{"id":9296,"date":"2019-08-12T19:12:55","date_gmt":"2019-08-13T00:12:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.anniee.net\/?page_id=9296"},"modified":"2025-06-21T08:04:44","modified_gmt":"2025-06-21T13:04:44","slug":"travelogue-clayton-cooperstown-ny","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.anniee.net\/?page_id=9296","title":{"rendered":"Travelogue: Clayton & Cooperstown, NY"},"content":{"rendered":"

August 2019
\n<\/strong>Where We Stayed:\u00a0 The 1000 Islands Harbor Hotel in Clayton \/\/ The Otesaga Resort in Cooperstown<\/em><\/p>\n

CLAYTON
\nIn early August, my parents and I took a family vacation to New York state.\u00a0 Why?\u00a0 Because my dad wanted to go to the Antique Boat Show in Clayton, NY.\u00a0 He’s wanted to go for\u00a0years<\/em> and mom and I just couldn’t avoid it any longer!\u00a0 (Love you, Denny!)\u00a0 So we went.\u00a0 And saw ALL THE BOATS.<\/p>\n

We flew into Syracuse, NY, picked up our rental car, and headed off to Clayton.\u00a0 Clayton is a tiny town situated on the St. Lawrence River.\u00a0 Clayton doesn’t seem to have much going on except the Antique Boat Museum<\/a> and being very close to Canada (eh!).\u00a0 Upon arrival, we checked into our hotel, the 1000 Islands Harbor Hotel<\/a> — which was lovely.\u00a0 We had a very late lunch and battled our extreme fatigue after being awake since 3am on our day of travel.\u00a0 We walked around bustling downtown Clayton for a bit after lunch and then called it a day.<\/p>\n

The next day, Saturday, we had a mediocre breakfast at our hotel (the theme of the entire trip was mediocre-at-best food throughout) and then headed to the Antique Boat Show. My dad was in HEAVEN, my mom and I were BORED. That about sums it up!\u00a0 But really, Denny saw all the boats he could ever dream of and seemed to have a lovely day.\u00a0 My mom and I sat on a picnic bench and people-watched and enjoyed the beautiful weather.\u00a0 We chatted with a guy named “Uncle Russ” – an older guy from Long Island (great accent to match).\u00a0 I loved Uncle Russ.\u00a0 He was sassy (“you know, Wisconsin really isn’t on my bucket list”), gave some great life advice (“be careful, not all the monkeys are in the zoo”), and encouraged me to travel even more than I already do. Big fan of Uncle Russ.<\/p>\n

That evening we had another mediocre meal at O’Brien’s<\/a>, which was across the street from our hotel.\u00a0 We tried to have dinner at a few other places but they were booked solid because, you know, this boat show is kind of a big deal.\u00a0 After dinner we stopped at Castle Ice Cream for — you guessed it — a mediocre soft-serve cone!\u00a0 I’m not sure how they did it, but the cone was too creamy and very disappointing.<\/p>\n

But all nay-saying aside, Clayton was very cute, the weather was beautiful, and Denny got to cross an item off of his Bucket List.\u00a0 It was a win-win-win!<\/p>\n

COOPERSTOWN
\n<\/strong>On Sunday we checked out of our hotel in Clayton and hit the road for Cooperstown, which was about 3 hours away.\u00a0 We decided to stop at a Tim Horton’s on the way and it was, quite honestly, the best culinary experience of the trip.\u00a0 Canada is home to Tim Horton’s, but you can find them scattered about the east coast of the US as well.\u00a0 It’s like a Dunkin Donuts but BETTER.\u00a0 The coffee was great (not as bitter as Starbucks, not as chemical-tasting as Dunks).\u00a0 The donuts were adorable and delicious.\u00a0 And the Tim Horton’s employee that helped us was so friendly.\u00a0 It was an A++ experience.<\/p>\n

We arrived in Cooperstown around noon and headed straight for the Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum.\u00a0 Let me tell you, all of Cooperstown is\u00a0adorable<\/em>.\u00a0 It’s pure Americana.\u00a0 I’m not big into baseball but I fell in love with all things Cooperstown.\u00a0 The Baseball HOF and Museum has been on my mom’s Bucket List for years<\/em> and we finally got her there!\u00a0 She loved every minute of her time in the HOF and Museum and it was precious.<\/p>\n

We grabbed some mid-afternoon snacks at Hardball (read: mozzarella logs and pretzels!), I had the BEST soft-serve twist cone of my life at a little shop down the street from the HOF, and then we headed to our hotel to check in.\u00a0 We stayed at the Otesaga<\/a>, which appeared to be the nicest hotel in the area.\u00a0 It had a Greenbrier vibe and also reminded me a bit of the resort in Dirty Dancing.\u00a0 I’m not a huge fan of the old, stuffy, fancy-pants hotels but my parents loved it.\u00a0 We had dinner at the Hawkeye Grill<\/a> in the hotel.\u00a0 And take a guess… it was… mediocre!\u00a0 After dinner we headed back downtown for one last visit to the HOF.<\/p>\n

The next morning we had breakfast at the Glimmerglass room of the hotel (great name, huh?) and the breakfast was AWESOME.\u00a0 Enormous buffet of everything you could imagine and it was all delicious.\u00a0 Hallelujah, a great meal!\u00a0 The blueberry pancakes were my favorite (clearly I broke my low-carb streak on this vacation)!\u00a0 We packed up the car and headed to Niagara Falls!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>JB was in\u00a0no mood<\/em> for photos at the start of our trip!\u00a0 To be fair, we had all been awake since 3am and were a little grumps.
\n\"\"<\/a>View from lunch.
\n\"\"<\/a>A vacation must = ice cream or soft-serve twist cones.
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\"\"<\/a>I loved these. Duh.
\n\"\"<\/a>This cute lil’ thing was shut down due to an impending lawsuit.\u00a0 DRAMA!
\n\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Momma + Me
\n\"\"<\/a>View from our hotel room.\u00a0 This was a rare occasion of landing an AMAZING room.\u00a0 Usually we get the view of the parking lot or roof, but not this time!\u00a0 I gasped with delight when I realized that this would be our view for two days — completed with an open-air balcony with chairs!
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\"\"<\/a>The next morning brought the BOATS!\u00a0 So many boats!
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\"\"<\/a>We bored.\u00a0 Denny thrilled.
\n\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>It rained a little bit, the sun peeked out, and I ran outside because I just knew<\/em> a rainbow would form.
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\"\"<\/a>COOPERSTOWN!
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\"\"<\/a>Chinless Chester, as we affectionately named the painting in our hotel room.
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\"\"<\/a>Best. Twist. Cone. Of. My. Life. I’ll dream about it forever.
\n\"\"<\/a>I told you this place was cuuuuute.
\n\"\"<\/a>Happy, happy Momma.
\n\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

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\"\"<\/a>The front lawn of the Otesaga.
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\"\"<\/a>Guardian of the Distilled Water (for Denny’s CPAP machine) – and duh, I needed a photo of the Rainbow Motel sign.\u00a0 But like 99% of motels these days, it looked sketchy to the max.
\n\"\"<\/a>BLESSED DAY.
\n\"\"<\/a>Denny thought the donuts were a little small.\u00a0 How American of us, right?\u00a0 WHY ISN’T THE JUNK FOOD BIGGER?!
\n\"\"<\/a>Truly in love with Tim Horton’s.\u00a0 Also in love with this cute roadside ice cream stand.\u00a0 Which Denny drove out of his way to so that I could get a photo.\u00a0 He’s the best.
\n\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Isn’t this the cutest house you’ve ever seen?\u00a0 I didn’t need to say a word.\u00a0 I just gasped… and Denny turned the car around so I could get a photo.\u00a0 Boonville, NY!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

August 2019 Where We Stayed:\u00a0 The 1000 Islands Harbor Hotel in Clayton \/\/ The Otesaga Resort in Cooperstown CLAYTON In early August, my parents and I took a family vacation to New York state.\u00a0 Why?\u00a0 Because my dad wanted to…<\/p>\n

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