Upstate NY Research Trip Day 6

We left Alexandria Bay this morning and traveled down to Syracuse, where we went to the Rosamond Gifford Zoo. It wasn't a big zoo, but it was decently sized enough that we spent a couple of hours there.

I have to say, I've never seen turtles or sloths that were this active. They were practically having a party.

After the zoo, we went to visit my relative Cathy, whom I met for the first time today. Stopping in Syracuse is very special to me because my mother's whole side of the family is from here. I grew up with stories of the area, hearing my grandfather cheer on Syracuse's basketball team, and eating Hoffman's snappys (my family always called them cooneys) and franks that they brought back from visiting.

In light of all those stories, I just had to stop and see Tipperary Hill, home of the only upside down traffic light in the whole world. Why is it upside down? Because it was an neighborhood of Irish immigrants who kept throwing rocks at the red light because they didn't like the symbolism of the British being above the Irish (red above green). They knocked it out so many times, that the city just gave them their way. Later on, they put a memorial park near the light, where even the pavement has shamrocks on it.

After finally seeing the place behind my grandma's stories (she was very proud to be Irish), I took my husband over to Heid's so he could have his very first cooney dog, the taste of my childhood.

Finally, we drove by the house my great-great-grandparents bought when they arrived after immigrating from Germany, the same house my great-grandparents and grandfather grew up in. It was a cozy little house at the base of a steep hill that my mom still talks about.

Tomorrow, we head to Tarrytown for the final leg of our journey and the bulk of my book research.