#otesaga

On August 7th, at the Otesaga Hotel, Loren Schoenberg will be treating an audience to the music of Frank Sinatra, backed up by a quintet of other red hot jazz players.

Vacation #2 of 2014 is officially completed, and it was definitely full of adventure. One of my closest friends, Krysta got married up in Cooperstown this weekend and I made the four hour drive up there with three people I had never met before -- Jason, Andrew, and Lauren. 

It began bright and early when I met up with Krysta's old roommate, Jason and his friend Andrew at the rental car pickup location in midtown. We picked up the car and drove about 3 hours to Albany in the snowy weather and picked up Krysta's childhood friend, Lauren at the airport. From there we made the trek to the Ommegang Brewery in Cooperstown where we were supposed to have lunch. We noticed that the roads kept getting worse, but the GPS told us to go down this "highway" that turned out to be a downhill, snowy, windy, un-plowable dirt road. We were doing really well with driving on it until we were 12 minutes away from the brewery and we skidded into a snow bank. Luckily we were going slow so no one got hurt and the car was totally fine. The front passenger tire was completely buried in snow, so Lauren showed us her survival skills and pulled out the ice scraper that came with the car and started to dig us out. Then, like a guardian angel, a truck miraculously drove by us maybe two minutes later. The driver's name was Ron and he was our savior. Ron hooked up cables to our trunk and pulled us right out of the snow bank. It was really incredible timing, and we were really thankful to get out of there. He then told us to drive in neutral the rest of the way down the road -- you heard that correctly, drive in neutral. Who knew?

We finally made it to Ommegang and had some much needed drinks and a delicious lunch. We mingled with many other people that would be attending the wedding the next day, and then headed over to the next adventure on the agenda for the day. As we were leaving the Brewery, we once again got stuck in snow. This car is really fantastic. It took four guys to push us out, but we made it and we were off to my favorite part of the day -- National Baseball Hall of Fame.

Saying I'm a baseball fan is a bit of an understatement. I live and breathe New York Mets Baseball. Now, while I know we don't have a large presence in the hall of fame, it was still incredible to see all of the history that is in that building. Krysta's now husband, James is just as big of a baseball fan as I am (unfortunately he likes that other New York team.) He had never been to the hall of fame either, so experiencing it together was really awesome. When we walked in, he and I started to sing, "Batter up, hear that call, the time has come, for one and all, to play ball! We're the members of the all american league, we come from cities near and far..." from A League of Their Own. Then we just went exploring.

They had a section for the Women's All American Professional Baseball League, just like in the movie, and they had costumes and props from the movie as well. I very excitedly found the one tiny corner that is dedicated to Tom Seaver, and then found another small corner that had a few cool Mets pieces to look at. We weren't there long enough to really fully walk through and explore everything, but what I quickly walked through was really special to me. The whole town looks like Main Street, USA in Walt Disney World and all of the stores on the block that the Hall of Fame is on are all baseball themed. I'd like to go back when the weather is warmer to fully explore all Cooperstown has to offer.

After the Hall of Fame, it was time to check into the Otesaga Resort Hotel. A beautiful haunted resort just down the road from the hall of fame. (It's on an episode of Ghost Hunters) We had the rehearsal for the wedding and then a couple of the other bridesmaids and I went ghost hunting. Apparently the third and fifth floors are haunted by children that used to live in the hotel when it was a home for orphans. We walked up there to take pictures and look for unusual happenings. I think there were too many people around because we didn't find anything. Two of the girls think they experienced something the next day that was pretty freaky though.

The next morning was really exciting as we began the wedding festivities! The bride and her bridal party were all in a special room getting our hair and makeup done while we were surrounded by delicious snacks and most importantly, mimosas. Since the bridal party was from several different states, many of us just met that weekend so it was great to get to know all of the girls that are a special part of Krysta's life. We got Krysta into her beautiful gown, and then it was time for the wedding. The ceremony and reception were so beautiful. The ceremony was in a room surrounded by windows, and just as we began to walk down the aisle it started to snow outside and continued all night. What a beautiful backdrop for a beautiful day.

The reception was a blast. We all danced all night long, and took countless ridiculous pictures in the photo booth. It also had what I think is the smartest thing anyone can do at a wedding -- they had something called "Late Night Snack" which is served about an hour prior to the reception ending. Late Night Snack consists of greasy delicious food such as pizza, fries, sliders, etc. I had never been to a wedding that did that and I thoroughly enjoyed every second of it. 

The next day it was time to head back to reality. The weekend was really wonderful and I learned a little bit more about myself, which is really the purpose of this whole adventure I'm going on this year. 

Yesterday I received an email from the Otesaga Hotel, one of my favorites, about an amazing fall rate they were having (it’s prohibitively expensive otherwise). Cooperstown in October, Ommegang Brewery, the lake, the rockers on the porch, the foliage, the village, an hour away from the Adirondack retreat so the opportunity to split the weekend to include that. Autumn perfection. Right up our alley.

Oh, wait.

And…THUD. Why, hello, reality. How nice of you to drop in.

#77: Visit the Baseball Hall of Fame

The Baseball Hall of Fame is located in cute, quaint little Cooperstown, NY. The National Baseball Hall of Fame is located right on the main street in the center of town. The museum was dedicated in 1939.  Approximately 315,000 visitors enter the museum each year (mostly in the summer), so it's a big destination! Visit in the fall for smaller crowds and a lovely drive through the countryside.

What can you expect to see at the museum?

Baseball at the movies

Rotating exhibits

Art in the media, relating to baseball

Artifacts pertinent to the most recent inductees

Plaque gallery (induction plaques of all members)

Interactive kids exhibit

A timeline exhibit of baseball

Women in Baseball Exhibit

Negros in Baseball Exhibit

World Series replica rings

A Records Room which shows current leaders in various baseball statistic categories

An exhibit featuring baseball stadiums

And much more!

There is an admission fee. Kids are HIGHLY welcomed!  Visit the museum website at: http://baseballhall.org/

Doesn't this walking stick look really happy?

Maybe not. Maybe he's just being a walking stick.

I've been really busy lately working at The Classic Image. We've been busy with a bunch of weddings - last Saturday's at The Otesaga in Cooperstown, which has a great entrance with with huge columns. Some of my favorite shots of Dad's were taken there (including this one). The bride was enormous.... that is, height-wise. She said she was 6'1'' but Mom and I both think she was 6'3''. She played basketball at Columbia and had her "tall girl" friends and tall family, too, so it was like I was a normal person. I was disappointed she didn't wear high heels though. Oh well. 

We have also been doing high school seniors for these past two weeks. I help the girls put on the drape for the formal picture, fix their hair for them, and change the backgrounds and lighting for their casual photos. We had a girl in with her rodeo stuff in today - black hat and boots, belt with rhinestones, and a black shirt decorated a green sequined-paisley print, which was different. I had Dad do a silhouette of her like he does for some of the guys' sports pictures and I think it will be interesting. I think the farm kids (we get a lot) will like it. 

I've also been doing some photoshop work for Mom. I put together a 5x7 with the Facebook and Twitter logos on it. Well... that's the FB logo but I only had the bird for the Twitter logo so I added some stuff to it to match the other, so it wouldn't look unbalanced on the 5x7. I haven't used photoshop in a while so it was good practice to get back into it. It was a task better suited for Adobe Illustrator; but Dad doesn't use it so we don't have a spare copyright laying around.

Here's the jpeg we printed from. The bits underneath are our handles on each site. Nice font choice, right? Anyway, don't tell FB. Or Twitter.

I am also working on a few storyboard templates. I am going to make one for the florist who did this wedding - probably just a triptych - and one for the Otesaga (just switching out the middle picture to a romantic shot of the bride and groom at the grounds rather than at the church). And I'll make some with verticals and horizontals, etc. They are really fun to make. I'm not sure I like the signature on the bottom right but it's got to be there really.

James and I have also been busy cooking rad dinners for all of us, as usual - the deal is, we cook dinners and M & D buy groceries. I think it's a fair deal. Although, regardless of that, and usually making him a sandwich and coffee for lunch most days, Dad just went and got a pizza for himself but not Mom and I... "I figure, no one worries about me, why should I worry about anyone else?" That's some real Shaffer-food-deprived-crazies. Moral of the story: remember to feed the Bear.

We are headed back to the Cape this weekend and James is making homemade English muffins (the BEST!), and I am going to make my favorite chocolate cake for everybody, which also happens to be vegan.