COOPERSTOWN, NY September 15-18, 2014

This charming covered bridge is just one little part of another beautiful New York park, Glimmerglass State Park and it's only 8 miles north of Cooperstown and the Baseball Hall of Fame. I took the photo from our kayak as we paddled around the river and a bit of the lake the first afternoon we were there. The bridge was being renovated and was roped off, but it was still beautiful from this perspective.

Fall displays were everywhere along Main Street in town and always with lots and lots of chrysanthemums. I've picked up several different colors as we stop at farm stands along the back roads.  I've never seen any mums quite as large and lovely as they have here in the East.

We were walking around the little town of Cooperstown and found a beautiful old resort right on the lake and a perfect place for a an afternoon cocktail. The Otsego Resort Hotel built in 1909 is still a destination resort stay.  Drinks out on the patio overlooking the lake was fun.

The days grew cooler the longer we stayed, so I went into town and spent a couple hours in the morning at the library to get some things done while Paul did some little fix its on the MH.  The library itself is stunning, and dates to 1898 built by the Clark family to be used as a YMCA, library and museum. It's a gorgeous building with an art gallery just beyond the main library rooms. Not a bad place to spend some wet mornings.

Tuesday we planned our visit to the national Hall of Fame in this beautiful brick building.

3 floors of displays and memorabilia from the early days of baseball right up to the present. Opened in 1939 it was amazing to visit the extensive exhibits. It's usually so busy in the village of Cooperstown, a trolley operates during the summer months to get people into town from park areas outside, but September was a perfect time to visit, fewer crowds and no trolley.  To actually stand in front of the Babe Ruth display in the Babe Ruth Room, or Jackie Robinson's display was amazing. Throughout the museum there are so many things to read and learn.

One of my favorite statues was called "Character and Courage"; life-size bronze statues of Roberto Clemente, Lou Gehrig and Jackie Robinson.

Wednesday we started before noon with a tour of the local brewery, Ommegang just south of the village. PK had a rough time getting their required crocs on before the tour, he'd worn sandals and those aren't allowed. 

We had a private tour since it was so early in the day. Everything was operating except the bottling department.

After the tour we had a chance to taste the variety of beers that are brewed. Wonderful! Then we stayed for a most delicious lunch in their restaurant.

This is the beautiful view of the buildings of the Ommgang buildings, in a lovely pastoral setting.

After lunch we visited the Farmers Musuem which is a 19th century Historic Village.  Buildings were gathered from rural communities around New York state and relocated and restored, piece by piece.

We even had a chance to ride on a traditional country fair carousel. The 25 hand-carved animals represent the agricultural and natural resources found in New York State, there's even an Erie Canal boat.

We stopped in all the buildings open that afternoon, with a printmaker working on a newspaper, a pharmacist showing how early medications were prepared, a weaver and broom maker, then out to the farmstead to see the animals, crops and kitchen cooking up lunch over an open fire.

There's a third wonderful musuem right in Cooperstown, the Fenimore Art Museum. Its permanent displays of American Folk Art and North American Indian art and artifacts are housed in the former Fenimore House, incredibly beautiful. Even walking the grounds looking out over the lake was a wonderful experience.

The Dorothea Lange Exhibit had just opened the day before, so amazing to stand before her images of migrant works, suffering families and landscape photos during the Depression years.

One outing I think I'd pass on next time is a visit to the apple cider mill outside of town...too commercialized, all about pushing their products with only a tiny area showing the cider making process. Its like some of the apple farms in SLO county on steroids.

Before leaving Glimmerglass State Park we took a morning to visit Hyde Hall right on the state park property. Built in early 1800s as a large country house with family, guest and staff quarters set in a park-like setting on the southern end of Otswego Lake.

The view from the front porch that morning was lovely.

After four nights in the park it was time to move, no sites were available for the weekend, so we drove east along rolling hills and farms to Thompson's Lake State Park.  Only 18 miles west of Albany it gave us a great location to visit Albany, NY, the state capital. 

ADIRONDACK PARK, PART 2 September 11-14, 2014

Well, the warm beautiful days we'd been having took a real turn for the cold and wet once we moved to Nick's lake State Park, a little further south but still in the Adirondack Park.  We were camped just outside of the little village of Old Forge, and it was cold, cold, cold! The days barely got up to 50 degrees and nights dropped to 34. We spent the afternoon in Old Forge, having coffee and picking up veggies at the local Farmer's Market. To keep warm, we used the library to use their wifi for a couple hours and then on the librarian's suggestion, we enjoyed a weekly tradition, a fish fry dinner at one of the local restaurants.

But, once again we were in the right place to see another fun canoe/kayak event, a Guinness World Record attempt to shatter the record for the largest raft of canoes, kayaks and guide boats. It was held Saturday at noon on Fourth Lake in the little village of Inlet. The event, titled One Square Miles of Hope, was also a fund raiser for Breast Cancer Research.  It was amazing to see over 3,1500 boats participate in the fun.  The wet, cold weather didn't seem to deter all these folks.  They're tough!

Some came with overloaded trunk fulls of kayaks and others came all decked out for the day! But everyone seemed to still have a smile on their faces as they packed up and headed home.  We did the same, then decided to catch a movie that night at The Strand, a wonderful local small theater.  

 The very next day the sun was shining and though still pretty chilly, at least it was a beautiful day for a drive to see the Adirondack Museum near Blue Mountain Lake and about an hour from our campsite. We stopped just before the museum to stroll through the craft booths selling hand made Adirondack furniture...and a variety of other items.

The Adirondack Museum is set in the open, filled with boats and buildings and artifacts from all over the mountains.  It's located on the site of the historic 1876 summer resort hotel, The Blue Mountain House which operated until the 1940's.  Sitting on the hill over looking the lake, the views were fantastic.  It must have been a fabulous resort.

 Returning to our park that afternoon we drove down to the beach end of Nick's Lake to enjoy the sun while it was out. Such a beautiful setting, the beach still covered with summer footprints.

From Old Forge we headed south to Cooperstown and time to see another wonderful part of New York state

THE ADIRONDACKS, PART 1 September 2-10, 2014

As we traveled east across New York, one of our main destinations was to see the Adirondack Mountains we'd always heard so much about. We chose to stay in a PA campground, Adirondack Thousand island Campground near Natural Bridge, NY, on the west side of the Adirondacks. From there we did some car trips to nearby towns. In Harrisville we had this beautiful view for our picnic.

 Near Cranberry Lake we stopped for ice cream and a walk at the now empty lakeside beach.

Along our way back we stopped for a bag full of fresh corn, 12 ears for $3.00. Love these little self serve fruit and veggie stands all through out New York.

 Our campground was beautiful but... sadly, almost totally empty.  It's a former KOA campground but with new additions and repairs. Such a lovely place to relax and get some basic household things done. The park had a rough start to their season with a late opening due to weather, and now that the weather had warmed up, the season was almost over.
 After three nights there, we drove further east on Highway 3 and on into the park.  We had reservations for five nights at Fish Pond State Park north of Tupper Lake on Highway 30. Though the big summer camping crowds were mostly gone after Memorial Day, weekends still filled, so reservations were needed.

 It was amazing to constantly see lakes or rivers everywhere we looked. Our campsite, #13 had this beautiful view of the lake.

 The park has close to 300 sites, though about half the park had been closed off it would come to life that weekend with the 90 Miler Adirondack Canoe Classic. It's a three day, 90 mile flat water race that follows the original highways of the Adirondacks from Old Forge in the south to Saranac Lake not far from where we were staying.  Our park was the launching point for the last leg of the race on Sunday.
 It rained pretty steady all day Saturday but by late afternoon the canoes and riders started showing up at the park. By evening the park was buzzing with activity; campsites being set up with clothes hanging near campfires trying to dry out from the day's ride.

 We rode our bikes over to the staging area that evening just to see the 275+ canoes set up.

As well as paddling long lengths of rivers and across lakes, they also carry the canoes across small stips of land from one lake to another.

We were up and back on our bikes early Sunday morning to watch the first boats set out for the day, but a thick fog had rolled in so the launch was delayed by almost an hour.

 Finally the sky went from gray to a bright beautiful blue and they were off!

 We had time to bike to the nearby bridge to watch and cheer them on as the race began.

 It ended several hours later in the lovely village of Seranac Lake.  It was so exciting to see such varied groups of paddlers come across the finish line; all ages and all sizes of teams from singles to  the "War Boats" carrying up to 8 paddlers.

 On our way back to our campsite that afternoon we stopped to walk the trails at Paul Smith's College Visitor Interpretive Center.

 The paths were beautiful, peaceful and so well maintained as they meander through woodland and marshland, ponds, brooks and bogs.  Nice!!!

 Back at our campsite we had a stunning sunset.  The park was practically empty again as Sunday night arrived.

 Monday it was time to take a drive further into the park to visit the home of the 1980 Winter Olympics at Lake Placid. We started with lunch at Cottage Cafe right on the lake with a wonderful view from the deck.  Across the street was a huge resort filled with flowers, perfect for a photo.

 Then a tour of the Olympic Museum and event sites. Such a fun day!

 Tuesday was so warm and beautiful we decided to stay in the park, ride our bikes and put the kayak in the lake and paddled up this river. An absolutely perfect afternoon.

 We stayed around the park Wednesday morning, just moving the RV to the parking lot of the campground; we still had a big day planned in the area. We drove the car back to Paul Smith's College to enjoy a gourmet lunch prepared by their Culinary School students.  What a fabulous meal; three courses for $12 per person.  Fantastic!!! I had made reservations several days before as they have a small dining room and seat only a few guests each day. What a wonderful experience.

Our next fun adventure was to tour one of the original Adirondack Camps from the 1920,  White Pine Camp. We walked the grounds and learned the history of the camp as well as seeing many of the original buildings still in use today such as this bowling alley where Paul got to roll a ball on the wooden floor.

 The tour continued across the lake to the boat house, past the Japanese Tea Room and then up to the  Great Room.

 What a wonderful way to end this part of our stay in this beautiful park!

 Returning to the RV and Foster by about 3PM, we hooked up the car and drove about two hours back out Highway 3 to stay one more night at the Adirondack Thousand Island Campground.  Having camped at the state park for last 6 days without water or electricity, we needed to recharge our batteries, fill the water tanks and get the laundry done. The temperature was changing and a little rain fell that night letting us know that fall was beginning to settle in.