Okay, so where was I? Oh yeah, talking about my trip. So, once we were out of the city, it was pretty much a straight shot from there up to Albany. Mike bought me a nifty iPod doohickey that broadcast songs onto the car radio, so I was entertained (and entertaining) by playing DJ. Once we reached Albany we had to take smaller roads to get to Cooperstown. We liked seeing the little towns on the way, and the leaves were still very pretty on the trees. The town is right on a lake, and it’s gorgeous. I can just imagine how popular the area is in the summer when it’s warmer.

We drove through the town a little bit, past the Hall of Fame and Doubleday Field, and then down the highway to our hotel. We arrived there around 1pm, and went inside with the hopes of checking in early. We were staying at a Best Western just past the center of town. The lobby was full of baseball memorabilia, so when I saw a mannequin behind the counter dressed in a Best Western uniform I assumed it was a baseball player.

 

I tried to figure out who he was. He looked familiar, but I couldn’t quite place him. I looked closer at his name tag.

 

Hmm, George, huh? I started thinking about baseball players I knew of named George. George Brett…no. George Sisler? No. Finally, I turned to Mike and said, “What baseball player is that?” Long pause. “Um, yeah, I think that’s supposed to be George Bush.” AAAAAAAAAAH! It WAS! I couldn’t believe it. At first I thought it was a joke, like someone was making a hopeful statement about the possible outcome of the election, but at that point the election was over. George was creepy looking…I tried to avoid looking at it for the rest of my time there.

We decided after we checked in to go explore the town a bit. And by explore the town, I mean walk along main street, because that is about all there is to the town. It’s such an adorable little place. Tons of baseball memorabilia stores, diners, and ice cream shops! We had some lunch, shopped, and then went to Fly Creek Cider Mill. So Cute! We had hot cider and fudge, and we bought spiked cider and apple wine. YUMMY! We then had a nice dinner and stayed up late to watch the Fog Bowl, aka USC vs. Oregon State.

On Sunday we checked out (avoiding George), then grabbed breakfast at a dinner across from the Hall of Fame. We sat down at a table next to a giant hot dog. At first, we were pretty focused on eating, so we didn’t look too closely at the frankfurter. But upon returning from the bathroom, Mike decided he wanted a picture of me with the dog.

So, at first you’re like, look how cute Heather’s hair is! But you have to FOCUS. Look at the hot dog. Notice how freaking huge it is. Now look at how freaking DISTURBING it is. First of all, his eyebrows are two different colors. One is mustard and one is ketchup! I don’t know…I knew a girl once with blond eyelashes on one eye and brown eyelashes on the other, but eyebrows? That’s weird. It struck Mike as odd that the dog’s eyes were blue, but I pointed out that Frankfurters are German in decent, so maybe that has something to do with it. We stood there staring at it for a minute, and we realized something very, very disturbing – the hot dog was preparing itself to be eaten! It was squirting delicious ketchup on its head, and was obviously preparing to add tangy mustard next. MOST DISTURBING OF ALL, however, was the footlong’s tongue – sticking out, as if licking himself to make sure he was tasty enough! JUST LOOK! He is totally committing hot dog suicide! We left quickly before the hot dog could smear relish all over his plump, glistening body.

The Hall of Fame was awesome! It was so neat to see all the old gloves and baseballs, and to see the trophies with the names engraved on them. The day after we left there was going to be a ceremony honoring the Red Sox and Ichiro, so we were able to look at the exhibits that had been crated for their accomplishments. I was blown away by the World Series rings. They were HUGE, and so sparkly! I want one. We also liked walking in the hall where all the plaques are. There are a lot of people in the Hall of Fame, but it’s still amazing who ISN’T in the Hall. We went to every exhibit, including the “Women in Baseball.” I totally wanted to get everyone in the room to start singing the song from “A League of Their Own,” but I knew Mike wouldn’t go for it. I had to satisfy myself with singing “This Used to Be My Playground” to myself.”

Then we were off! We were pretty beat on the drive home, so it didn’t help that by the time we got back to the city we had to deal with road closures because of the New York City Marathon. People were still running at 6 pm. Good for them! All I have to say is, thank goodness NYC is on a grid, because otherwise we’d still be driving around in Spanish Harlem, lost. By the time we got back to the car rental place Mike wanted NOTHING to do with driving in the city! Hee. Pedestrians make driving in the city STRESSFUL! We had so much fun. I can’t wait to go back there someday.

So, speaking of pedestrians making driving stressful, I have a little story from the weekend. My mom and her friend were staying with me, in town for a friend’s surprise birthday party. On our way home from the party, I directed our cab driver which corner to drop us off at. He made the turn from 78th St onto York…right into a person in the crosswalk. He didn’t see the person AT ALL, and I am very confident that he would have completely run the woman over if I hadn’t SCREAMED when he hit her. I closed my eyes, and when I opened them I saw the driver looking back at me, confused. I tried to see if we had, in fact, hit the woman when another lady came over and started yelling at the driver, “get out of the fucking car, you ass hole! You just hit that lady and you haven’t even asked if she’s okay!!!” At that, my mom, her friend, and I all jumped out of the car to see if she was okay. The woman was just getting up off the ground. She was shaken, but said she was okay. Her little puppy, on the other hand, was scared to death! She wanted to file a police report in case she didn’t feel well the next day, so I called 911 and said that there was a woman who’d been hit by a cab, but she was okay and just wanted to file a report. I was told that it was an automatic response, and that they would be there soon. Well, about two minutes later, a giant fire truck, two ambulances, and two police cars came screeching up! Out of one of the police cars came the BIGGEST cop I have ever seen. Smoking a cigar! My friend’s mom and I started cracking up as he waddled over to talk to us. After he took our statements, he told us to go, so we did. I don’t know what happened to the woman our cab hit, but I think she’s fine. The best part was, we didn’t have to pay for our cab! Woo!