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Photo: LtPowers, CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons
This historic course (listed on the National Register of Historic Places) dates all the way back to 1930, making it one of the oldest (if not the oldest) surviving miniature golf courses in the United States. 18 old-style holes, including a windmill (of course) and one hole where you have to pitch the ball instead of putting it. Adjacent to the Parkside Diner if you want to grab a bite to eat before or after putting.
Parkside Whispering Pines, once known as Tall Maples Miniature Golf Course, is a miniature golf course and national historic district located at the hamlet of Sea Breeze in the Town of Irondequoit in Monroe County, New York. It was built in 1930 and is a rare surviving example of a miniature golf course that dates from the sport's first period of broad based popularity.
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At the junction of Irondequoit Bay and Lake Ontario, Seabreeze combines the features of an old-fashioned amusement park with the technology and thrills of a modern water park. The fourth-oldest amusement park in America. The carousel is from 1996 but features hand-carved horses and was built in the old style. Don't miss the historic Jack Rabbit roller coaster, the fourth-oldest operating coaster in the world.
George Eastman and Dr. Henry Durand donated their summer-cottage lakefront properties to the city in 1909, and the park is now a popular summer getaway for everyone. Its beach is open for swimming during the summer, and it's less often closed due to water conditions than Ontario Beach. Also has a golf course and other standard park amenities.
No other park (at least, without a beach) gets you as close to the water as Turning Point, named for the large basin where ships coming upstream from Lake Ontario could turn around before reaching the Lower Falls. The park's long trail (part of the Genesee Riverway Trail) includes a southern descent down the gorge to water level, a beautiful curving boardwalk over the river basin, and a northern wooded trail heading toward the harbor. Lots of nature to be found here, including some wetlands. Pastoral and serene.
The oldest remaining lighthouse on Lake Ontario sits high above the Rochester harbor, and visitors can climb to the top of it to see the light, the lens – and the view. Now if, when you get to the lighthouse, you wonder where the shore is, it's half a mile (almost a kilometer) northeast. That's how much land has been added to the northern shore of New York since the lighthouse was built in 1822. The museum inside the keeper's house has a lot of displays on Rochester's harbor history.
Located at the northernmost reaches of the city, Ontario Beach is the most popular beach area in Rochester. Algae problems of prior years have largely been alleviated, but occasionally the beach may still need to be closed. When conditions allow, swimming is open 11AM-7PM daily during the summer. If you can't go in the water, though, there are other things to do; in particular, the 1905 Dentzel carousel should not be missed. There's also pickleball, ice skating on a synthetic ice rink, a playground, and five picnic shelters. No pets.