1. Buffalo Visitor Center
2. Buffalo & Erie County Naval & Military Park, Erie Basin Marina, Buffalo River
3. Our Lady of Victory National Shrine & Basilica
4. Buffalo & Erie County Botanical Gardens
5. The Original American Kazoo Company
6. Pedaling History Bicycle Museum
7. Toy Town Museum
8. Roycroft Campus
9. Vidler's 5 & 10 Cent Store

HISTORIC SOUTHTOWNS TOUR

From the Buffalo Visitors Center heading south on Washington St. turn right on Church Street and follow signs to the Rt. 5 Buffalo Skyway. Drive south on Rt. 5 and view the Buffalo and Erie County Naval and Military Park and the Erie Basin Marina at the mouth of the Buffalo River. Continue along the waterfront on Rt. 5 and view the historic grain elevators. Buffalo remains one of the nation's leading flour milling centers and Wheaties are still manufactured here.

As you drive along you will see many reminders of Buffalo's industrial past including a 264-acre nature preserve, the Tifft Nature Preserve. Originally part of a huge dairy farm and later a transshipment center for coal and ore, the site was a dump site during the 1950s and 60s. Now after capping and planting, several marked trails wind their way through the land where you may see a wide variety of wild flowers, birds and small animals.

Continue on Rt. 5 to the Ridge Road exit, turning left on Ridge Rd. to South Park (Rt. 62). Our Lady of Victory National Shrine and Basilica is on the right. The Basilica's exterior is clad in Georgia and Carrara Marble and the spectacular interior is noted for many life-size statues and rich use of materials including marble, mahogany, stained glass and fixtures of gold, silver, copper and bronze. Nearby you will find the Buffalo and Erie County Botanical Gardens. Designed to be an arboretum, the park and gardens consist of eleven greenhouse structures containing a wide variety of rare and exotic flowers and plants.

Turning south on Rt. 62 drive on to Eden to find the only metal kazoo factory in the world. The Original American Kazoo Company continues to manufacture a complete line of kazoos as well as operate the museum of kazoo history.

Follow the Eden/Angola Road for a 5-mile ride to the NYS Thruway (I-90) east, take exit 56 and Route 20A to Orchard Park. Turn left onto Buffalo Road to the Pedaling History Bicycle Museum which is the only complete, all-bicycle museum in America and is one of the largest collections of antique and classic bicycles and memorabilia in the world. Get back to Rt. 20A and go left into East Aurora, about 10 miles.

There you'll want to make several stops, starting at Toy Town USA featuring a permanent collection of Fisher-Price toys, and on to the Roycroft Campus which includes the Roycroft Furniture Shop, the Roycroft Print Shop, the Roycroft Chapel and the elegant Roycroft Inn. The center of the American Arts and Crafts movement community established in the 1890s, the Roycrofters lived and worked in this community until the Depression. Don't leave East Aurora until you've shopped at Vidler's 5 & 10 Cent Store, an old time dime store that still sells penny candy.

Continuing east on 20A, pick up Rt. 400 north to return to Buffalo.