From Boston to Cooperstown

Last month, me and my brothers took a road trip out to the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, NY. We also made some other fun stops along the way. If you’re making the Boston-to-Cooperstown trip, you might want to make some of the stops we did.

Starting Point: My House

My brothers got a ride out to my house and we headed west at around 10 a.m. Saturday.

Stop #1: Lunch at Mr. Pio Pio

Given our schedule, I figured we’d end up in Albany around lunch time. I did a bit of research and found Mr. Pio Pio, a well-reviewed Colombian/Ecuadorian restaurant that serves big portions of authentic South American food at reasonable prices. When we got there, we found a very unassuming place in a very unassuming neighborhood. But it’s as authentic as they come. We were the only people in the restaurant speaking English. A large TV was tuned to the soccer game on ESPN Deportes.

The food was a little slow coming out, but when it came, there was lots of it. My brother and I split the Picada for two. It was a plate piled high with grilled beef (carne asada?), chicken, spare ribs, chicharon (fried pig skin), Colombian sausage, tostones and yuca. There was a little lettuce tucked under the meat (“for legal reasons” my brother remarked), but other than that, it was a vegetable-free meal (we did order rice and beans on the side for a little starch). The food was served with a nice pink hot sauce. The beef and Colombian sausage were the real winners, but everything was great. (OK, I wasn’t crazy about the fried pig skin.) Our other brother got some kind of shrimp dish he said was pretty good.

The drink selections include fruit juices and imported South American sodas (Inka Kola, anyone?).

We couldn’t finish the Picada and packed it up for the ride.

Stop #2: Last Vestige Music Shop

Just down the street from Mr. Pio Pio is the Last Vestige Music Shop, so we waddled on over to take a look. It looks like a used record store is supposed to look: bin after bin of used CDs and vinyl, handbills for local bands and old posters on the walls, people thumbing through the merchandise looking for a bargain. There is lots of great music here. In fact, there is an amazing amount of music for a little out-of-the-way place in Albany, NY.

The only down side was the Yankees game on the radio.

We spent about an hour looking around. I picked up a couple of CDs and we got back in the car for the final leg of our drive.

Stop #3: Cooperstown Brewing

There are two breweries in the Cooperstown area, and this is the smaller and less well known of the two. Cooperstown Brewing specializes in English-style ales. The small tasting room/gift shop was packed with people when we got there late Saturday afternoon. For $2, we got a sample of the brewery’s seven beers. All of them were terrific, with the exception of the Nine Man Ale, a golden ale that I didn’t care for. Beside the beer, the most interesting thing about this place was the guy serving the beer. I guess he worked as a brewer, because he wasn’t much of a bartender. In fact, he seemed to lack any social skills whatsoever.

Me: This one’s kind of like a dark Oktoberfest.

Mr. Personality: Not really. (followed by dead silence)

Other visitor: Are these souvenir  glasses?

Mr. Personality: No. (followed by dead silence)

Lack of friendly bartenders notwithstanding, the beers exceeded my expectations.

It seems this place really lives in the shadow of Brewery Ommegang. I asked the other guy working the room how far away Ommegang was. Without missing a beat, he deadpanned “never heard of it.” At least somebody working  there there had a sense of humor.

Stop #4: Brewery Ommegang

Brewery Ommegang is just minutes away from Cooperstown Brewing. After visiting the smaller brewery, the vast grounds and large building at Brewery Ommegang made quite an impression. The brewery building and large tanks sit on a large field on the side of a hill. Very picturesque.

Ommegang only makes authentic Belgian ales, and they’re pretty good at it. The guy that ran the tasting was very nice and very knowledgeable, but he told us he needed to rush us along because they needed to use the tent we were in for another event shortly. So we had to chug some of these beers.

I’m not a huge Belgian beer fan, so I wasn’t crazy about most of these beers. But the Ommegang Abbey Ale was fantastic.

After the tasting, we went over to the brewery store, which featured a large array of Ommegang merchandise. And beer, of course. We picked up a large bottle of the Ommegang Abbey Ale and waited in the world’s slowest line. Finally, we were able to pay for the beer and head to the hotel.

Stop #6: Hotel and Dinner

We got to the hotel around 6, checked in, unloaded our stuff, and went out to dinner in Cooperstown. The hotel and restaurant were both unremarkable, so I won’t waste any space here describing them. After dinner, we went back to the hotel, watched the only baseball game we could find on cable, and went to sleep.

Stop #7: The National Baseball Hall of Fame

We got up Sunday morning, ate a crappy “continental breakfast” at the hotel, packed up and checked out. The we headed into Cooperstown and the Hall of Fame.

The Hall has no parking lot and on-street parking is limited to two hours. We learned from the guy at the hotel front desk that you can park for free at Doubleday Field, which is easy walking distance from the Hall.

The Hall of Fame is really two things: The Hall itself and the museum. The Hall is where all the plaques of the players are. But the really interesting stuff is in the museum. The two buildings are attached.

What can I say about the Hall of Fame museum? The collection is simply amazing. Everywhere you look, there are really interesting artifacts. Even the casual baseball fan will be impressed. Leave yourself at least three hours to take it all in.

As Red Sox fans, we were not disappointed. There is lots of Sox memorabilia here. But the museum really transcends teams. Walking around the exhibits really makes one remember what it’s like to be a baseball fan, not just a fan of your favorite team. One of my favorite parts of the museum was the large Hank Aaron exhibit.

The way the Hall and museum are laid out, you enter the museum first, go through the exhibits, and end up in the Hall itself. And that works well.

The Hall is, well, a hall. It’s a large, well-lit room with the familiar plaques along the walls. While it’s interesting to see all of the plaques from everybody in the Hall, it’s not really as interesting as the museum. It was great to see one of the Red Sox heroes from my childhood, Jim Rice, immortalized in the Hall.

Heading Back to Boston

After we had our fill of the Hall of Fame, we grabbed some pizza for lunch, then hopped in the car and drove home. No stops on the way back east for us, we just did it in one straight shot. The trip from Cooperstown to Boston takes about four hours.

We got home in time for dinner Sunday evening.