Cooperstown, NY--Not Just Baseball, But A Lot of It

We made a short stop (no baseball pun, intended) in Cooperstown, NY.  We arrived a few days after the annual National Baseball Hall of Fame Inductee festivities, so we imagine the crowds had thinned.  The townspeople were still basking in the afterglow, claiming that this year's event had been one of their best.  We have to admit that we're not big professional baseball fans, so the timing of our arrival so near their 'big day' was simply happenstance.

We were based in an RV park that was just a few miles from Cooperstown Dream Park.  This is home of the American Youth Baseball Hall of Fame which hosts summer tournaments for teams of kids age 12 and younger.  Some of the participants in the tournament were camped in the same RV park where we were.  The small baseball diamond in the campground constantly had kids of all ages playing/practicing on it.  It brought back a refreshing nostalgic feeling of  "baseball, Mom, and apple pie", rather than a lot of the negative aspects so often associated with professional ball teams.

We did go by the National Baseball Hall of Fame.  And walked the busy streets of Cooperstown.

Besides baseball, the area hypes its Cooperstown Beverage Trail of local breweries and wineries.  Of course, we had to sample.  We visited the Cooperstown Brewing Co., not a fancy establishment by any means, but very good brews.

We wanted to bring some of their very nice porter brew along with us to share later, but they were in the midst of getting new labels approved by the State of New York, and bottle sales were not available yet pending that approval.

We also visited Brewery Ommegang.  This brewery hosts large concert events as well as brewing beer.  They tout their 'greenness' by donating the used grains for feed at a local dairy and the used yeasts to local farms for fertilizing fields.  (They found that feeding livestock the used yeasts resulted in a bunch of drunk animals.)  We enjoyed their brews as well, and were able to bring some along with us.

Cooperstown Distillery makes hand-crafted bourbon, vodka, and gin.  And we came away with samples of each--no surprise.

 We were close enough to New York's capital Albany to add another Capitol Building to our list.  We were greatly impressed with its exterior.

Its interior is simply massive with lots of stairs and hallways.

We would have to say that it is the most majestic Capitol we've seen.  The history of its construction costs is not at all unlike any government projects these days.  The original estimate in 1867 was $4 million.  In 32 years it was completed and the final cost exceeded $25 million, making it more expensive than the U.S. Capitol.

Our last outing at this stop was a drive into the state of Vermont.  Our goal is to visit each of the 48 continuous states before hanging up our wheels.  The town of Bennington was the closest so it was our choice.

This small town has a museum that it claims has the largest collection of Grandma Moses paintings.  We were asked to not take pictures of the paintings, but they were all of the same style--scenes of old-fashioned farms, towns, and countryside.

Bennington is also site of the Vermont's tallest structure, the Bennington Battle Monument in honor of a Revolutionary War battle that occurred here.  It's just over 306' tall, and it has over 400 steps to the top.  As the steps are closed to the public these days, an elevator took us up for a view.

We are continuing eastward, and will enjoy a lengthy stay in the Finger Lakes next.