Rochester, New York on the Cheap

A Fun Place to Experience the Outdoor Life and a Great Place to Use the Library

So, you are a cheap skate, flat broke, or have decided to take advantage of the "bad" economy. Hardhat, come on over, visit Rochester, enjoy the fresh air, go walking on the trails, visit Ontario State Park, go kayaking in the Erie Canal, Braddock Bay or the Irondequoit Bay, use your bicycle - have lots of Kodak moments! After all, Rochester is the home of the Eastman Kodak Corporation, right?

There's plenty of hotels that now have available accommodations on Route 104 in Greece, or by the Rochester Airport. You don't have to camp out at the Stony Brook State Park in Dansville anymore.

From Buffalo or Syracuse, gas to Rochester for a car load of people costs less than a movie, and the facilities of the libraries themselves for the weekend are worth the expense.

There's also Maplewood Park, Seneca Zoo, Bicycle Route 5 and Bicycle Route 390, and outdoor concerts at Lake Ontario State Park, hosted by Wegman's, listed as one of the Fortune 100 Best Companies to Work for in America. Yes, the park on the Lake that you or I could actually swim in comfortably.

I mean, boating around Rochester is a lot of fun! You can take powered boats, or kayaks, or paddle boats - rentals for the day or a few hours. You might be tempted to plunk down a few Ben Franklin greenbacks and buy yourself a kayak, and go trekking across Lake Ontario, however, that's a bit reckless. Moreover, taking your new Kodak camera and plunging through the reeds of the Braddock Bay Wildlife Refuge through 2 feet of water will only make you a regular stick-in-the-mud. Luckily, most of us will choose the sensible routes. Kayaks are great, and the summer months are warm enough that the local gentle rain (usually) is not especially dreary, and might even be a bit of unexpected fun.

Back to the land, there's the Greece Historical Society on Long Pond Road, north of Latta Road, which is a great place to visit, and is open on Sundays, which is next door to the Greece Public Library, which is large enough to bring a vanload of information freaks over to, and has a small refreshment bar to check out, too.