Last weekend, I visited Syracuse University for my five-year reunion. Mid-November seemed an odd time for Homecoming, and the game was Friday night at 8 p.m., so a friend from college and I headed up on Thursday night after work.

From my house, it is about a three-hour drive, and we took our time, stopping along the way for gas and dinner. We arrived at the Doubletree Hotel in Carrier Circle around 10 p.m. After checking in and making our way to the elevators, we quickly realized we were in enemy territory, as the University of South Florida’s football team, our Homecoming opponent, was staying at the hotel.

The next morning, we made our way to campus, wandering and shopping along nearby Marshall Street. We perused the bookstore and Student Center, which had a moving memorial on display for the Syracuse University students killed during the terrorist attack on Pan Am Flight 103 in the late 1980s. We also checked out Newhouse III, a new addition to the School of Public Communications (both of us were Newhouse students) since our graduation. Along the way, we caught up with friends, shared memories and were shocked back into just how cold it can be in Syracuse (it was snowy, of course!). For dinner, we headed to our favorite restaurant in the area, Delmonico’s, on Erie Boulevard. After a disappointing loss in the Homecoming game (our last chance at a bowl appearance this year), we headed to our old favorite bar, Chuck’s. It was beyond packed, with a line down the block, so we headed to another old standby, for both good food and drinks, Faegan’s. All in all, it was a great day of catching up, and, oftentimes, it felt like we had never left.

Before heading out Saturday morning, we stopped by one more old standby, Stella’s Diner. This is one of the most popular breakfast places for Syracuse University students, who pack the place Saturdays and Sundays. It tasted just as good as I remembered and was the perfect fuel for the ride home.

— Kimberly Krol, managing editor