New York & the Mid-Atlantic Trips 2 - Full PDF eBook

24 Church St; adult/child $6/4;

h9am-5pm daily May-Oct,

10am-3pm Thu-Sat Nov-Apr)

has an excellent museum

explaining the canal’s

complex history and

offers boat tours on the

canal during the summer

months (the official

state canal museum is in

Syracuse). To appreciate

another angle on the

infrastructure that went

into making things hum

in the mid-1800s, visit the

offices of the Lockport

Cave & Underground Boat

Tour (%716-438-0174; http://www.

lockport.com; 5 Gooding St;

adult/child $12/7; hMay 4-

Oct 14, hours vary); the boat

trip takes you through

a water-filled tunnel

blasted by engineers

to help power industry

and guides provide

loads of historical info

as you glide along the

eerily motionless 1600ft

channel.

The Drive » It’s a

straightforward drive on NY-

78 south to I-990 south. The

quickest way to downtown

Buffalo from here is to get on

I-290 west which skirts the

northern ‘burb of Tonawanda

for about 6 miles. Then connect

with I-290 south and take this

another 7.5 miles until exit 8

for NY-266 north which brings

you within a few blocks of the

waterfront and center of town.

4 Buffalo

This often maligned

working-class city

does have long, cold

winters and its fair

share of abandoned

industrial buildings,

but Buffalo also has a

vibrant community of

college students and

30-somethings living

well in cheap real estate

and gorging on this city’s

unique and tasty cuisine.

And most locals are

united in their passion

for their professional

sports teams – the Bills

for football, the Sabres

for hockey and the

Bisons, a AAA affiliate

for baseball – which they

live and die with every

season.

Settled by the French

in 1758 – its name is

believed to derive from

beau fleuve (beautiful

river) – the city’s

illustrious past as a

former trading post

and later a booming

manufacturing center

and terminus of the Erie

Canal means there’s

a certain nostalgia

and hopefulness to

the continual roll out

and delay of ambitious

revitalization plans.

The Theodore

Roosevelt Inaugural

National Historic Site

TRIP HIGHLIGHT

NOPPAWAT “TOM” CHAROENSINPHON/GETTY IMAGES ©

NEW.YORK.TRIPS

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(^) NIAGARA F
ALLS & AROUND