My first travel diary! I've been excited to write one of these ever since I had the idea to start a blog, so I'm happy the day is finally here. Exploring the world is one of my favorite things to do (which is sometimes interesting to me, because I'm definitely a homebody at heart, and I can get homesick quite easily). I think it's so important as a writer to see new places and experience new things, as much as is possible, and I'm grateful for every little trip I'm able to go on.
I spent this past weekend in Upstate New York, in a small city called Oneonta. Now to be frank, this isn't a totally new place for me at all, as I have family there and have been visiting since I was little. My grandmother grew up in Oneonta, and although she moved away eventually, her brother, Bud, stayed, and so for my entire life we've been traveling up to Oneonta around once a year for get togethers and reunions. Most of the time we go to a cabin on Arnold Lake - a lake about twenty-five minutes outside of downtown Oneonta, and the same lake my grandmother and her brother would go to as kids. It's the place I most associate with my grandmother's childhood, and I have lots of memories from various summers up there.
I went into downtown Oneonta a couple times growing up, but I've never really spent too much time there. My cousins and I have also taken a couple trips to Cooperstown in the past (if you're a fan of baseball, Cooperstown is the place for you), and that's definitely a fun day trip if you're in the area. This weekend however, for the first time, we spent all of our time in the actual city of Oneonta. It was such a perfect couple days that I wanted to write a little guide in case you ever decide to visit one day. (Credits are due to my cousin Hannah and her husband Andrew, who were our actual guides this weekend and brought us everywhere I will be sharing about in this piece.)
Oneonta is about 4 to 4.5 hours outside of Boston, depending on traffic. If you can do medium-length drives like that, it makes for a perfect weekend away from the city. It's the epitome of small town living mixed with a college town, and I'd call the general vibe crunchy-and-family-friendly. Friday night when we arrived was reserved for catching up with family, homemade pizza, and the first of several games of Catan (our family is HUGE on Catan), so Saturday was our main exploration day. Here is the itinerary we followed...
THE NEIGHBORHOOD.
If you like houses, go for a walk and admire just about everything.
Oneonta is built for walking and enjoying the environment. Because we were staying with my cousin and her husband, rather than in a hotel, we were in the mainly residential part of Oneonta. The neighborhood sits at the foot of a big hill that leads up to a college campus - Oneonta is a college town, with SUNY Oneonta and Harwick College being right there. After toasted bagels and a little bit of morning people-watching on the porch, we headed out for a long walk through the neighborhood to get to downtown. We spent a lot of time admiring the houses and the gardens (my family is almost as big on house-admiring as we are on Catan). If you like to walk and really want to get the vibe of residential Oneonta, I really recommend going for a jaunt while you're in town. The architecture is beautiful, each house is unique, and you can spot really fun aesthetics and design choices if you look for them. We saw one home with heart shapes cut out in the white wood that was surrounding the foundation of the house, and it was so beautiful. And that's just one design that I can remember! Lots of residents in Oneonta are taking up the no-lawn movement, so there are many lively gardens with a variety of plants and flowers to admire, as well. I love fun exteriors, and if you do too, the Oneonta neighborhood is definitely worth a walk around.
THE DOWNTOWN
Little shops, bookstores, bicycles and cute cafés.
Our morning walk ended in the downtown, and that was when Hannah and Andrew really took the lead. My only request was to go to a bookstore, and my brother Eddie's was to go antiquing, so Hannah and Andrew picked a couple classic downtown Oneonta spots to visit. Each spot tied in just what we were looking for with a lot of Oneonta's small-town charm.
The Underground Attic is a vintage store located near one end of the busy part of Main Street. I don't go to vintage stores all that often, but when I do, I hope they're all like this place. It wasn't very big or very cluttered, so I didn't feel overwhelmed by "stuff," which I feel often happens for me in vintage stores.
The ambience was serene, with twinkling lights behind a large cutout of the moon, a stained-wood mantelpiece over a fireplace, and curated jewelry and clothes. I'm always drawn to the trinket section regardless of the kind of store I'm in (sue me), so naturally I drifted towards the pretty matchboxes, candles, postcards and stickers that were set up near the doorway. Everything was displayed neatly, and I could peruse each section very easily. It felt like I was stepping into the closet of a rich socialite from the 60s, and that is a rare treat. It's definitely on the pricier side, but if you like more curated vintage stores, I definitely recommend checking this place out!
The Green Toad Bookstore sits right in the middle of Main Street, and BOY is it cute. I think all writers and readers are suckers for bookstores, and this one just warmed me right up. It reminded me of Brookline Booksmith (aka my favorite place in the world) in Brookline, MA, if you know the place, except a little smaller. Instead of two rooms of books and gifts like the Brookline Booksmith, the Green Toad is just one room of books and trinkets, and the adjoining room is a café. We were going to get a lemonade there, but the line was too long - which must be a good sign for the quality of the food and drinks!
The Green Toad is definitely a center of Oneonta life, as it was very busy on Saturday, and my cousin ran into several people she knew (maybe that's just the mark of a small town, though). There were a couple of comfy chairs inside, which seemed to be there so you can test out a book before buying it, but they weren't being used by anyone. I think the place is just a little too small for that vibe. However, it was perfect for a little spin through, and I had to use all of my self-control to not buy a book. At the end of the day, it's just a bookstore, but I think the beauty of all bookstores (and libraries, for that matter) are the number of stories they hold. I love to see a crowded bookstore and observe which people are attracted to which stories - which humans need which stories. It's one of the real beauties of humanity to me, and partly why I'm very happy to be back into reading.
I don't have too much to say about this one as I don't have much to compare it to, but my only precursor is that if you're not into crystals, don't go here. (Then again, you don't really have to be "into crystals" to enjoy a pretty store.) This is the first dedicated crystal shop that I've ever been in, and it was adorable! The displays were prepared very attractively, with big geodes of a couple crystals set up next to the smaller versions that were for sale. I appreciated that each display had the name of the crystal and what it means/does, as I really don't know anything about crystals beyond my birthstone (which is amethyst). In that sense, this place had the feel of a solid crystal store for "beginners" - in other words, those just trying out crystals. There were also lots of cute trinkets and stickers, and the whole shop smelled really good - like incense, which I guess one would expect from a crystal store. I'm not saying I'm going to go head first into the crystal world now, but did I buy a couple of them to have in my apartment?....Yes. Yes I did.
Otsego Bicycles is a bicycle shop just off Main Street, owned by my cousin Sam, and it's a really great place. My cousin runs it completely on his own, and he sells bikes along with doing services like tune-ups, adjustments, assembly, etc. The apparel and stickers are cute too, might I add. The logo encourages to "support your local bike shop!" which is so important in several regards - shopping local for one thing, and riding a bike over driving a car for another. When my brother bought his current bike second-hand, he brought it to Sam for tune-ups, and it was good as new by the time Sam was done. I'm definitely trying to be better about biking and walking places, and everytime I come to Otsego, I'm inspired to try a little bit harder. The plants all around the shop, picked out and placed as such by my cousin's girlfriend, add to the charm of the store. If you're local to Otsego County or Upstate NY - or maybe you're doing a cross-country bike trip and need some servicing - support small and check out Otsego Bicycles. We can all do our part to help the planet just by biking a little more. :)
The Autumn Café is the only place we went to this weekend that I'd been to before, other than my cousin's bicycle shop. We came here for dinner on Saturday, and on our previous visit to Oneonta last summer, we went here for breakfast. It's perfect for both. It has a lovely ambience inside - fairy lights, lots of exposed wood, colorful chalk signs with the menu and specials; you know the vibe. There are several vegetarian, vegan and gluten-free options, and all the bathrooms are gender-neutral. It was completely booked up for dinner, and I remember it was just as crowded for breakfast a year ago, so it's definitely a popular spot regardless of the mealtime. I got the tofu tacos, and I liked them, although I might go for something else next time. Yummy food, fun interior, and I was there with good people, so all good things, and I highly recommend!
THE SURROUNDING AREA
Antiquing and orange kittens.
After our morning downtown, we walked back to my cousin's house for a quick refresh and then hopped in the car to head to antique central. I'll be honest and say I haven't done much antiquing in the past - it just hasn't sparked my interest. However, I do love museums and looking at old things in general, and the two places we went to were unlike any other antique shops I've been to before, so I found myself enjoying the activity quite a lot.
The best way I can describe the Marketplace on Chestnut is as a warehouse-meets-treasure-chest of old things. First of all, it sm elled like popcorn, and who doesn't love that? Just by the scent of butter and a slight musk, if your eyes were closed, you'd think you just walked into an old movie theater (and if you want to extend that feeling, they have a whole bunch of old VHS movies upstairs to choose from). The warehouse is simply filled to the brim with preloved items, organized in little booths and pockets.
Most of the first floor is a mix of jewelry, old toys, records, books, clothes, kitchen items, decor, glassware, the list goes on and on. It definitely made me wish I was decorating a house, because I started imagining what I would buy and where it go if I was designing my dream house. I was drawn to the old postcards, as I always am, which featured photographs of what towns in New York and Massachusetts used to look like. I purchased a few, as I've been trying to send more handwritten letters to friends (if you want to be penpals, send me a message on my contact page! I love penpals!). The second floor had slightly pricier nicknacks, but otherwise was pretty much the same eclectic mix of things as the first floor. I didn't go to the basement, but my brother said it was mainly large pieces of furniture. My cousin said the Marketplace is a walkable distance from downtown, although the walk isn't very picturesque, and as it was only five minutes by car from the neighborhood, that's how we got there. If you're a fan of antiques, this place is a heaven. If you're not the biggest fan of antiques (like me), this place may start to turn you into one (like it did for me).
Wood Bull Antiques
After around another twenty minutes in the car, give or take a few, we arrived at Wood Bull Antiques, in Milford, NY. This was our last stop of the day before dinner at the Autumn Café back in town. Wood Bull Antiques is a funky place. They bring antiquing to the outside, as well as keeping it inside the barn. As soon as you get off the highway to pull in, you have to be careful, as the yard around the barn is covered in furniture, statue busts, garden decor, and a little orange kitten running around.
Right as we hopped out of the car we met the kitten, and ohemgee what a cutie!! My cousin, her husband, my brother and I are ALL cat people, so we spent a solid ten minutes fawning over the cat before any of us even started looking around. Now I was fairly out-antiqued by this point, and I was also deep into the fourth Percy Jackson book (which I finished that night and now I'm on the fifth and EEP I'm loving it), so I decided not to go into the barn. Instead I sat on one of the chairs outside, played with the kitten, and settled myself deep into the world of Greek mythology, while the others went inside. So unfortunately, I can't speak much to the inside of the barn, but if it's anything like the outside, there's lots of funky furniture and preloved decor at Wood Bull, and you'll definitely come across some very unique finds there.
That about wraps up our time in Oneonta. As the nature of Upstate NY goes, there's also lots of hiking opportunities and lakes to swim in up there, if you're looking for more of a camping vacation. That wasn't our bag this weekend, but maybe next time we go, we'll explore the nature side of the Catskills some more. To stay on theme with the woodsy, small town vibe of this guide, my music rec for you this week is "New Perspective" by Noah Kahan. It's the perfect soundtrack for a long drive on the highway through the mountains. If you like it, I recommend listening to the rest of his album "Stick Season (We'll All Be Here Forever," especially as autumn starts to come around.
That's all for now. Sending you good energy, and if you haven't yet today, go drink some water!!
Until next time <3
Cheech
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