National Canal Museum — Attraction in Easton

We signed up for a dinner cruise on the canal boat, and it was a great time! Our tickets also included admission to the museum. We boarded the boat at 5:20 pm, and we left the dock promptly at 5:30 pm. The mules pulled us to lock #47 while a speaker shared the history of Bethlehem Steel and the canals. After we exited the lock and they turned the boat around, they started serving dinner, and the entertainer played live music. We arrived back at the dock at 8 pm.

A note about dinner. You sit on benches on the top of the boat covered with a canopy. Dinner is served buffet-style down below. You walk down the steps, get a cafeteria tray, plastic plates and silverware, drinks, and dessert. The caterers were Culinary Experts from the Allentown Fairground Markets. The theme of the dinner was Eastern European since that was the ethnicity of many of the canal boat operators. The food was excellent! The menu included the following: Pepper Slaw, Stuffed Cabbages with Rice and Ground Beef and Tomato Sauce, Chicken Paprikas with Buttered Egg Noodles (All White Meat Chicken Breast), Hungarian Potato & Cheese Pierogi Sautéed with Butter and Onions, Broccoli Florets in Butter Sauce with Fire Roasted Peppers, and Assorted Kiffles. After you have your food, you walk back up the stairs, sit on your bench with the tray on your lap, and eat. They provide assistance if you can't do the stairs and it is BYOB. It's a little crude, and they want it that way so that you can see that this was not a glamorous life living and working on a canal boat. Next time, we'll bring a cooler with our own water. Since it was so hot, we wore shorts.

Reservations and prepayment are required, and it books up fast. We were there on a 100 degree August evening, and it was steamy! It is a rain/ shine event. If there is lightning or stores, they will not take the boat out and will move the event...

The canal ride was really fun and the park is beautiful. We were having a lovely time until we went into the museum( that we paid for) and came across volunteer Pete. This man threw a literal fit because my mother who has a chronic respiratory disease wasn't wearing a mask, despite being told by her specialist NOT to wear one and despite the fact that we informed the staff before we went in. Pete was EXTREMELY rude and threw such a fit that Pam, the volunteer manager, kicked us out. Pam stated that she had to look out for her volunteers and their safety despite the fact that Pete kept sniffing and had very watery eyes and I watched Pete touch his fave 5 times in less than 30 seconds and then proceeded to touch things around him without sanitizing anything. When I asked Pete his name he got in my face to give it to me. He was very aggressive and tried to cause a scene. While I understand there has to be a certain level of safety, my mother was more at risk from contracting covid or something else from Pete and others in there than they were from her. Also I would like to add that no one else had a problem but Pete. Pam didn't even have the courtesy to offer us a refund. Not too sure if Pete and Pam realize that it is highly illegal to discriminate again people with medical disabilities, but you would think that a state run museum would educate their employees better. Bottom line is go enjoy the boat ride but if you have any kind of medical issues avoid the museum and especially Pete. Pam and Pete have definitely given this beautiful place a bad look and I will never suggest anyone visit the museum and have to experience the rudeness and illegal discrimination we had...

On Saturday 10/5/2024, my friends and I decided to fo on a day trip to Easton Pennsylvania to attend the "Easton Garlic Festival". We made it to Easton in a little over an hour from Bayonne, NJ. Once there we drove around the city looking for parking, we were willing to pay for parking. After a half hour of going around I parked at an illegal spot but stayedin the car while one of my friends went out to case the festival. He came back having seen the central area of the festival. He suggested we skip the Garlic and go instead to the National Canal Museum. We got to the museum quickly spent a few minutes walking around; we decided to take a ride on the canal barge which was drawn by two giant mules. Turns out we were too late the last canal barge ride had already left the dock. We spied someone returning a peddle boat so we decided to rent one and peddle around the canal. It only cost $ 15 dollars for two of us to peddle around the canal for an hour. The day was perfect for a boat ride. We peddled up and down the canal and enjoyed every minute of our hour long adventure. The passengers and costumed characters on the canal barge were friendly and waved to us as we passed the barge. We did not have time to tour the museum that day; a trip back to Easton will have us returning to the Canal museum to see what treasures, historical artifacts we will...