Cooperstown Baseball Tournament

Each year, Cooperstown, NY hosts a baseball tournament every week in the summer months. The maximum age of any player is 12 years old by May 1st that year. So, this was Josh's last shot. Luckily, his new baseball team was able to get a coveted spot in the tournament in early June. So we loaded the family up and headed to New York for a week long baseball tournament. (The things we do for our kids).

The way it is set up, you leave your kids at the park for the entire week. Each team has a bunk house with 10 bunk beds. 13 boys and 4 dads for a week. 😬

Josh's team stayed/played at the Cooperstown All-Star Village. 

We dropped him off at the Yankee Stadium bunkhouse in the Mickey Mantle Suite with his team Saturday morning, then didn't see him again (except at games) until Thursday night 

In between games they got to enjoy swimming, an arcade, and had meals in the mess hall. 

A popular activity in the village is pin trading with each team. It took Josh a while to get used to talk to other players, but his brothers were really into it. They would get pins from Josh when he had doubles and trade them with other teams. 

Josh finally got comfortable asking and ended up with a nice collection.

His team brought a few all gold pins that were highly coveted by other teams during the week. I think they were all traded away by the second day. 

After he was settled in and we joined him for a family BBQ at the Village, we headed over to the house we rented with another family for the week. They also have a younger son so the three boys had a great time hanging out and playing all week long.

Then we headed back to the village for the opening ceremony. It included a team parade and skills competitions.

Patrick had fun burying himself in the rocks outside the fields

They played six games over three days. We would come watch every game, see Josh for a little while after, and then head out to entertain ourselves. I don't think he minded at all.

We found some fun things for the kids to do...

..and the parents.

We found some fun places to eat in the area. Very different from Colorado.

The week included tickets to the Baseball Hall of Fame. That was a fun museum to walk through.

At the end of the week, they hold a closing ceremony where they induct all the participants into the Youth Baseball Hall of Fame. 

Josh's coach had to talk about the kids

Every player got a ring

It was a once in a lifetime experience. I think Josh really enjoyed it and I'm glad the whole family got to experience it with him.

Niagra Falls

Josh's baseball team got to play in a tournament in Cooperstown, NY in June so we decided to turn that trip into a mini family vacation. We flew into Buffalo, NY a few days early and drove up to see Niagra Falls. 

We wanted to stay on the Canadian side so we had to get the boys passport cards. Good thing we planned ahead. 

We woke up Wednesday morning, drove out the airport, boarded the bus, and flew to New York.

We spent the first late afternoon/evening just walking around the falls and the area around the hotel.

View from our hotel room

For dinner that night, we had booked a buffet dinner at the top of the Skyline Tower. We had to take an elevator on the outside of the tower to get to the restaurant. The restaurant was on a floor that rotated around so everyone had a good view of the falls every once in a while. The boys loved the buffet. 

We made sure we had a falls side room view in the hotel. At night they light up the falls. It's pretty neat to see.

The next day we did the tourist activities. We started with Journey Behind the Falls. 

They give you fun yellow ponchos and you get to tour the tunnels built behind the waterfall itself. It has information about how the tunnels were built and even goes all the way out to right behind the water. 

There is also a deck where you get up close and personal (and wet) with the water fall. 

Then we made our way over to the Hornblower Niagra Cruises to take a boat directly into the falls.

There we got nice red ponchos and boarded a boat to drive into Horseshoe Falls. 

It was as wet as you would expect. Think standing in the rain wet. The boys loved it. 

After the boat, we made our way up to Clifton Hills where they had all kinds of entertainment to keep us busy for a while. 

We played Dinosaur Adventure Mini Golf, rode the Niagra Skywheel, ran through the Big Top Amazing Mirror Maze....

..and drove on the Niagra Speedway.

It was a "barrel of fun".

After the baseball tournament, we headed back to Buffalo to fly back to Colorado. We spent the day seeing Niagra Falls from the American side. It has a beautiful state park and a different view of the falls and the river that feeds into them. 

We also had to stop and eat at the Home of the Original Buffalo Wings, the Anchor Bar. We found out they were created on a whim when the owner needed to feed her son and his friends when they unexpectedly showed up from collage. Check that off the list.

It was a fun family vacation.