Cooperstown, part 2

Roger in front of the inn before we headed over to the Hall

The next day, I woke up early and attended mass at St. Mary's Roman Catholic Church in Cooperstown. It wasn't very far from the inn at all, just on the other side of Doubleday Park. After mass, I scouted out a few coffee shops in anticipation for the day, including Stagecoach Coffee and Doubleday Cafe.

It was a much sunnier day than the day before and walking back over to the inn was very pleasant, the white snow glistening on the sides of the street.

Roger was all showered and dressed by the time I met him in our room, and we went downstairs for breakfast. It was a continental style breakfast, with oatmeal and cereal fixings, and a small sampling of fresh baked muffins. (My favorite bed-and-breakfast experience is still Freeport's White Cedar Inn, our visit to which I think pre-dates this blog -- then innkeeper Gwen cooked up a sinful egg dish for breakfast.)

We headed out to the Hall of Fame. Even in the off season there were plenty of people in attendance, but too many. We got to roam around from window display to window display. I enjoyed reading about Tinker to Evers to Chance, the Cubs' double-play kings -- another example of the "poetry" of baseball. We also read up on the Giants' Juan Marichal and Rangers' Nolan Ryan. (We like the name "Nolan," that it's now replaced "Edgar" as a possible filial name. After "Kyle" that is.)

We esp. liked the No-hitters Game display -- Nolan Ryan has the most no-hitter games with seven! And also the room where each team gets a locker filled with iconic souvenirs.


Roger standing in the Hall of Fame.

The last stop was the Hall itself where we spent a good half hour looking up individual plaques for personal favorites: Pirates' Roberto Clemente, Dodgers' Jackie Robinson, Red Sox's Ted Williams, Cardinals' Bob Gibson, Cubs' Ernie Banks, and Oakland A's Dennis Eckersley.

Afterwards, we had lunch at Danny's Main Street Market. We then took a quick walk through Main Street, popping into souvenir shops but not really finding anything we really wanted or had to have. In the end, we headed home, our hands empty but our heads filled with new stats and a new anticipation for spring.

Cooperstown, part 1

Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown

Roger and I drove out to Cooperstown, NY this past weekend. Although Roger had Presidents' Day off, I had to work on Monday, and so we decided to spend Saturday and Sunday at least out of town.

Before we left, Roger called the Cooperstown Chamber of Commerce to see if they knew of any B&Bs with vacancies -- it being a holiday weekend and all, we were afraid everything would be booked up by the time we got there. We were lucky as one of the recommended B&Bs had a last minute cancellation.


The Inn at Cooperstown, our room, a pretty blue room with a subway tile bath, is the last window on the right on the third floor.

We took the 91 south and went through Manchester, VT where Roger appeased me and I finally got to buy my second pair of Polo jeans (although in a different wash) at the Ralph Lauren outlet. I had been pining for another pair ever since I bought my first one there about a year ago. As we drove west to NY we saw a sign for Peru, VT, which was funny, as Roger's sister is currently in Lima. We almost took a picture!

We got into Cooperstown making fairly good time, a little over 4 hours. When we checked in, some people were already enjoying the fireplace and watching the Olympics in the main living area. Roger unloaded our stuff and then took a quick nap while I looked up dinner possibilities.

After looking through the inn's collection of local menus, we decided on a small bistro not too far from the inn.


Hoffman Lane Bistro

Cooperstown is probably about the same size of Hanover, maybe with an even smaller population. As tourists, it was nice for a change to have a meal without recognizing other patrons -- kind of like big city-eating, where you can really just lose yourself in conversation and food. And the food was very good! Roger had a grilled pork loin with a tasty apple chutney, and I had duck with a really yummy polenta (my new favorite starch). We also treated ourselves to an appetizer of mussels (a staple from our Chicago bistro-eating days).

It was pretty cold outside. Our car thermometer said 15 but we swore it was like 7 or 8 degrees F. We didn't spend too much time looking for dessert and instead window-shopped from the car before turning in.

What's on TV

Quick list of what Roger and I have been watching (- yes, we watch a lot!):

• The Office - the US version
  
  
• The Office - BBC version, reruns at midnight
  
  
• Project Runway - guilty pleasure #1, the marathon showings have made us into addicts
  
  
• How I Met Your Mother - guilty pleasure #2, mainly for the NPH factor (Neil Patrick Harris)
  
  
• Hustle - this is mainly me, when I remember that it's on
  
  

Fake-39 Toss X-Reverse Pass

Your Super Bowl XL MVP, Hines Ward

Click here to read about the Fake-39 Toss X-Reverse Pass.

iCanceko

Mom and Dad looked on as Jeremy demonstrated the iChat

Roger and I are really enjoying our new toy, the iSight camera that my brothers gave us for Christmas. In comes in handy for such impromptu conversations as this one. Today we wanted to take advantage of my parents' visit to the boys' apartment in Pasadena and set up a chat session. Unfortunately, Jeffrey was on call. Maybe next time! We hope to plan weekly chats with our siblings.