BfloGirlTravel: 2016 sports bus trips with Know How Tours

Visit Watkins Glen International with Know How Tours
credit: paulathompsonfreelance.com

Know How Tours is offering a number of sports bus tours for the 2016 season, including trips to three baseball stadiums and a NASCAR race.

• Boston Red Sox at Toronto Blue Jays – on Saturday, April 9, head across the border to catch the Boston Red Sox and Toronto Blue Jays in a 1:07 p.m. game. Cost is $115 per person and includes round-trip motorcoach and ticket to the game.
• Los Angeles Angels at Pittsburgh Pirates – on Saturday, June 4, the Angels visit Pittsburgh for a 4 p.m. game. This package – cost is $129 per person – includes round-trip motorcoach, ticket to the game in section 204 and an all-you-can-eat package with hot dogs, hamburgers, nachos, popcorn, peanuts and more.
• New York Yankees at Cleveland Indians – on Sunday, July 10, the Yankees and Indians match up for the final game of a four-game stand at 1:10 p.m. Cost is $135 per person and includes round-trip motorcoach, ticket to the game and an all-you-can-eat package with hot dogs, nachos, popcorn, peanuts and Pepsi products.
• Cheez-It 355 @ The Glen – NASCAR visits the Finger Lakes region on Sunday, August 7. Cost is $125 per person adult and $95 per person child 19 and under, and includes round-trip motorcoach, frontstretch grandstand seating and the pre-race Fan Walk ticket.
• New York Yankees at Toronto Blue Jays – on Saturday, September 25, cross the border to catch the Yankees and Blue Jays in a 1:07 p.m. game. Cost is $115 per person and includes round-trip motorcoach and ticket to the game.

BfloGirlTravel: 2016 Buffalo bus trips with Know How Tours

Fontana Boathouse
credit: paulathompsonfreelance.com

Know How Tours is another great company to travel with by bus, and in 2016 a few of their day trips will be focused on Buffalo. Here’s a quick look at each:

• Buffalo’s Outer Harbor – on Thursday, June 30, explore the great outdoors with visits to Tifft Nature Preserve, Wilkeson Point and Buffalo Light House Park, lunch at Pearl Street Grill & Brewery and a visit to Flying Bison Craft Brewery. Cost for the trip is $105.
• Buffalo – The Way You Haven’t Seen Before! – on Wednesday, July 27, start the trip at Fontana Boathouse, followed by a trip to City Hall and lunch at Pearl Street Grill & Brewery. After lunch, take a two-hour sightseeing tour with Buffalo River Historic Cruises and stop at Silo City. Cost for the trip is $109. I took this tour a couple of years ago and it’s very informative – and a camera is a must!
• Buffalo’s Happening – on Tuesday, August 16, take a guided tour of Shea’s Performing Arts Center, followed by lunch at the Hamlin House. After lunch, a guided Buffalo City Highlights tour shows off places like the medical corridor and new canal-side developments, followed by a 90-minute cruise with Grand Lady River Cruise. Cost for the trip is $109.

There are plenty of other trips offered by Know How Tours this year, including multi-day trips to New Orleans, Mackinac Island and Montreal – find out more about these and other tours at www.knowhowtours.com. 

Industry to Entertainment: A Tour of Buffalo’s Grain Elevators

Canalside on a bright summer day

When I started writing again nearly six years ago, I wrote about my hometown of Buffalo a lot. The more I wrote about Buffalo, the more I wanted to explore it. My explorations have made me appreciate the Queen City even more.

Yes, my city DOES smell like Cheerios! :)

our tour boat

Know How Tours offered a very cool Buffalo-based bus tour in late July that included stops at the Fontana Boathouse, City Hall and Pearl Street Brewery for lunch. After lunch we boarded a tour boat for a Buffalo River History Tour that took us on an adventure to part of Buffalo’s industrial history, the grain elevators.

Silo City

Silo City

“Inside Silo City” is a two-hour tour by water and by foot to the former Perot Malting Plant, built in 1907 (additions made in 1933). This complex was later used by the Genesee Brewing Company. Today, the elevators are used for art shows and installations, concerts, pond hockey tournaments, even weddings.

Perot Malting Plant

Walking into these early-20^th century silos is a bit intimidating – looking up to the top of the silos from inside and experiencing the echoes in them was impressive. It was also interesting to see how the two “eras” of silos (1907 and 1933) compared.

looking up to the top of the silo

inside the silos

inside the silos

Tours are offered daily at 2:30 p.m. leaving Canalside. Tickets are $27 for adults and $17 for children. Find out more at buffaloriverhistorytours.com. 

Design to Reality: Frank Lloyd Wright’s Fontana Boathouse

Fontana Boathouse

The Western New York area has one of the largest “collections,” if you will, of Frank Lloyd Wright “art work”: his beautiful architecture. Most famous among these “pieces” are Buffalo’s Darwin Martin House and the Graycliffe Estate in Derby. The Buffalo area is also home to a few recent but archival Wright builds: the Blue Sky Mausoleum at Forest Lawn Cemetery, the Filling Station at the Pierce-Arrow Museum and a building I recently visited, the Fontana Boathouse.

The Fontana Boathouse, located at 1 Rotary Row, is a working boathouse that is managed and used by the West Side Rowing Club. Wright originally designed the boathouse for the University of Wisconsin crew team in 1905, giving them a building that blended form and function. That design, however, was not built until a few years ago in Buffalo.

upstairs window

In 2000, three friends discussed placing this boathouse design on the Niagara River, near the junction point with Lake Erie. After seven years, construction of the Fontana Boathouse was completed, and the Buffalo area had yet another Frank Lloyd Wright masterpiece. In 2008, the boathouse was designated as a US National team development site by US Rowing.

Our docent, Olivia, was very knowledgeable about the boathouse, taking us through both the design components of the building and the background of how it went from design to reality.

In addition to being a working boathouse, the Fontana Boathouse is available for special events and tours, including the All Wright All Day tours presented by Forest Lawn and the Darwin Martin House. Find out more about the Fontana Boathouse here, and the more about the All Wright All Day tours here.

the view

upstairs meeting room

the working boathouse

all photos: paulathompsonfreelance.com