You should have a great time
We went there a number of times in my college years, day trips mostly, so I can't help with your question about lodging.
Also did some day trips when the kids were in grade school, but no mater when, finding the herkimer Diamonds is great fun.
What is almost more fun is after you clean them up for display (we used to use Oxalic acid, very dangerous since it can be absorbed through the skin and is toxic, but it worked well on taking away any 'iron' stain on the crystals).
We always had a little piece of black velvet cloth that we would roll out when we were going to show our crystals.
We would open the 35mm film container and spill them out onto the black cloth, DIAMONDS! you could see peoples eyes open WIDE.
It worked best with the smaller ones that were near perfect with both pointed ends intact. We also found some larger ones, but the larger they are the more likely they have 'inclusions' that mar the 'Diamond effect'. My biggest one is about the size of a golf ball, but my most prized ones are clear 3/4 inch long specimens (tip to tip). My daughter, now in her mid 20's mentioned to me a week or so ago, that it might be nice to go back and search again. Sounds good to me.
