A day in upstate NY - what to do

Cooperstown (Outskirts): You said you’ve been to the BBHOF and Brewery Ommegang (yay!), but there are plenty of other interesting things to see and do without having to go near the crowds on Main Street or having to drive up Route 7 from the south along with all the tourists.

Coming in from the north, you’ve got Glimmerglass State Park and Hyde Hall on the north shore of Otsego Lake. (Cooperstown is on the south shore.) Hyde Hall grounds are inside the park but you can enter without going through the park entrance. Hyde Hall is a big old stone pile built in 1821 with expansions added on for the next 20 years. Hall entrance by guided tour, but the grounds are free and have a great view of the lake. The oldest wooden covered bridge in the US is also there. Also at the north end of the lake, you’ve also got the Glimmerglass Festival for operas and musical running all summer long.

Closer to Cooperstown on the west shore of the lake are the Fenimore Art Museum and the Fenimore Farm and County Village (formerly known as the Farmers Museum). The Farm is more of a kids’ attraction, basically a smaller Colonial Williamsburg except 19th century small-town America. The Art Museum is a god sized museum with lovely grounds that go down to the lake. Museum collection is built around American Folk Art, Hudson Valley School other American Art, and a very large collection of Native American art. The Fenimore also has multiple special exhibits. I was there last year to see the Bill Watterson Calvin & Hobbes retrospective.

If you approach Cooperstown from the west, you will pass the Fly Creek Cider Mill. Yes, it is a cider mill and you can watch the cider making process in season through windows or from a second-floor balcony, and they certainly plenty of cider, apples, applesauce, apple butter, apple cider donuts, and so on. However, the store/marketplace is the heart of the enterprise. Follow the winding path (no aisles) past hundreds of Fly Creek food products, often made in-house: sauces, salsas, soups, dip mixes, snacks, jams, baking mixes, etc. They also sell product from other high-end/gourmet companies like Stonewall Kitchen. They have a cold room for apples and cheeses, a fudge demo station, a tasting room for their ciders and fruit wines, an on-site bakery and snack bar, plus a lot of outside stuff for kiddies.

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Just down the road from Fly Creek is Pail*Shop Vineyards, a small chill winery with outdoor seats and some nice wines. They also make nice sangrias, which they sell in spouted bags. As you head east and hit the outskirts of Cooperstown, you’ll run across a a business/retail district more for the locals than the tourists and that’s where you’ll find Bluebird Haus, a Scandinavian-focused store with home goods, kitchen & table wares, foods and other stuffs. Nothing like it around unless you live near an Ikea. If you want a nice dinner, go to the Otesago Resort Hotel right on the lake, or you can have more casual lunch at some of the restaurants there too.

I wouldn’t call it a kids’ attraction – it’s definitely for adults and kids. And a better comparison is not to Williamsburg but Sturbridge Village in Massachusetts – both places present everyday life in a mid-19th century village.

I have to admit, I wanted to see the Cardiff Giant, myself.

My last recommendation is for the small towns of Livingston Manor and Roscoe, neighboring towns along Route 17 in the western Catskills. Both towns are along Willowemoc Creek, a tributary of the Delaware, and both are in the heart of fly-fishing country. In fact, the Catskill Fly Fishing Center & Museum is located between these two towns.

Livingston Manor’s main drag has an eclectic selection of small stores, starting with fly fishing and outdoors supplies as well as home decor, antique, boutiques, and restaurants. Downtown is anchored by the Catskill Art Center, which is pretty large for a small town of this size and worth a stop for both the revolving and the permanent exhibits. There are two brewery/brewpubs in town (Catskill Brewery and Upward Brewing). There’s also aa n old wooden covered bridge in the Covered Bridge Town Park. Just on the outskirts of town is Van Smokey, a combination butcher shop and restaurant. Lots of walking and hiking trails in the area

Roscoe is an even smaller town, with more restaurants than a town that small should have. Several fly fishing outlets in town. Roscoe is also home to the O&W Railway Museum. The Roscoe Diner is a big ol’ classic diner that has long been a wayside mainstay for travelers on Route 17 for decades, but might not be the best dining option. Roscoe has the Do Good Distillery, which has good food options and makes a hard root beer float with their bourbon cream. The Roscoe Beer Co. is just on the edge of town. Roscoe also has a surprisingly good used/indie bookstore.

And I think that’s it for the recommendations I have that meet the parameters and are places that I’ve been to. Hope this helps.

Never heard of Sturbridge. I was thinking of Museum Village of Monroe, NY as a closer equivalent, but I didn’t think it would be well known enough.

I always tend to think of living history museums (with a few exceptions like the Tenement Museum in Manhattan) as more kid-centric attractions. Perhaps because of those school field trips to Museum Village. I haven’t been to the Farmer’s Museum since I was a kid. It literally has a big carousel as its centerpiece. Plus the Cardiff Giant.

If you’re talking about the Hound Bookstore, I’ll point out it’s only open three days a week (Fri, Sat, Sun) and five or six hours a day.

If you’re in the vicinity of Medina, take a drive on Culvert Road. It’s the only spot where you can drive under the canal.

Yeah, it’s The Hound. I should have pointed out that a lot of places in Roscoe and Livingston Manor are usually open Wednesday-Sunday or Thursday-Sunday.