(Jen here ... I put Trav in charge of writing about our day in Cooperstown)
Friday morning, we got up, called an Uber to get a ride to pick up our rental car, and said goodbye to New York City.
Our next stop was Cooperstown, which was 3.5 hours away. The kids took advantage of the opportunity to get some more sleep, though Conner says he was just resting his eyes.
Cooperstown is in the middle of nowhere -- really. We kept driving through small town after small town, up and down rolling hills. It was a pretty drive and we figured it must be unbelievable in the fall when the leaves are changing colors. As the GPS said we were getting closer, it didn't seem possible. But sure enough, as we went over another hill there we were, in the middle of nowhere.
The town itself is pretty small, with lots of old buildings. There are several stores selling baseball memorabilia and ice cream but they were all closed for the season (apparently things don't get going there until Memorial Day). The good news for us was that meant the Hall of Fame was not very busy.
We went to pay our admission and found out it would be cheaper to get a family membership than to pay for 4 admission tickets, so that's what we did. It came with a free poster, membership card, and a few other goodies. The first section has a locker for each team with equipment worn or used for specific games when history was made. Here is the Dodger locker, which included jerseys of Clayton Kershaw and Andre Ethier though I don't remember the specific thing the jerseys were celebrating.
Jen took a picture of the Giants locker to send to Uncle Drew.
Below is a picture of the Bash Brothers, which brought back memories of Jen rooting for them and brought back memories for me of the 1988 World Series when the Dodgers beat the A's and the Bash Brothers.
This year Mike Piazza and Ken Griffey Jr. were inducted into the Hall of Fame.
Below is the area where all of the Hall of Fame plaques are stored. It was awesome looking at these and recognizing so many great baseball names.
Of course, the great Tommy Lasorda's plaque was here.
The very first Hall of Fame class
A few other fun pictures from the day.
From the outside.
As we left, the snow started falling. We had rain, snow, and 75 degrees all on the same trip.
Our membership card. We got to choose the team. It's good for a year so maybe we need to find a reason to go back! We spent about 4 hours there and Conner and I could have spent at least twice that. We especially loved the room with all the different records and the videos of famous moments that were playing. We had dinner that night in a small diner with only 4 tables (one of the few places that were open) and then went back to the hotel to get some sleep. We won't say what surprise we found the next morning but you'll have to ask Calissa about it someday!
