2019 Autumn Road Trip - Day 17

Day 17 - Sunday 10.13.19 - Traveling to Cooperstown, New York

I started today off by finishing up the day eight recap of our roadtrip.

IG: @thehungryheath

Excitedly, we jumped in the car ready to make the almost four hour drive towards the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum! Driving through New York this time of year is gorgeous; we saw the changing colors of the trees.  
Our first stop was to The Otesaga Hotel. Shelly booked us the Double Play Package deal that included a room, tickets to the HOF & a souvenir bat. It was too early to check-in, but they let us get our tickets and souvenir. Driving into the hotel grounds was stately, I see why this place is ranked so high, plus it is a historic hotel. Shelly loves finding historic places to stay at.

The front desk clerk offered us an awesome tip, he told us to park at their sister property The Cooper Inn & walk over to the hall of fame.

As we walked over, we were getting hungry for lunch and decided to stop at Doubleday Cafe for lunch. I am assuming that this place is fairly popular since we had to wait in line about twenty minutes before a table finally became available. Once seated, we both elected to go with bunless bacon double cheeseburgers. I had mine "all the way" with a side of coleslaw. And Shelly got here's with a side salad. They have a good size menu and daily specials, but we have found burgers are our best Keto options.

Bunless Bacon Double Cheeseburger
cheddar cheese, Swiss cheese, lettuce, tomato, red onion, deli spear, avocado with coleslaw

Bunless Bacon Double Cheeseburger
blue cheese, deli spear, avocado & coleslaw with side salad

The lunch was great, really tasty solid burgers with a decent side of avocado. The service was really good, too.
After lunch it was another short walk down to the Baseball Hall of Fame pics

Side note story time: I was raised in Alvin, Texas, the hometown of Nolan Ryan (my dad & grandfather worked on a crew that remodeled his house) During my first year of T-ball, his wife was one of our coaches, his son & daughter played on our team. At the end of the season party we all got personalized autographed balls. It one of my oldest possessions that currently sits on display in my own "Hall of Fame"

The signed ball reads, "To Heath, Best wishes, Nolan Ryan"
It sits next to my Megadeth CD signed by Dave Mustaine

 So the first thing I wanted to do was find Ryan's area.

The museum is spread over 3 floors with lots of interactive areas. It was fun exploring the history of baseball.
They also had an photo booth set up where you could make your own baseball card. I look so silly in these 😂

As with any good museum it ends in the gift shop.  We browsed around and bought a souvenir shot glass to add to our ever growing collection.

Our next stop was back to actually unpack at the hotel and settle in for a bit.

If your wondering about the tool box, check out this video.

Fancy room with the chandelier over the bed. It is a really roomy place, but didn't have a fridge. So, I called down and they quickly brought us one; this was bigger than we get in standard hotels.
We finished our evening with a great dinner at Mel’s at 22, a great local spot that focuses on using local ingredients.

Both of us started with a basic house salad. I am usually not a fan of vinaigrettes, but this white balsamic was really tangy and refreshing. Shelly doesn't care for onions and tomatoes, so luckily I always get hers.

 House salad with white balsamic vinaigrette

For our entrees, Shelly had a grilled bone-in veal chop with zucchini, squash & green beans. "I never had a veal chop before, it was good but I prefer my ribeyes. The large serving of zoodles was a nice accompaniment." I have to admit when I saw her veal chop I got a little envious - that is one good looking chop!

Grilled bone-in veal chop with zoodles & green beans

I had a terrific ribeye served with zoodles & green beans. I really enjoyed this steak and after tasting Shelly's chop I knew I made the right decision.
It's nice that so many places are now offering low carb side dishes; and I really like restaurants who are choosing to locally source their products. I have found a few who even go as far as listing which farms they use and for what. I hope this trend continues.

14 oz Beef Choice Ribeye served with zoodles & green beans

This was a really fun day and one of those I was looking forward to. Tomorrow we continue our 50x50 challenge by visiting Vermont & New Hampshire, 2 new states on our challenge.