However, none are quite like Aalsmeer Motel & Cottages, which is a local family run camp located on the west shore of Otsego Lake.

It’s run by 92- year-old Harold Rayford Fry, Jr., better known as Ray, and his son Peter, 45.

Peter says Aalsmeer Motel and Cottages is a place where many people keep coming back to vacation.

"Not only do they come back, but each generation comes back with them," he says. "We have third and fourth generations that come."

Peter also says many people who grew up in Cooperstown, who have moved away from the area, like to come back to vacation at the camp.

Peter’s fiancee Judy (Kolarik) Tickle, who works at Aalsmmer Motel and Cottages and who was a regular camper there, describes the camp’s atmosphere as unique because everybody gets to know everyone.

"It’s an atmosphere you don’t get anywhere else," she says.

Jeff Eaker, who lives near Schenectady, N.Y., agrees.

"It’s beautiful here," he said Tuesday afternoon while sitting outside his rented cottage. "We like coming to this place because it works great for our family. The accommodations are good."

Eaker described the camp as a "very friendly place."

He says he and his family have been regular campers at the cottages for about 20 years.

They always come to vacation during the week after school lets out, and last year were unfortunate to be vacationing when the flood hit.

"The lake is always quiet," says Eaker. "It’s a great place that you can bring little kids to."

Eaker says the annual week-long vacation has become a family tradition that nobody has really grown out of looking forward to.

He was expecting his daughters, both in college, to come join the family later Tuesday night.

"It’s a family thing to do," said Eaker. "All of the campers have pretty much become really close friends over the years, so we look forward to seeing everyone each year."

Tickle says her visits to the camp also became a tradition. She began going to the camp when she was in second grade.

She says her grandparents lived in Herkimer and wanted to find a nearby place for her family to stay when coming to visit and the camp became the ideal place.

Tickle even moved to Florida for 20 years and did not miss the weekly vacation.

``I became best friends with the people here,’’ said Tickle. ``We all grew up together.’’

Peter says campers like to vacation at the camp because they like things simple without the luxuries of things such as internet and air conditioning.

"They say they don’t want it changed," Peter said. "They say they want to get away from it all."

According to Tickle, Ray and Peter pretty much run the business all by themselves.

They literally do everything themselves from replacing roofs and septic tanks to all the accounting along with daily interaction with visitors. The only outside help is the cleaning ladies, and even they have been the same for years,ö she said.

Nancy Bronson has been a cleaning lady for the Frys for about 25 years and she says, Peter and his dad have been wonderful people to work for.

The Fry family did not initially have the intention of building the cottages for a resort or to make a profit.

He said the first of the 10 cottages, cottage number six, was built as a camp for his grandfather’s friends to stay in when they came to visit.

According to Ray, cabin six was built out of parts from the Fenimore Hotel.

The property where the 10 cottages and eight room motel are located started as an open hay field when Ray’s father Harold Rayford Fry Sr., who was born in England, first bought it in 1925.

It was known as Ramona Beach, but was later changed to Windward in 1985 and was again changed to Aalsmeer.

The estate was divided between Ray and his sister Helen when Ray’s mother Ethel died on August 21, 1947. Ray received most of Windward as his share.

His father had already built two cottages, but Ray developed the property more.

Over the next nine years, Ray built seven more cottages plus an additional cottage on his sister’s property, which he eventually purchased.

In June 1952, The Frys moved permanently to Windward. During much of 1968 and 1969, Ray built an eight-unit summer motel on the Windward property.

Four units were open August 15, 1969, and the other four the following spring.

Peter has been helping with the family business since he returned home from Salt Lake City, Utah in May 1981.

Ray and Peter now reside on the lake shore, where their house also serves as the main office to their business.

Ray helped a contractor build the house on the family’s old house’s foundation after the family lived through a house fire on May 15, 1976.

The Frys were awakened by a loud explosion in their house at 1 a.m. Ray said the house burned completely and nothing was saved.

It is thought that gasoline leaked from a tractor that was in the cellar and the fumes ignited from the flame of the gas hot water heater, he said.

While the Frys were without a home, neighbors let the family stay in a house trailer that they rented out for several years. Ray completed the house over the winters in the next few years.

"I just think this business is representative of what this area is all about and why so many like to come here to get away from it all for awhile," said Tickle.