Spotlight: Travel
Spend spring break close to home in Rochester
One-Tank Trip/ Rochester
ROCHESTER—While some people feel they have to travel far distances to glamorous locales during their Easter/spring break, you can easily have fun closer to home and do it at a fraction of the cost of an exotic trip. Rochester, a mere 80 miles down the Thruway, offers enough to keep you busy for several days, as my family learned when we spent a few days of our Easter break there.
We headed to Rochester via scenic Route 104, since it was the closest route to our first stop, the Seneca Park Zoo, which is located along the Genesee River Gorge several miles north of downtown Rochester. Seneca Park, along with three other parks in Rochester, was designed by renowned landscape architect, Frederick Law Olmsted, who also designed the Buffalo parks system.
The zoo, established in 1894, is one of Rochester’s most popular attractions. It is currently undergoing a major expansion with “A Step into Africa,” a state-of-the-art exhibit area which focuses on the animals, people and culture of the Ngorongoro Crater Region of Africa. Already completed is an elephant splash pool, which resembles a watering hole in their native environment. A baboon exhibit, which is home to 11 olive baboons, opened last spring. Work on a new lion habitat will begin this fall.
While the zoo is a good size and has a lot of exhibits, it’s not overwhelming, so you can easily see everything in a few hours. My kids especially enjoyed the sea lion and polar bear exhibits, where you can watch the animals from an underwater viewing window, as well as from above.
We also thought that the African penguins were really cute. The zoo is one of the top breeding colonies in the country for these creatures. The zoo’s indoor exhibits include an exotic bird aviary and an animal health and education complex.
Science adventures
Another fun place to take the kids is the Rochester Museum and Science Center, which has three floors of exhibits focusing on science, technology, nature and cultural heritage.
The first exhibit you encounter after paying your admission is “Adventure Zone,” which has a lot of fun, hands-on activities. I think my kids would have spent the entire day here if we let them. Another exhibit, “Glaciers and Giants,” takes you on a journey back in time to when dinosaurs and mastodons roamed Western New York.
In the new exhibit, “A-Mazing Sea,” visitors can take a trip through the ocean and learn all about the critters that live in the sea.
My boys especially liked the K’Nex building toys exhibit where children can make things using K’Nex, If they really like their creation, you can purchase it to take home. My one son spent a lot of time building a motorcycle, which he still has displayed in his room.
Regional history is also presented at the museum. “Flight to Freedom” chronicles the Underground Railroad in the Rochester area. “At the Western Door” focuses on the Seneca and Haudenosaunee Indians.
Movies are shown on the big screen in the museum’s Strasenburgh Planetarium, along with a variety of star shows.
Playing around
One of our favorite places to visit in downtown Rochester is the Strong National Museum of Play, the only museum in the world devoted to the study of play. We’ve been there numerous times. My 6-year-old son absolutely loves the museum, as all the exhibits are hands-on. He keeps asking me, “When are we going back to the Strong Museum?”
One could easily spend two days at this 282,000-square-foot museum, which has two floors of exhibits. The first floor and part of the second consists of hands-on permanent and traveling exhibits, including its signature exhibit, “Can You Tell Me How to Get to Sesame Street?” Other exhibits include “Kid-to Kid,” where they can learn about communications, a kid-sized Wegmans and “Field of Play,” where kids can do things like walk through a giant kaleidoscope and walk in a slanted room. The museum is also home to the National Toy Hall of Fame and the Dancing Wings Butterfly Garden.
My son is just learning to read and he loves the Berenstain Bears books. He really enjoyed the exhibit, “Down a Sunny Dirt Road,” where you can step into the world of the Berenstain Bears.
He also enjoyed the “Reading Adventureland” exhibit. But parents be warned: There are a lot of nooks and crannies in this exhibit, so it’s hard to keep track of your children, especially if they like to run ahead, like my son does.
Half of the museum’s second floor exhibit area features dolls, toys, dollhouses and household items which were in the collection of the late Margaret Woodbury Strong, the museum’s founder. Even if you don’t have children, this extensive collection of Americana is reason enough to visit the museum.
More to do
Another Rochester attraction is the Rochester Red Wings baseball team, who play in Frontier Field in downtown Rochester. We’ve been to a couple of games in the past few years. The stadium is fairly new and the atmosphere is family-friendly. Opening day is Saturday and the team is playing at home Saturday through April 16.
Since Rochester is celebrating its 175th birthday in 2009, you may want to visit some of the city’s historic points of interest. Right across the street from Frontier Field is the High Falls Heritage area. A visitors center has exhibits on the history of this district, which had numerous flour mills and factories more than 150 years ago. From the 850-foot-long pedestrian bridge over the Genesee River Gorge you can view High Falls, a 100-foot waterfall which has been named the best city waterfall in America. A laser light show in the gorge takes place during the summer.
Other points of interest include the George Eastman House, which houses the International Museum of Photography. Once the home of George Eastman, founder of Eastman Kodak, the museum features exhibits that capture 150 years of photographic history. There is a children’s discovery room with many hands-on activities.
Another historically significant home in the city is the Susan
B. Anthony House, which is now designated a National Historic Landmark. It is from this site that Anthony planned the Woman’s Suffrage Movement. She lived here from 1866 until her death. The museum is filled with memorabilia and displays on Woman’s Suffrage.
If you go
Rochester Convention and Visitors Bureau, (585) 546-3070, (800) 677-7282, www.visitrochester.com . Seneca Park Zoo, 222 St. Paul St., Rochester; (585) 336-7200, www.senecaparkzoo.org . It is open 364 days a year; the zoo is only closed the first Saturday in June for its annual fundraiser. Rochester Museum and Science Center, 657 East Ave., Rochester; (585) 271-4320, www.rmsc.org ). Open 9 a. m. to 5 p. m. Monday through Saturday; noon to 5 p. m. Sundays. Strong National Museum of Play, One Manhattan Square, Rochester; (585) 263-2700, www.museumofplay.org . Open 10 a. m. to 5 p. m. Monday through Thursday and Saturdays; 10 a. m. to 8 p. m. Fridays; noon to 5 p. m. Sundays. Rochester Red Wings Baseball, Frontier Field, One Morrie Silver Way, Rochester; (585) 454-1001, www.redwingsbaseball.com . George Eastman House, 900 East Ave., Rochester; (585) 271-3361, www.eastmanhouse.org . Open 10 a. m. to 5 p. m. Monday through Saturday; 1 to 5 p. m. Sundays. Center at High Falls, 60 Browns Race, Rochester; (585) 325-2030, www.centerathighfalls.org . Open 10 a. m. to 5 p. m. Wednesday through Friday; noon to 6 p. m. Saturdays; 1 to 5 p. m. Sundays. Laser light shows take place every Thursday, Friday and Saturday at 9:30 p. m. May 31 to Sept. 1 (and also May 26, 27 and 28). Susan B. Anthony House, 17 Madison St., Rochester; (585) 235-6124, www.susanbanthonyhouse.org . Open Labor Day through Memorial Day are 11 a. m. to 4 p. m. Wednesday through Sunday; after Memorial Day, 11 a. m. to 5 p. m. Tuesday through Sunday.
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