Things to Do in Lancaster

At Designing Dish, brushes flit quietly across the surfaces of ready-made ceramic bowls, piggy banks, and mugs. Art-deco blocks of color, portraits of loved ones, and the fingerprints of youngsters leap from the newly colorful pieces, dappled with color from the studio’s range of paints and glazes. A kiln uses powerful heat to make the works of art more colorful and solid so that they can be passed down through generations like a razor for shaving off all the hair from a family curse. In addition to ceramics, the instructors offer lessons in glass fusing, metal stamping, and copper enameling.

On the corner of Buffalo and Main Street, Ten Thousand Vines inhabits a quaint brick building outfitted with a microwinery and tasting room. As a winery free from ties to a particular vineyard, Ten Thousand Vines can source its grapes from all around the world—even Antarctica—a practice that inspired the winery's name. The vintners prepare each variety in small batches and carry more than 40 wines in their retail store.

At a tasting bar, open Tuesday–Saturday, curious sippers perch around a quarter-circle bar to sniff and swirl offerings such as Nooks & Crannies, a cranberry-chianti blend, or the delicate Delaware, made from New York grapes. The shop's resident enophiles share their passion with guests in 90-minute winemaking classes, bolstered by a wealth of wine kits and raw-grape juices.

Named one of America’s top 100 driving ranges by Golf Range Magazine in 2011, Broadway Driving Range & Miniature Golf invites golfers to launch towering drives under covered hitting bays toward a target field that stretches more than 350 yards. Golfers who favor a natural feel can hack through a bucket of balls at the range’s all-grass hitting areas; synthetic hitting mats cater to refined sand wedges that consider divots uncouth. Laid-back clubbers can practice pendulous putts at the complex’s miniature-golf course, where players circle around a barn built in 1932 through a farm-themed circuit of 18 miniature fairways featuring antique farm tools. Broadway Driving Range can cool down clients with soft-serve custard from Green Acres Ice Cream.

A Golden Griffin emblem presides over Canisius College Athletics’ 17 sports teams, which traverse grass, water, and hard court in search of victory. As part of the NCAA Division I’s Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC), Canisius’s athletes face off against other East Coast schools including Marist College, Niagara University, and Loyola University Maryland. From the stands, a sea of blue and gold cheers on the men’s basketball, hockey, and lacrosse teams, the women’s soccer, softball, and volleyball teams, and the adjunct professors’ annual soapbox derby.

Since 1861, the Buffalo Society of Natural Science has culled more than 700,000 specimens and artifacts from around the world. These treasures now reside in the Buffalo Museum of Science, allowing visitors to explore anthropology, paleontology, and zoology, with a special emphasis on the Buffalo Niagara region.

Special exhibits encourage guests to learn about the world around them through hands-on education. This fall, The Science of Sports teaches a number of athletic secrets, from throwing the perfect Hail Mary pass to creating hockey ice that fosters the fastest skating. Opened in March 2012, the Explore YOU health science studio allows visitors to learn about their bodies while studying recent medical technologies that help keep the human race healthy. The earth systems studio Our Marvelous Earth opens in October to explore geological phenomena, extreme weather, and alternative forms of energy with its interactive exhibits and displays. Elsewhere, mummies share their stories of living in Khent-min through the collected artifacts and forensic evidence on display in Whem Ankh: The Cycle of Life in Ancient Egypt. During the next four years, the museum will continue to add new exhibits and improve others with new, interactive technologies.

SCREENS Restaurant & Sports Lounge captivates casual moviegoers and cinephiles alike with its array of daily scheduled films and private group screenings in three high-definition theaters. In addition to a variety of cult and foreign flicks, towering high-definition screens broadcast the latest NFL Sunday Ticket games, X-Box and Playstation 3 tournaments, and national flossing championships to viewers nestled in comfy lounge chairs. Servers bustle from room to room, placing the menu's selection of gourmet pizzas, pasta dinners, and burgers on tables flanked by portraits of iconic Hollywood stars.