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Explore & More

Ralph C. Wilson Children's Museum

Explore & More was founded and spent the first quarter-century of its existence in the village of East Aurora (best known as home of the Fisher-Price toy company), but moved in 2019 to an all-new four-story space in Canalside with a revamped set of exhibits based on telling the story of Buffalo to the littlest youngsters through the medium of play. Kids can pilot boats down a miniature Erie Canal in the "Moving Water" exhibit, learn about "Being Good Neighbors" with folks of different backgrounds, or strap on a hard hat and play architect in the "Building Buffalo" exhibit, constructing their very own house or bridge using play tools and building materials. And on the first Friday of each month when they're open late, the rooftop terrace is a great place to catch the Buffalo Bisons' post-game fireworks display at nearby Sahlen Field.

Address: 130 Main St.
Getting there: Metro Rail: Erie Canal Harbor
Hours: Mon & Wed-Fri 10AM-4PM (first Fri of each month till 8PM), Sat 9AM-5PM, Sun 11AM-5PM
Price: $11, children under age 1 free; $15 on Sunday & during special events
Phone: +17166555131
Website: exploreandmore.org (opens in a new tab)

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Listing from Wikivoyage: Buffalo/Downtown, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Location and details from OpenStreetMap, © OpenStreetMap contributors, ODbL.

Also listed in Overture Maps open data.

Updated 28 Sept 2026. Something wrong? Tell us.

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The Ice at Canalside
The Ice at Canalside is New York State's largest outdoor ice rink, two and a half times the size of a regulation hockey surface and three times the size of the skating rink at Rockefeller Center in Manhattan. Located on the new northern extension of the Commercial Slip — the site of both the Erie Canal terminus and the playing surface at the old Memorial Auditorium (a special insignia on the surface of the rink pays homage to the Buffalo Sabres' former home ice) — the Ice at Canalside opened just in time for the start of the 2014-15 skating season, and also hosts broomball, curling, and other winter pastimes. Skates and "ice bikes" are available for rent as well. In summer, the Ice at Canalside is converted to a lovely reflecting pool, with old-fashioned whipple-truss bridges crossing over the water that evoke the bygone days of the Erie Canal.
Public skate Mon-Thu 3PM-7PM, Fri 3PM-10PM, Sat 10AM-10PM, Sun noon-8PM; season runs Dec-Mar$5, children 6-12 $2, children 5 and under free
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Sail the Canal
The miniature remote-control sailboats you see puttering around the rewatered Erie Canal were inspired by the model boat races that have long taken place at Conservatory Pond in Manhattan's Central Park, and Canalside is still the only other place in the world that has them. As you stand alongside the edge of the water, you use the remote-control unit that the folks at Sail the Canal give you to adjust your boat's sail and rudder — but as with a real sailboat, the wind does all the rest of the work. For that extra touch of authenticity, they'll even sell you a captain's hat.
Memorial Day-June 20: Sat Sun noon-8PM; June 20-Labor Day: daily noon-8PM$11 plus tax per half-hour
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Shark Girl
A work of local artist Casey Riordan, Shark Girl is a life-size fiberglass statue of a young girl with an old-fashioned blue dress, bright red shoes, and a great white shark for a head that's been perplexing — and polarizing — visitors to Canalside since it was unveiled in 2014, borne of a partnership between the city government and the Albright-Knox Art Gallery aimed at promoting works of public art around Buffalo. Shark Girl is a recurring character in Millard's repertoire of paintings and drawings — a representation, she says, of "the existential conundrums of life, love, family, and loss". She sits atop a boulder on one of the whipple-truss bridges over the restored canal.