New York Farm Country

My father-in-law bought a house in upstate New York this past year as a summer house since they are selling their house in Tucson. So we decided to go visit. It was mine and Hadley's first time to New York (I'm not sure if that's proper English) we were excited to see new country. We flew out of Tucson and stopped in Atlanta and then on to Albany. Hadley had her own seat and since we needed to bring her car seat anyway we used it on the plane. She's much more cooperative if she's in her car seat. Both flights went great!

We had an hour and fifteen minute drive after landing in Albany so we rented a car and drove out in the dark. We were bummed to not be able to see much on our drive but we saw it all later on the trip. When we arrived at the house we ate a quick dinner and went to bed. With the 3 hour difference we had a slight issue adjusting but Hadley was so worn out from traveling she fell right to sleep and slept fine the rest of the trip.

Thursday morning was cool and it had rained most of the night. We headed in to Cooperstown, about a 10 minute drive, and saw the town. The country-side was absolutely beautiful! I originally thought it would just be closed in with all trees, but because it is a farming area there were a lot of open pastures around. Of course it was all very green and the trees were starting to turn colors. Some were yellow and others were already red. After stopping at Ace Hardware to get Hadley some rain boots so her feet would stay dry we headed off to a small area called Fly Creek.

Our first morning on a walk

Pretty fall colors

Fall morning, countryside covered in fog

Hadley sporting her new rain boots

Here they had an Apple Cider Mill that was more of a gift shop and small amusement park. They had ducks, geese, and chickens you could feed. Hadley cared only about that. There was a country gift store with a lot of apple-based foods that were made at the mill or from surrounding areas. The best part was they had little sampler dishes out for you try stuff and it was all pretty good. Except we did see one guy double-dipping...tsk tsk.

From there we decided to go have lunch at a restaurant that sat right on the shore of a nearby lake. The service wasn't great but the food was good and the scenery even better.

Naps, rain, and walking around the property filled up the rest of the day.

Friday morning proved to be another, fall, cold rainy day but when it wasn't raining we tried to make the most of it. We headed to a nearby you-pick farm that had lots of apples, raspberries, and a "pumpkin patch." They actually called it a pumpkin hunt. Apparently they cut the pumpkins and then just randomly place them in an old wheat field. You trudge through the swampy mud and tall grass to find your pumpkin. Not as exciting as Apple Annies where you get to cut your own pumpkin but it was still neat. We drove around town again for a little bit, made a few quick necessity stops and then went a little further out to a family run restaurant for lunch and homemade ice cream. The lunch was average but the ice cream was delicious!

Hadley with the Hay Man at the you-pick farm

Hadley found her pumpkin

A view down the row of apple trees at the farm

After our naps we walked out to a few apple trees on the in-laws property. Did I mention apple trees are everywhere out there? They also had some blueberry bushes, gooseberry, and a few other fruit bushes randomly around the property. We picked apples while Hadley ate the apples. We're not really sure what kind they are but a few trees may be Granny Smith.

Hadley enjoying her apple at Grammie and Grampy's apple orchard

Jon showing our bounty. These went in to some fresh baked apple pies! Yum!

Saturday morning Jon's sister and her boyfriend drove in from Pittsburgh for the weekend. We decided to head out for lunch at a nearby local brewery called Ommegang (Om-uh-gang). Of course it was cold and rainy so when we showed up we notice a lot of people heading to a white tent for some sort of special event. Come to find out it was the brewery's 14th birthday and they were having waffles, music, and a puppet show. We all headed out to the tent to participate but realized it was too cold for a toddler and her grandparents to hang out so the three of them left, leaving Jon, his sister, her boyfriend and I to fend for ourselves. We decided to hang out, they all had beers (I was the DD), and we listened to some live folk music. After we'd had enough of being out in the rain and cold we decided to take the brief brewery tour. Let me tell you it was brief. They only took us in two rooms, the rooms where they make the beer and the room where they bottle the beer. The brew room was very basic, nothing too fancy, just all huge pieces of equipment but the bottling room was very high tech. It ended with a chaotic tasting as our group was quite large. Needless to say we ended our tasting early, got some souvenirs and left. It rained most of the day but when it wasn't we tried to get outside for a few minutes. We ended the night at a local Italian restaurant with good food but the service, again, wasn't great. It took a long time for us to get our food and Hadley was about done waiting.

The entrance to the brewery

Sunday was a day at home. Jon's aunt lives about an hour away from where we were so she came over for a late afternoon lunch. It was kind of like a Thanksgiving dinner but with pulled pork! All the food was delicious and we all just wanted to sleep afterward.

I swear the moment the calendar struck October 1 all houses were beautifully decorated with fall decorations. Pumpkins, corn stalks, beatuiful dark red and gold mums. It was very different from what you see here in the desert.

Monday and Tuesday Jon and I went to New York City by ourselves. All that in another post.