Music and love on a tour of San Francisco

Day trip to Lockport, N.Y., features early canal technology and great local cuisine

about Niagara U.S.A., and what’s the first thing that comes to your mind?

The American falls? Outlet malls? Maybe a grocery run to Top’s or Wegman’s for foods that are impossible to find north of the border, like Swiss Miss Cocoa or Cookie Crisp cereal (now banned in Canada). Well, think again. Only an hour from the Golden Horseshoe, just beyond Niagara’s crashing cataracts and clanging cash registers, is the picturesque town of Lockport, N.Y. Named after the imposing series of locks that flank the historic Erie Canal in the city’s downtown, Lockport makes for a perfect day-away road trip that combines history, regional cuisine and some of the best ice cream in western New York.

The canal itself, this year celebrating two centuries since its initial construction, was one of the first manmade water transportation routes in the United States that connected port cities along the Atlantic Coast through the Great Lakes to the fledging frontiers of the western territories.

Where boats once carried manufac-Think tured goods, farm produce and even immigrants bound for a new life in America, tourists can enjoy a leisurely two-hour canal cruise culminating in a trip through the massive steel gated locks to experience firsthand the rise and fall of lock operations.

Making this attraction doubly unique is the recently completed restoration of two of the five manually operated locks — a.k.a. the “Flight of Five”— dating back to 1842. The wooden gates, used to open and close the locks, weigh 10,000 pounds each, and are brought back to life twice weekly during tourist season through the sheer brute strength of eight volunteers who demonstrate how the gates operated before the advent of electricity.

Adjacent to the canal is the unique Lockport Caves and Underground Boat Ride, where visitors are treated to a 70-minute guided walking tour and America’s longest underground boat ride through a 2,100-foot water tunnel blasted out of the solid rock used from canal construction.

Interesting geological formations interspersed with 150-year-old artifacts used during canal construction, make

LAKE EFFECT ICE CREAM Lake Effect’s Blue Table Trio Sundae: three scoops of ice cream topped with artisanal chocolates from Blue Table Chocolates of Buffalo.

LAKE EFFECT ICE CREAM Lake Effect was named Western New York’s best ice cream parlour for 2016. Their top sellers: Paula’s Donuts Ice Cream, and the Blue Table Trio Sundae.

SCRIPTS CAFE A good drink deserves a good meal and Lockport serves up a variety of edibles at affordable prices, including at the popular Scripts Café.

DENNIS STIERER, LOCKPORT CAVES AND UNDERGROUND BOAT RIDE Adjacent to the canal is the unique Lockport Caves and Underground Boat Ride, where visitors are treated to a 70-minute guided walking tour and boat ride.