The Great Trip Part I – Orlando to Binghamton

After work on Friday, May 15^th my hubby and I set out for New York. We decided to drive through the night on Friday and make a few stops on Saturday before arriving in Binghamton NY.  By Saturday morning we were making our first stop in West Virginia.

What is so special about WV? I used to live there! My family and I had our roots set in WV for three long years before we decided to move to Orlando. This was my first time back in over 15 years. We drove by my old house, my old schools, and my old church! It was a wonderful trip down memory lane and it was amazing being able to share part of where I came from with my husband.

My old house!!!

My old church!!

My old school!

After spending a few minutes taking in the beauty that is West Virginia, we set out again. We had planned to visit Gettysburg, but we made a quick decision to skip it and head up to Niagra Falls. Because we had all left our passports at home we were unable to go over to Canada (who totally has the better view!). 

Since we wanted a better view of the falls we decided to do the Maiden of the Mist boat ride. It was like $20 a ticket and WELL WORTH IT.

There were a ton of people at the falls but we barely had to wait more than 5 minutes to get on the boat. We were given a rain coat and were told to tie it tight! I had no idea that we would get so wet from the mist! It was one of the most amazing experiences of the whole trip. Next time I will be bringing my waterproof camera!

View from the boat

After our fun at Niagra, we were back on the road and headed for Binghamton! The moment we got close enough, Ricky called his favorite pizza place and ordered us personal pizzas to be picked up.

The place is called Brozzetti's Pizza and I have been hearing how amazing and life changing it is for YEARS from my husband and his brother and anyone else who has ever lived in Binghamton. So it would be an understatement to say that this place was over hyped.

The first night I had just plain cheese pizza. How else can you judge a pizza place? If they can make a killer cheese pizza, then they are winners in my book.

The cheese pizza was veryyyyy good, great even, but I was I guess slightly disapointed for some reason. With all of the hype from my husband and his family, I guess I expected the pizza to be made of gold or something lol. It was damn good pizza, but I don’t think I would call it a “Life changing pie”.

The second time I got Brozzetti’s, I was much more impressed. I ordered the buffalo chicken pizza, and it was pretty damn close to life changing.

Other than Brozzetti’s, Ricky had other MUSTS on the restaurant list for Binghamton.

We went to Lupo’s and ordered a Chicken Spiedie (if you haven’t heard of them, you musttttt look them up and order the marinade).

We went to Cortese and I had some of the BEST french onion soup I have ever had in my LIFE, along with some of the best service I have ever had :D.

We also met up for brunch at the Park Diner, where I won at life with an order of coffee and a mimosa!

Believe it or not, eating was not the ONLY thing we did in Binghamton. Ricky has a lot of extended family in that area so I did a lot of meeting and greeting!

Ricky gave me the grand tour of the town, which is known for their Parlor Homes. I was able to see my hubby’s old house, along with the old mountain home (Beaver Meadows) 

that his grandparents own.

Us at Beaver Meadows 

Trying and failing to skip rocks!

I had so much fun seeing all of the sights and learning the history of the houses and the land from Ricky’s Grandfather (who lives in one of the oldest homes in Binghamton).

Fun Fact: Most of the homes in Binghamton do not have air conditioning. Being from Florida, I was blown away by this concept. How many states don’t have air conditioners? Apparently, A LOT of the North East.