is the winter's constant and I-81 north of the city is the chauffeur's care.

Pairing it

Syracuse pairs with Ithaca and the Finger Lakes an hour south, with Cooperstown ninety minutes east for the baseball family, with Rochester on the western road and Alexandria Bay on the northern one.

The Orange weekend, in order, for a group of eight

Eight friends from Woodbridge for a Saturday basketball game against a Big East visitor: the Sprinter at noon on Friday, the Lewiston bridge at 1:40, the Thruway, the Armory Square hotel by 5:30, dinner at Pastabilities and the Blue Tusk after; Saturday's Marshall Street lunch at Varsity Pizza, the Dome's doors at one for a two o'clock tip with the tickets bought in October, the game, the Dome's slow lot, Armory Square's evening; Sunday's brunch, the Erie Canal Museum for the one who wanted it, the northern road home by I-81 and the Thousand Islands Bridge at 3:30 with a Kingston stop, Woodbridge by 7. Two nights of daily hire split eight ways, and the Orange's site for the tickets.

Destiny's day, in order, for a family of five

From the hotel at 9:30 in the Sprinter: the mall's garage at 9:45 and WonderWorks at ten for two hours of the upside-down house; the Canyon Climb's ropes at noon for the two over eight; lunch at the food court; the go-karts at 1:30; the Lego and Nike stores from 2:30 with the bags to the Sprinter at four; the Cheesecake Factory at 5:30; the hotel at seven. A day inside a mall on a February Saturday when Vaughan is minus fifteen, which is the March-break logic.

Costs, plainly

The Syracuse weekend is a return with a Saturday on daily hire in the booking engine; the tickets, the hotel and Destiny's bags are the family's, and the 48-hour CAD 800 exemption per person applies on the way home. Against the fare are five hours each way on the Thruway or I-81 as a driver, the bridge, the Dome's lot and Destiny's garage; a couple does this in a car, and a family of five or a group of eight books the Sprinter for one fare and the Sunday's sleep.

Green Lakes and the Onondaga Lake shore

Ten minutes east of the city, Green Lakes State Park holds two glacial lakes of an unlikely turquoise — meromictic lakes whose water does not mix — with a beach, a swim and a three-kilometre loop trail around Green Lake under the old-growth trees, the summer afternoon a family adds to a Destiny morning; Onondaga Lake Park on the lake's east shore is the bicycle path, the playgrounds and, in December, the Lights on the Lake drive-through display that a chauffeured family sees from the Sprinter's windows. The state parks' site has Green Lakes' hours.

Tipperary Hill and the upside-down light

Syracuse's Irish neighbourhood on the west side has the country's only traffic light with the green above the red — the 1920s compromise after the neighbourhood's boys kept breaking the red-over-green light — and Coleman's Irish Pub beneath it is the Saturday lunch for a Vaughan family that has heard the story; the Stone Throwers' Park's statue commemorates the boys. The Visit Syracuse site tells it properly.

Costs, for the Cornell family

The two-campus weekend — Syracuse on Saturday, Cornell on Sunday — is a return with a Sunday on daily hire in the booking engine; the tours are free, the hotel is the family's, and the drive home from Ithaca by the Thruway and Lewiston is four and a half hours with the Grade 12 student asleep and the parents comparing the two hills.

Booking it

Book a return from your Vaughan address with a Saturday on daily hire, or a daily hire for the weekend; tell us the game, the mall, the campuses, the seats and every passenger's citizenship for the bridge, and the chauffeur confirms the road and the plan the evening before.

Book the Syracuse weekend