Upstate New York and Ontario Road Trip

Waterfalls, a Wedding, and a Walk through the Baseball Hall of Fame

Upstate New York is a beautiful place during the fall months. It was a no brainer when I was asked by a friend to sing in her wedding in Rochester the same week as Ashely’s birthday. I wanted to plan something fun for her birthday, and as long as I’ve known Ashley I’ve know about her quest to see all 30 MLB stadiums. I figured it would be fun to start the trip in New York City to visit the Yankees and Mets Stadiums. During the planning of this trip she informed me that the Baseball Hall of Fame is in Cooperstown, New York not all that far from Rochester. Most baseball fans probably already know that. I however, affectionately call all sports “sportsball,” so this came as news to me. 

We agreed that if we were going to go to upstate New York, we might as well make time for Niagara Falls since we would be so close. And so began a road trip from Syracuse to Cooperstown to Toronto to Niagara Falls to Rochester back to Syracuse! Did I lose you? Keep up. 

Cooperstown is a charming place full of traditional Victorian houses and it sits on a beautiful little lake. If you hate crowds - and stores that are open during their “operating hours,” Cooperstown in September is the perfect destination for you. As we entered this quaint village around 10:00pm not a single place was open, and not a single person was to be seen except for the poor guy who was waiting up to check us into our hotel. As he was giving us our keys he stopped and said, “oh I meant to ask - the room you booked just has one bed, do you want a room with two beds?” “No. Thanks. It was booked correctly.” Cue awkward silence. 

The airline made Ashley check her carry on bag, and then they promptly lost it for her. She was bummed because she had bought us baseball themed shirts for the hall of fame. It was her birthday and I jokingly insisted that she only needed to wear her birthday suit and her new cowboy boots I brought as her birthday gift. Unamused by that comment, she picked out an outfit from my suitcase. A perk of wearing the same kind of clothes as your significant other: as long as one of us has our luggage we’re both covered. 

After a leisure lobster sandwich at Mel’s 22.  we made our way down Main Street to the main attraction. As we entered the Baseball Hall of Fame and purchased our tickets Ashley was visibly giddy.  The woman at the counter looked at her and said, “are you excited?” Ashley beamed back, “YES.” The woman deadpanned, “I can tell.” Our ticket taker explained that most people see the museum in about 3 hours. 5 hours later, we walked out of there. I’ll admit, even I was moved to a tear when watching the short film about some of the inductees reminiscing about how they looked up to “the greats” as kids and they followed their dreams of playing baseball and they too ended up ranked as one of the world’s best. Check out this post on the Baseball Hall of Fame for a more in depth look. 

While buying a t-shirt at a gift shop I noticed a post card next to the register that said, “Cooperstown at night” the whole post card was just black. We found out it is very much a summer town, and it hibernates after Labor Day. It was nice to have the Hall of Fame mostly to ourselves, but it did become vexing when the first three restaurants we tried to eat at were closed, even though their hours said they were open. The sign on the door might as well say, “Open Hours: whenever the hell we feel like it, likely not when you’re here wanting service.” We even tried to exchange that shirt the next day during a time the store said it was open, around 11:00am, but it was not open. I rang the doorbell, and the guy who we bought the shirt from the day before comes down stairs in his pajamas. I ask him when he’ll be open and if we can exchange a shirt. He said they’d be open at 2pm, I’d like to work his hours. 

I really wanted to go to Ommegang Brewery to taste some of their Game of Thrones themed beers and sample their poutine, but it closed at 5:00pm!! Not entirely unlike Ashely’s goal of all 30 MLB parks, I too am on a personal quest: to find and eat the best poutine. My dreams are baked in French fries and gravy and cheese. Sadly that quest would not be realized in Cooperstown, but we did stumble upon a cute little Italian restaurant that was filled with sleepy locals, literally. The man who came in and sat next to our table ordered his food and then fell asleep at his table until the waitress brought his bowl full of meatballs, which perked him right up. 

On our drive from Cooperstown to Toronto we stopped for lunch around the Finger Lakes. It’s a region known for it’s wines so we took a long lunch overlooking Seneca Lake and the vineyard at Ventosa Vineyards. It almost felt like we were in Italy soaking up the sun, enjoying some Tuscan bean soup and pizza. It looks like there are a lot more vineyards and wineries around the lakes that are worth exploring, but we had

The border crossing was extremely easy and fast. We flashed our passports at the friendly Canadian border agent, who wished Ashley a happy birthday and sent us into the country with a smile. Sadly, we did not get to add to our passport stamp collection. I was secretly hoping for little more fanfare at the border crossing as it marked my 25th country, and the 5th country Ashley and I have been to together this year. But I was anxious to get back on the road quickly as we still had an hour of Toronto rush hour traffic to hurry up and wait for.

As this Toronto visit had a baseball theme, we stayed downtown near Rogers Stadium so we could catch a Bluejays game. As we found our outfield seats, I wasn’t quite ready to settle in without a libation so I got up to get us some beers and missed one of the most exciting parts of the game. As I was walking back to our seats juggling 2 beers and - you guessed it - poutine, everyone in our section was excitedly recalling how a home run just landed in our section. The ladies a few seats over from us caught the ball with a glove they had. I was bummed I had missed what I thought would be the only exciting thing about this Bluejays - Rays game, but as we were walking out of the stadium, we stopped behind home plate to watch the last few pitches to see if the Bluejays could score a few more points. They ended up having the bases loaded and the last three players at bat hit three home runs in a row and scored 5 more points to win the game! Ashley was thrilled we stayed to see the walk off homer and to cross number 9 of 30 off of her MLB Stadium tour. I was thrilled about the jerk chicken poutine. Win win. 

The next day in Toronto we made our way up into the CN Tower which provides incredible 360 degree views of the city. One of the coolest things for me to see was the airport that sits on an island in Lake Ontario! We watched a few planes take off and land on a tiny airstrip, and as an aspiring pilot myself, I was impressed. There is also a glass floor that you can stand on while looking straight down at the rest of the city. There’s definitely a novelty to being 80 flights up and standing on a floor that you can see through. If it makes you anxious to think about walking on a glass floor 1200 feet above the ground, rest assured that the see-through floor is sturdy enough to hold 35 moose, 1,091 beavers, or 256,882 blue jays. I don’t how much the average beaver weighs but the point is, you’re not going to fall through. 

There are actually 3 waterfalls that make up Niagara: Horseshoe Falls, American Falls, and Bridal Veil Falls. When you stand on the Canadian side you can see all three falls at the same time, and there is at least one if not two rainbows present any time the sun is shining. You’ll also notice the bridge in the distance that connects Ontario and New York, it’s aptly named, Rainbow Bridge, as it mimics the shape of the rainbow you’ll see coming off of Horseshoe Falls. 

because we have FOMO (Fear of Missing Out) we did both tours that are offered on the Canadian side; Walk Behind the Falls and The Hornblower boat ride up to base of Horseshoe Falls. It was a pretty cool experience to go through underground tunnels and see the falls from behind. You also get to walk out and stand about 10 feet away from the incredible force of Horseshoe Falls.

As we slowly chugged up to the base of Horseshoe Falls in the Hornblower, I was simply blown away by how dwarfed I felt by this enormous amount of water and how easily it could crush anything in its way. We were in the front row of the boat gazing up at the grandeur of this massive death trap while water pelted our eyeballs. I think I was screaming in a combination of excitement and fear, but it was hard to tell because you couldn’t hear anything but the pummeling water. I was hoping our captain was ready to crank that sucker in reverse before we were underneath it. It should go without saying that these are wet activities, but at least they provide very flattering ponchos.  

After a hike back to the car, we bid Niagara Falls adieu with it’s rainbow in our rearview. We crossed Rainbow Bridge to enter back into the U.S. This border crossing was less friendly, go figure! The border agent sauntered up to our car, hand on his oversized belt buckle. We smiled and handed him our passports, and he began condescendingly asking us questions. I should preface this exchange with the idea that it’s possible I may have a problem with authority.

“Where are you ladies coming from?” “The falls” "How long were you in Canada?” “Two days” “Where do you live?” “Chicago/Sonoma”  “Is this your car?” “It’s a rental” “How do you know each other?” “She’s my girlfriend” “Why does this car have Canadian plates?” “It’s. a. rental. car. I don’t know why it has Canadian plates.”

He stared at us smugly, and he asked every single one of the same questions over again like he was trying to catch us giving a different answer and give himself a reason to interrogate us. I suddenly realized why this line of cars had been moving slower than all the others; we had unknowingly chosen Sargent Dickhead’s line. The old couple who had gone in front of us had to get out of their car and open their trunk to show him that they were transporting… popcorn. I answered all his questions, more annoyed the second time around. At this point I lowered my glasses a bit so he could see my stone cold death stare I was aiming at him and so that he could read in my eyes that I was not intimidated by his posturing. He handed our passports back with no further words. In a foreign country I’d usually be more submissive to border patrol questioning. But on my own turf when I’m not breaking any laws, I thought the attitude was uncalled for, and I felt the need to counter with my own. Ashley, more the kill-em-with-kindness type smiled and said, “thank you.” I let my death stare linger for a few more seconds then drove off.

We made it back to the land of miles per hour - can we agree that it would be a lot easier if the U.S. adopted the same measurement system as the entire rest of the world? 

That morning Ashely had asked me if there are tornados in this part of the country. As the Iowan in the car I gave my expert tornado weather opinion: New York state does get tornadoes, but I did not think we were in danger of encountering one. About 3 hours later I pointed out some funnel clouds to her as the sky began turning that familiar orangish-green color that precedes a tornado. I thought it was weird that she had asked about tornadoes earlier because it looked like we were about to be in one. She has a sixth sense for impending weather phenomena. At the next toll booth we heard the attendant’s radio say that a tornado had just touched down in Canandaigua, about 20 miles from where we were. Luckily we made it unscathed into Rochester and to my friends’ rehearsal party. 

We rounded out the week at a beautiful garden wedding at the Genesee Valley Club. We are so happy to have celebrated with our friends Karen and Josh on their special day! It was so much fun singing for them during their ceremony and dancing the night away. We were also introduced to the concept of “garbage plates,” and despite its unappetizing name, it is my new favorite glutinous indulgence. You fill your plate with a base of fries/homestyle potatoes or macaroni salad, layer on some meat - maybe ground beef, chili, or perhaps a whole hot dog. Blanket it in some cheese and any other accoutrements provided, and dig in! It’s a traditional Rochester staple, a cousin of poutine if you will. To round out our food exploration of western New York, we luckily had just enough time on our way to the airport the next day to hit up Dinosaur BBQ in Syracuse. We were in a rush to catch our flight, but not the kind of rush that necessitated skipping BBQ and pimento jalapeño poutine. We made it on our flight just in time for the food coma set in.