Get Outta Town!

Post written by Bridget Strub.

For the four years Pete and I have been married, we’ve made it a habit to go away for a night every three months or so. You might be wondering how we can afford weekly date nights and nights away every three months. This type of behavior doesn’t fit in to our normal spending behaviors. For a couple who slept on a ten year old mattress for the first four years of marriage, counts every dollar each month in a strict budget, and lives in a $60,000 home, you wouldn’t think we’d live extravagantly enough to sleep in a hotel every three months. The truth of the matter is, though, we can’t afford not to do these things. Our weekly date nights help keep us connected with each other from crazy week to crazy week. But, some of the most pivotal moments of our marriage have occurred while we were away from our regular setting and able to relax in an out of routine sort of way.

When we get away, we’re able to step back from the inevitable funk that accumulates in our everyday life and reassess where we’re at as individuals and as a couple. We’ve stuck to this pattern pretty much since our first day of marriage. I attribute the fact that our love still feels new and exciting to this tradition. If we hadn’t taken the time to do these things, I’m convinced our relationship would be at a very different place than it is today. When we’re able to shut out the rest of the world and look at each other as the people we fell in love with five years ago, the world seems to set itself right. We’re able to work out the little things that creep in where they shouldn’t. We can dig up the underlying junk that’s been lying hidden for a while. After all that, we’re able to just breathe a little and dream about where we’re going in the future.

If you’re married and haven’t taken the time to get away on a semi-regular basis, my advice to you is as simple as the Nike motto. Just do it. There are plenty of hotels, bed and breakfasts, or inns that offer a one night’s stay with a hot breakfast for little over a hundred dollars. We’ve become pretty partial to hotels like Wingate by Wyndam and Homewood Suites. They have an indoor pool and hot tub that help speed up the relaxation process, and the guessing game with room quality and cleanliness is taken out of the equation.

The one variable that we encounter with each stay is where we’ll eat dinner. We’re typically at the mercy of the location of our hotel and what we can find near it. This week, our hotel was in the middle of a field, kind of creepy, and right next to a Quaker Steak & Lube. I have a fundamental problem with Quaker Steak & Lube simply based on the fact that its name and logo is so closely associated to a car oil company. The thought of eating food from there kind of creeps me out, even if they do have some of the best wings around, or so I’ve heard. I thought we’d be stuck there, but we were miraculously saved by an incredible suggestion to try Coppertop Tavern in North Syracuse, NY.

I didn’t let myself get my hopes up as we drove through Syracuse in pursuit of our dinner. I’d been burned before by the seemingly unique restaurants, and was a little nervous this would be another experience like that. This experience was immensely different though. I immediately fell in love with it as we sat in the corner booth of the old-fashioned tavern and read through the menu. There were plenty of mouth-watering options ranging from hefty burgers, crispy pizza baked in a stone hearth, creative salads, and other tavern favorites. Our expectations were high as we ordered. We thought that if they could pull through with good food we would have the perfect restaurant experience. We were not disappointed.

Pete chose Chicken DaVinci, a huge pasta dish with two full chicken breasts smothered in pesto and mozzarella and a side of three servings of pasta. I decided on the Italian Chopped Salad, a mound of lettuce with all of my favorite salad toppings; artichoke hearts, roasted red peppers, pepperoni kalamata olives, garbanzo beans, banana peppers, and tomato bruschetta that soaked everything with the perfect blend of seasoning and juice so that I didn’t even have to use the dressing that came on the side. In addition to all of that, we received a basket of warm garlic bread made in the stone hearth.

Our dinner was absolutely delicious. Flavors did the fox trot in my mouth as I crunched through my salad. We both had portions left over that we were able to eat for lunch the next day. That’s no surprise for me, but it says a lot that Pete couldn’t finish his meal. Our bill came to $30.45, tax and tip included. And that definitely set the tone for a great rest of our get away!

If you ever find yourself in North Syracuse, maybe on a getaway with your special someone, make sure you stop in to try the Coppertop Tavern, it’s well worth the drive!

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