Two Quick Area Day Trips To Beat The Winter Blues

Do you tend to go a little stir crazy this time of the year?  The weather has kept a lot of us inside all bundled up.  Well especially with the kids off of school on Monday, you might want to gather the family and sneak out of the house for the day.  I have two suggestions that are actually two of my favorite places to visit not far from here at all, but far enough away to make you feel a bit reenergized.

Howe’s Cavern

Want to feel like you have not only left home, but have left the home planet?  Howe’s Cavern is one of the most interesting places I have ever visited.  Located just a few miles from Cobleskill, this gem is the perfect way to not only get away, but also to get some exercise. The sights you will see in the cave are like nothing you will ever see above ground.  The millions of years of history of the cave go back to the Indians and the German Palatine Settlers in the Schoharie Valley in the early 1700’s.   It doesn’t matter what the temperature outside is because it is always round around 52 in the cave!  The tour lasts about 80 minutes and shows the majority of the cave.  Your tour begins at the elevators and continues to the end of Lake of Venus, which marks the end of Howe Cavern’s property.  Beyond that point is about 2,100 feet of unconditioned and destroyed caverns, which lead to a quarry and the natural entrance to the cave.  Want to have the ultimate cave experience?  Try a lantern night tour.  On Friday and Saturday nights, tours are given resembling the way the caves would have been explored in the early days of discovery.  You can even get married deep in the cave on top of a limestone formation that resembles a heart shape!

Weddings are also performed deep in the cave, on top of a limestone formation that resembles a heart shape.  Recently, the Cavern was sold by the 220 shareholders to 2 local men who have put a lot of money into projects at the facilities.  In the summertime, you can now have fun on the zip line, ropes course, rock wall, and more.

For more information, visit http://www.howescaverns.com

National Baseball Hall of Fame

Don’t know about you, but I can’t wait for baseball season to start.  Even if you are not a baseball fan, you can appreciate the history and the artifacts at the National Baseball Hall of Fame in nearby Cooperstown.  The collections on display and the artifacts are as much a part of American history as they are baseball history.  If you ever collected baseball cards, you will love the collection on display of all of the “holy grail” cards that if ever found in a private collection could fund a trip to every major league stadium in the country and then some!

Seeing the plaques of all of the inductees can be a bit emotional for fans like me. The artwork on display is also incredible and something that can be admired by anyone not just a life-long Yankee fan likes me.  The other thing I like about visiting the museum is that collections are rotated so you see something new just about every time you go through there.

For hours of operation and more information go to http://baseballhall.com