An hour and a half from Watkins Glen is Letchworth State Park in NY... it's beautiful! We were there last summer. And if you're passing through Buffalo, NY on your way from Niagara Falls, there is a carousel museum that we really enjoyed.
We loved the Bunker hill monument in Boston. It's fun for kids to climb up there! At Niagara, go on the Maid of the Mist for the full effect of seeing the falls. I understand it's prettier from the Canadian side, but I've not done that. In DC, go for free....Smithsonian land. Check out the Air & Space Museum. Your boys will also like to see the real dinosaurs and you might get a peak at the Hope Diamond in the Natural History Museum. Run up and down the mall and ride the carousel and climb up to see Abe Lincoln. Be sure and have some "water ice." Rita's is the best. You'll love it on the hot, humid summer days. It's a really superb icey, slurpy, snow cone thing. It's water ice and it's delicious. My favorite flavor is Mango. Kids love cherry. The metro in DC is clean and safe and the boys will like that too. In NYC, go to the Statue of Liberty. It includes a ferry ride and the cool statue. It's easiest to enter from the New Jersey side. It's a great way to get into Manhattan easy, too. You can take the ferry back to Manhattan from the Statue of Liberty and then you are pretty close to ground zero. You can take the subway from there into Time Square or whatever. Kids like the HMO Schwartz (name???) toy store and the disney store there and maybe you could even get on Good Morning America! Sounds like a really fun time!
We were in Quebec City a couple of years ago and had a fabulous time. Be sure to walk along the Boardwalk (Dufferin Terrace) and climb the stairs up to the Battlefields Park (Plains of Abraham). There's a great museum there relating to the site. You can also take the funicular down to the Lower Town which is very historic as is the Upper Town. We stayed at a small hotel within the city walls which was super convenient. We parked the car when we arrived and it didn't move the whole time we were there. We just wandered the streets and enjoyed all the great restaurants and historic buildings. The Provincial Parliament Buildings are impressive, plus you could visit the Museum of Civilization. If you have time, take a day trip over to Ile de Orleans and drive the Royal Road. There's a sugar shack, a couple of wineries, a blackcurrant farm and numerous other little places to investigate.
I'm so sorry! I was down in Toronto this week & I realized that I never came back with all the info about Toronto! There is a Toronto CityPASS, which is actually good value because attractions in Toronto are expensive. It includes 5 attractions: 1. The CN Tower - of course 2. Casa Loma - yes, we have a castle! 3. Royal Ontario Museum (the ROM) - meh 4. Ripley's Aquarium of Canada - right beside the CN Tower & SkyDome (now called the Rogers Centre) 5. Toronto Zoo (we have pandas!) OR Ontario Science Centre - It's a shame that it's one or with these two attractions, because these are great attractions for kids! However, both are well outside of downtown Toronto. The CityPASS doesn't include the Art Gallery of Ontario (the AGO) because the AGO is free on Wednesday evenings after 6pm. Not a lot for kids at the AGO, but it does have a nice collection of Group of Seven paintings! I always tell people to orient themselves from Union Station (which is partially under construction, as it has been for the last four years!). It's the main transportation hub, it's downtown & everything is a grid from there. Directly across from Union Station is the Royal York hotel, one of the grand chateau hotels built by Canadian Pacific Railway. South of the station along Bay St., you'll pass Air Canada Centre (home of the Raptors & the Leafs!), and then come to Lake Ontario + the ferry across to the Toronto islands. On Centre island, there is an amusement park for kids called Centreville. (This may be more a nostalgic thing for locals because it never changes! It's the exact same amusement park I went to when I was a kid!) Back to Union Station, east on Front St, you'll pass the Hockey Hall of Fame, then further along you'll pass our version of the flatiron building (it's called the Gooderham building). Further along Front St., you'll come to St Lawrence Market. There's a bakery inside called the Carousel Bakery that claims to have the best peameal bacon sandwich in the world! This part of the city is "Old Toronto." Back to Union Station, north on Bay St. towards the clock tower, you'll head into the Financial District. There is an underground pedestrian walkway & shopping complex called the The Path that connects most of downtown Toronto. It's like a complete underground city and a lifesaver in the middle of winter! Above ground, there's an office building called Brookfield Place at 181 Bay St. which has a beautiful interior & is one of the most photographed buildings in Toronto. (It also connects to the Hockey Hall of Fame.) Back to Bay St. continuing towards the clock tower (which is Old City Hall & the city courts) will take you to Queen St. Right (east) on Queen St. will take you to the Toronto Eaton Centre, the main shopping centre in Toronto. There's a nice photo spot from level 3 (2nd floor above ground) closest to Queen St. Walk through the mall to Yonge St. near Dundas Square. The city tore down a bunch of old buildings just so the city could have its own Times Square. In the summer there is usually something interesting happening in the square. Back to Queen St., west on Queen St., next to Old City Hall is new City Hall & the new TORONTO sign in Nathan Phillips Square. Some more places of interest: • the provincial parliament ("Queen's Park") is on University Avenue (which runs north-south) and behind that is the University of Toronto. There are a lot of really nice old buildings here! North of U of T is the ROM. • The Toronto International Film Festival is centred about the TIFF Lightbox at King St. & John St. (The Festival is in September, though). On the north side of King St. walking east on King St. towards Roy Thomson Hall you'll find "Canada's Walk of Fame"! There are also more plaques in the ground on both street sides of Roy Thomson Hall. • On Peter St. (part of which is called Blue Jays Way) you'll find Wayne Gretzky's bar & restaurant, and Wahlburgers across the street (as in the actor Mark Wahlberg and NKOTB member Donnie Wahlberg!). • Also over by the CN Tower, SkyDome & aquarium, there's a train museum that has the cutest little train that goes around the park! • There are Chinatowns across the city, but main one is on Spadina north of Dundas. • One street over from Chinatown is Kensington Market, which is the city's bohemian, alternative, counter-cultural neighbourhood. It's a very diverse & interesting neighbourhood, but be advised it's also home to at least three marijuana cafes & dispensaries so you may have to explain to the kids what that smell is! • The Distillery District is a nice area with shops & restaurant. It's actually an old distillery & very picturesque! • There's another amusement part outside of Toronto called Canada's Wonderland. It's got all kinds of roller coasters + a water park. It's about a 40-minute drive from downtown Toronto. That pretty much covers the entire downtown area. This all makes sense in my head because I can picture walking around the city, but I hope the directions aren't too confusing! There's a popular blog called blogTO that has a ton of information about Toronto. And, of course, I have a Pinterest board all about Toronto, and I also have a board all about Ontario, too. Let me know if you have any more questions!
Wait until summer! This all sounds nice when it's written, but it's not so nice when it's -11 (Celsius, I have no idea what that is Fahrenheit, but it's cold)!
Toronto, ON - It's been a while since I've been to Toronto, but when we went we loved Casa Loma and the Hockey Hall of Fame. Washington, DC - One of the things I love about DC is that a lot of the museums are free. The national zoo is a must. Plan for lots of time for the Smithsonian museums. We liked the American History one. Air and Space is great too. The monuments are a must as well. My favorite is the Lincoln Memorial. Just beautiful. We used the subway a lot and walked. We parked the car at the hotel on the first day and didn't use it again until we left. So make sure you find a hotel near a metro station. I also recommend the Holocaust Museum. It is so moving. I always leave there in tears. Boston, MA - Do the Freedom trail!!! We walked it, but they have tours that will take you along the same route. I know a lot of people really like the Duck tours.
Here are a few links for you: National Zoo - https://nationalzoo.si.edu/ Air and Space Museum - http://www.si.edu/Museums/air-and-space-museum American History Museum - http://www.si.edu/Museums/american-history-museum United States Holocaust Memorial Museum - https://www.ushmm.org/ Washington DC Metro - http://www.wmata.com/ Boston Freedom Trail - http://www.thefreedomtrail.org/ Boston Duck Tours - http://www.bostonducktours.com/ Depending on how you're going there could be some fun stops along the way. We had a lot of fun in Salem, MA which is about 30 minutes north of Boston. It's the site of the 1692 Witch Trials. The House of Seven Gables (http://www.7gables.org/) there is really neat. If you like Revolutionary history Concord, MA is a great place to stop. It's where the war started. The battlefield, Minute Man National Historical Park (http://www.nps.gov/mima/index.htm) is beautiful. This area was also home to some very popular American authors - Nathaniel Hawthorne, Louisa May Alcott, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and Henry David Throreau. You can tour the Little Women house (http://www.louisamayalcott.org/) as well as Emerson's (http://www.nps.gov/nr/travel/massachusetts_conservation/ralph_waldo_emerson_house.html). You can also see Walden Pond (http://www.mass.gov/eea/agencies/dcr/massparks/region-north/walden-pond-state-reservation.html). All of them are buried in the Sleepy Hollow Cemetery (http://www.concordnet.org/pages/ConcordMA_Cemetery/sleepy) there in Concord. If it's not too far out of your way I would recommend a stop in Gettysburg, PA. The battlefield there is amazing!!! http://www.nps.gov/gett/index.htm One place I've always wanted to go but haven't yet is Hershey, PA. I know a lot people say it's fun. I know they have an amusement park (http://www.hersheypark.com/) If you're baseball fans I would recommend trying to see a game in Boston if possible. Also the Baseball Hall of Fame (http://www.baseballhall.org/) is in Cooperstown, NY and I don't think is that far from Niagara. With boys I would definitely recommend the Hockey Hall of Fame (http://hockeyhalloffame.com/) in Toronto. You can see the Stanley Cup. I remember when we went there was quite a bit of hands on stuff for kids like shooting pucks, etc.
Washington DC - have been about 5 times over the last 17 years or so....places we go to every time we go back: Air & Space Museum NEWSEUM All the famous monuments Smithsonian Museums National Zoo
