We stayed at this amazing property for two weeks in August and it was the perfect lake house. First, the location is amazing. Lake Otsego is stunningly beautiful (and honestly I'm more an ocean person than a lake person but Lake Otsego made me seriously revisit that assumption!) The lake water is an almost Caribbean color on sunny days and you look across the water and all you see is sky and mountains. It's so relaxing. You’re only six miles from Cooperstown, which is easy enough to pop into to pick up something from the bakery for breakfast or dinner (which we did since we are social distancing for Covid). The rural areas around are fun to drive around and you’re only 20 minutes from historic towns like Sharon Springs (home to Beekman 1802), which was a really fun visit.
The house comes with so many amenities: kayaks, paddle boat, life jackets for everyone from infant to adults, fishing gear. You can walk right into the lake from the backyard because there’s a beach area, and the water is clear-- no seaweed. So perfect for little kids (and adults, really). You can also fish from the dock and we caught a few sunnies (and saw much larger fish that we didn’t catch). There’s a swimming raft close enough to the dock that my five-year-old could swim to, and he loved jumping off it a million times. Inside, there were so many toys and books for kids that both my infant and 5 year old could play with. Teri also let us use her pack n play and high chair, which was incredibly helpful.
We so enjoyed sitting on the covered porch looking at the water day after day. At night you can see the moon rise over the treeline, which is a stunning experience. There are so many stars, especially if you lay out on the boathouse deck. We were lucky enough to be there during the August meteorite shower, which I’ve always wanted to see but never managed to catch. I finally did! It wasn’t even a clear night but we still managed to see half a dozen extremely long, bright shooting stars. It was like being in a planetarium.
This house was a much-needed respite for us after being in hard quarantine in NJ for 5 months. We enjoyed every minute and Teri was an amazing host. She really thought of everything-- she literally left us live bait in the furnace room fridge because I asked her where we could buy worms. Thank you, Teri, for letting us borrow your home! It is a really special place.