My username is a tribute to Elmwood Avenue, a four mile long strip of restaurants, shops, coffee houses, bookstores, record stores, pubs, and all-around funkiness in Buffalo. The “Elmwood Strip” runs between Buffalo State College and downtown, and it’s one of the best bohemian districts that I’ve seen in any American city.
As for pre-teens, there’s lots of ice cream parlors, pizzerias and the like along Elmwood. It’s also great for people-watching.
The Buffalo Museum of Science is a bit stodgy; it’s an old-school science museum, and not very interactive. Unless your kids are very curious and very smart, I’d skip it. Check out the Albright-Knox Art Gallery instead, which is one of the best museums featuring contemporary art in the US. Yes, it’ll hold the interest of bored kids; some works are interactive, and when I was in elementary school my class loved field trips to the A-K.
There are some great beaches on the Canadian shore of Lake Erie, including Crystal Beach, Sherkston Beach, and Long Beach.
You can watch ships going through the Welland Canal, which is something that kids love. The freighters are huge, and most kids seem fascinated by things like that.
Amusement parks - on the Canadian side, there’s Marineland. On the US side, there’s Fantasy Island in Grand Island, which is a large amusement park catering to the under-18 crowd. Six Flags is a half hour east of Buffalo, and it has one of the best collection of rollercoasters in the Northeast.
If your kids are into malls, there’s the Walden Galleria in Buffalo. It’s the 14th largest shopping mall in the US.
Buffalo is really a very safe city; just stay west of Main Street and south of Amherst Street if you’re in the city limits.