Inside The Lake House near Cooperstown, NY

We did a mini roadtrip to Cooperstown last month and I can safely say that I think we’re all not doing enough little trips. Truly what’s stopping us? They’re always the best. It’s never insanely expensive, but you get to take a break from regular life and go somewhere not far to experience something different and usually great. Some highlights from the trip below!

So the whole trip was basically organized around going to The Baseball Hall of Fame. That’s a normal thing to do, right? Honestly, you could spend hours there. It was incredible. I think I loved the mini exhibit that showcased the most famous fans from over the years, but there’s just so much to see. Would love to own one of those warm-up jackets. LOOK at that stitching (below).

We stayed at this small inn (The Lake House) that was built in 1843, which was perfect. Our room itself was tiny, but the place was beautiful. The restaurant there was so good and it felt ancient, but in a good way. And it was right on the water of Canadarago Lake.

If there’s mini golf in your small town, I will find it. We played a round at the western-themed Barnyard Swing Mini Golf and there were maybe two elements on the whole course that made it western-themed, which is both funny and exactly as it should be.

Visited the Cooperstown Cheese Factory, which I can’t recommend enough. They offered samples of ALL of the cheeses they sold, with no limit. Why the hell don’t all cheese shops have this policy? They also had this unbelievable cheese-dusted popcorn (that needed to be refrigerated because it was so fresh) that I will forever yearn for.

I love old covered bridges, so we drove to see the Hyde Hall covered bridge that was built in 1825 (and is the oldest extant wooden covered bridge in the United States). Some people do drugs, some people get a contact high from seeing dusty old bridges, I don’t make the rules.

Visited Willis Monie Books because I will always gravitate towards chaotic book stores.

Got lunch at Cooperstown Diner, which was small and delightful.

Stopped inside the Cooperstown and Charlotte Valley Railroad Station. They had a mechanical miniature train set that made me feel alive inside? Haha?

Cooperstown and Charlotte Valley Railroad

We drove past the now abandoned Petrified Creatures Museum (located at 4638 US-20, Richfield Springs, NY 13439), which I would DIE to explore if it weren’t highly illegal.

Such a great little trip. I also made a highlight reel from the trip that you can see over here.

SUMMER IS OVER! Extremely pumped to say goodbye to August. So many things are changing right now and I kind of can’t wait for what’s ahead. But before that, here were the highlights of the month.

Finished my Summer Saturdays series.
The best tweets of the month can be found over here.
Why don’t all cheese boards have corresponding cheeses labels?? SOMEBODY PUT ME IN CHARGE OF SOMETHING.

In love with these blue sky bran muffins. Who have I become? I like her?
The Freshly Brewed Coffee candle at Bath & Body Works smells like heaven on earth.

I found Walla Walla onions at my farmer’s market and they remain the greatest onion on the scene today.
My friend Richard made the best tomato pie I’ve ever tasted.

I got the new Alex Trebek Jeopardy stamps and they’re a bit disappointing. I was hoping for more than just one design.
Marla came for a visit and we did so many fun things. We saw Suffs on Broadway, ate at Thyme & Tonic (incredible), tried on a million gorgeous things at both locations of Beacon’s Closet, we rode the Staten Island Ferry, ate at the always-great Rubirosa, went to Little Island for the first time, went to some of the Chelsea Thursday galleries and we perused Chelsea Market so we obviously had to get some Seed + Mill.

A rat scared us out of Central Park approx. five seconds after this photo was taken

Manhattan skyline from the (free) Staten Island Ferry

Seed + Mill now has a chocolate drizzle option

I read Jennette McCurdy’s book and it was too real and too good.
My favourite pesto recipe is the How Sweet Eats one, but with walnuts instead of pine nuts.
Summer is the time to make peach daiquiris and this peach rose slushy.

Fell in love with the restaurant Hillstone. On a mission now to visit all the locations eventually. The best parts about this place are the chilled salad plates, the chilled martini glasses that are replaced midway through your drink, an insane French dip sandwich (David Chang says that this sandwich “haunts him” and he’s right), a wildly good chicken caesar salad, servers only have three tables at a time so they can really focus on each customer, they don’t have food runners or bussers, the tables are drilled into the ground so there aren’t any wobbly ones, there’s freshly squeezed orange juice AND each table is designed to feel like it’s in its very own little VIP section. So impressed by the level of thoughtfulness at this place, I love it so much.

And speaking of hospitality, I read something recently that explains why I think I love restaurants so much. I’m the one who cooks at home (which I enjoy), but it’s nice to escape that sometimes and have someone take care of me in that way. It’s such a simple thought, but it blew my mind for a minute.
I finally deep cleaned my beauty blender by putting Dawn in some boiled water and then I let the sponge sit in that mixture for five minutes before rinsing in water. Reddit has all the answers.
I found a Sabon body scrub on sale at Marshall’s, which reminded me how much I love any Sabon products.
I’ve been living in the Essie colour Seas The Day.

Annoyance of the day: I absolutely hate that all brow pencils now come in that little mechanical tube (that always breaks). Remember when the Anastasia brow pencil was actually a real pencil that you could sharpen?? We’ve strayed too far from the light of god. It’s impossible to find a real, high quality pencil anymore.
Nathan and I spent our anniversary in Cooperstown, New York to go to the incredible Baseball Hall of Fame, so I’ll do a post about that later this week.
Denny’s has a Beetlejuice-themed menu right now that is a full party, even if it does sound somewhat gross.
Loved reading Pete Wells’ final NY Times piece.
Some things I watched:
- Patriot Games - wow. Love 90s movies like this.
- Six Days, Seven Nights - even Harrison Ford can’t save this movie.
- Trap - I liked the first two thirds of it, but everything went downhill as soon as they left the stadium. This review sums up my feelings almost precisely.
- Falling Down - great movie.
- Wall Street - weird that I’d never seen it before, Martin Sheen was a smokeshow.
- Consenting Adults - great idea for a movie.
- Longlegs - love an original horror script.

I would normally list the things I’m looking forward to this month, but things are changing so fast right now that I have no idea what the end of the month will look like. I’m hopeful and excited, but I’m also terrified and I sort of just want to let this month happen.

If you’ve got any interest in reading last month’s roundup, you can see what went down in July over here.