Summer Road Trip Part 3 - Cooperstown

We continued East along Rte. 20 (which had brought us all the way from Buffalo) toward Cooperstown, NY, home to the Baseball Hall of Fame.

I had made our hotel reservations at the Inn at Cooperstown, which turned out to be part of the Select Registry of Distinguished Inns of North America (as was the Packwood House in Skan.). Cooperstown is a darling little town; the directions to the Inn said that it is "three buildings north of the only traffic light in the village." We approve of one-traffic-light villages.

Nate being a beer connoisseur of sorts, we made a stop at the Brewery Ommegang, which is a Belgian Style brewery. After a nice tour, tasting, and spending of a pretty penny at the gift shop (mostly on growlers, 2L bottles which they filled for us from the tap), I made a quick stop in the ladies room and was impressed by the artwork.

Back in town, we went on a nice pre-dinner walk by Otsego Lake, then visited the Cooperstown Heroes of Baseball Wax Museum before having a nice Italian dinner. After dinner we browsed in some shops, considered buying lots of baseball paraphernalia that we didn't end up purchasing, then went back to the hotel for a rousing game of Scrabble.

Monday morning was all about the Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum, where we lined up just before opening with many other tourists and Little League teams. The memorabilia was endless at the museum so we worked up an appetite looking at all kinds of stuff. My favorite part was the room that had a locker of each current team, which housed items from recent feats, like the hat Kerry Wood wore during his 20 strike-out game. I also enjoyed the room that was about the women's baseball league (above - A League of Their Own is one of my all-time favorite movies).

Every day at the Baseball Hall of Fame they show a different artifact which isn't normally on display. Nate and I lucked out and got in the first row to see the ball the President Taft threw out at Opening Day in 1911 (or thereabouts - I can't remember everything, can I, but I can tell you that was the first ever Presidential Opening Day first pitch) and Eisenhower's own baseball glove.

Thanks to a local who warned us against going into the restaurant that had just seated an entire Little League team, we took her second piece of advice and got massive, amazing sandwiches at Danny's Market. So fueled by our lunch, we were ready to go back to the museum for the main event: the Hall of Fame. I myself found the museum more interesting, just because it was actual stuff and not plaques, but maybe someday when there's someone in there who I actually saw play or something, I might be interested in going back (like Greg Maddux, in a few years).

Anyway, on to the Adirondacks!