Travel Adventures in Upstate New York, Part 6: Rochester

This is my sixth post about our travel through upstate New York. I suggest reading the first, second, third, fourth, and fifth posts from the trip before this one. Because I blog about educational travel, I received admission tickets and other benefits for some of the places we visited during our trip. Other places are free for everyone; we paid full price for the rest. This has no bearing on my reviews. If you see any gaps in my narrative, it is because I didn't love that particular attraction, restaurant, or hotel enough to recommend it, regardless of how much I paid or didn't pay.

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Rochester, New York

After a full day at the best museum ever, we still had quite a few more things to see and do in Rochester! We took the last tour of the day at the National Susan B. Anthony Museum and House. 

Susan B. Anthony is most famous as a leader in the Women's Rights Movement. She lived at this house from 1866 until her death in 1906. 

The guided tour was led by an extremely knowledgable docent, who kept us entertained with interesting stories. During the tour, we learned about SBA's work for women's suffrage as well as her efforts for other social reform. 

Raised as a Quaker, SBA was committed to social equity and petitioned for the end of slavery as a teenager. 

The Anthony family home became a gathering place for local activists, including former slave and prominent abolitionist Frederick Douglass, who became a lifelong friend of SBA. 

SBA was very active in the temperance movement. After being denied the right to speak at a temperance conference because of her gender, she founded the New York Women's State Temperance Society with Elizabeth Cady Stanton.

In 1868, the two women began publishing a newspaper about women's rights called The Revolution. 

There's so much more to SBA's story. She was an incredibly influential (and fascinating!) woman. If you get the chance to visit her home, definitely take the guided tour. 

After the tour, take a short stroll down the street to Susan B. Anthony Square Park. 

There, you'll find a life-size brass sculpture of SBA and Frederick Douglass called "Let's Have Tea."

The Susan B. Anthony House and Square are part of the Rochester Heritage Trail. The 1.25 mile trail marks 15 spots of historical significance. We'd planned to walk the length of the trail, but the extra time at The Strong meant we had to skip the rest of it. Fortunately, the website shows all of the interpretative signs. 

Our next stop was the beautiful Pont de Rennes Pedestrian Bridge. 

Originally built in 1891, the bridge is 858 feet long and 114 feet above the Genesee River. It is a great place to view High Falls. 

Oooh, rainbow!

At the far end of the bridge is Genesee Brew House. We were headed there, but not yet. We took a picture, because we knew it would be dark when we returned.  

We went back across the bridge and walked through Brown's Race, Rochester's earliest industrial area. The historic district has a lot of interesting interpretative signs. 

We drove 10 miles north, just shy of Lake Ontario. Our destination was Whispering Pines Mini Golf. Why did we go out of our way to visit this particular mini golf course? Because it's the oldest miniature golf course in the US. 

  

The course has a nautical theme, with shells, nets, lighthouses, rope, buoys, boats, seahorses, and crabs. And, oddly, flamingos. 

The secondary theme is Americana, which was predominant throughout western New York. See that bunting? Not only was this mini golf course featuring it, but many of the stores, restaurants, and houses between Buffalo and Rochester (and beyond) were covered with that bunting. There weren't an unusual number of American flags or other patriotic stuff, but there was as much bunting as there was Buffalo Bills gear.     

Whispering Pines is a really fun course. It appears pretty basic at first, but it has some unique holes. One of them is completely unlike anything I've ever seen. Frankly, it seems like a major safety issue, but it was super fun and no one got hurt, so I'm not complaining. Look at where I'm standing. That is where you tee off. 

I took this picture from the platform to show you where I was aiming. The hole is over there by the American flag. You launch your ball (with a putter) from the platform toward the hole, ideally not hitting anyone walking by on the path or putting at the next hole. Thankfully, we were the last guests of the evening, so I didn't have to worry about hitting anyone. Or being hit. 

See that white fence? Just to the right is where you pose with this giant golf ball. Note that you walk across the grass between the ball launch platform and the hole to get there.  

  

We had a great time at Whispering Pines and are glad to be part of the history of the oldest mini golf course in the US. 

  

We couldn't come within a few blocks of Lake Ontario and not spend any time there. So we went to Irondequoit Bay to stroll along the boardwalk and enjoy the views. It did not disappoint. 

I'm not used to lakes with waves, unless there's a speedboat racing by. Which there wasn't. 

These waves were crashing on their own. In fact, this is as far as we went on the boardwalk, as we had no interest in getting soaked.  

We returned to Rochester and to Genesee Brew House. It wasn't completely dark when we got there, but I'm glad to have taken daylight photos. 

Genesee has been around since 1878 and is well-known for its beer. 

And the restaurant, which is why we were there. Well, me anyway. I can't have alcohol because of my cancer medication, but Steve enjoyed a tasting flight. 

  

The food was fantastic! After eating, we strolled through Genesee's museum and gift shop. 

After an incredible day, we headed back to the hotel for a good night's sleep. We had busy day with lots of driving ahead. I'll tell you about that tomorrow.