Bucket List - New Yorjk

The Wild Center, Tupper Lake, NY
Ft Ticonderoga, Ticonderoga, NY
Eisenhower Lock, Massena, NY

Adirondack Museum in Blue Mountain Lake.
Got kids? Strong Museum of Play in Rochester.
Another vote for Letchworth and Watkins Glen SP.

I'm going to second NYC, particularly Manhattan. Central Park is amazing and I'm a National Park guy, not a city guy. Take in a show on Broadway. Go to Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island Museum, take in a weekend concert at Bryant Park. -- You can keep Times Square.

We camped in NJ and took a train into the city and stayed in a hotel for few days. Poor planning in that we were too remote and had trouble getting a cab to the train station as planned but with I'm sure there are other camping options with easier mass transit access into the city.

Go to Lockport and take the boat tour of the Erie Canal. We also bike along the trail.

The Corning Glass mMuseum (in Corning) and the George Eastman House (Rochester) are worth visiting.

x2 on NYC; many things there to see and do.

I'm not sure I'd personally put the Erie canal on the list, except perhaps if seeing it by boat or biking along the network of trails associated with it. It's of interest and great importance historically, of course, but actually seeing it is somewhat unexceptional; it looks rather like a big ditch with water in it.

Letchworth SP.

Just over the NY PA border in Bradford PA is the Zippo Lighters and Case Knives Museum.

Boat tour out of Alexandria Bay in the Thousand Islands.

Check out the Eisenhower locks on the Seaway, which goes through my Great Grandfathers back pasture just East of the locks!

Lots of lakes and campgrounds up in the Adirondacks.

If any kind of baseball fan, the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown.

Adirondack park the largest park in the continental US. Fall is specially nice.
Niagara Falls although the best view is of the Canadian side.
Thousand Islands/St Lawrence river.
Cooperstown Baseball Hall of Fame