Niagara Falls
Buffalo, NY
After getting up early we visited the Whirlpool State Park to get a few of the gorge. I had heard and saw a picture of a cave at the bottom, so Mike and I took the several hundred steps down and finally found it after a long hike, however we were severely disappointed to find that it only went in about 30 feet. There was some going passage, but it looked like it would require a ladder and some climbing gear to get to it. after climbing all the way back up, we headed towards the airport. Mike decided to direct us to Duff's in Buffalo due to their 'history' with wings. Although they are said to have been invented as a normal food dish at the Anchor Bar, Duff's is said to have perfected or, at least, best marketed them. Since he had an earlier flight, I dropped Mike off at the airport and then headed back into Buffalo to visit the Theodore Roosevelt Inaugural National Historic Site (official site). I got my NPS park stamp and then was able to timely join a tour that had just started after flashing the annual pass and jumping in just before the door closed. This was the home in which Roosevelt was inaugurated after the death of President McKinley. 
We were provided with a history of the events and view of the rooms in which they took place as well as a timeline of his precidency and forthcoming works after the events in Buffalo took place. I even allowed myself to take part in the cheesy 'be president for a day' interactive station about which the rangers (BTW, all of whom made themselves to look like TR), were so proud.After the tour I headed over to Naval Park to get in a few pictures. I love exploring old Naval ships after having grown up near Patriot's Point in Charleston and really wish I had the time to visit the ships berthed here, but unless I nearly literally ran through the exhibit, I simply didn't have enough time.
I did walk around for a while to the waterfront and got a few decent pictures while snagging a couple of geocaches. I also had the chance to sit in on a tea party rally taking place on the waterfront as speakers discussed local tax and restoration issues while other groups nearby got ready for a Saber's hockey game, while yet another group was having a music appreciation event and thought it great that there were so many great uses and chances to share space and ideals.The rest of the day was fairly uneventful, however this was my first chance to really test the mapping abilities of my iPhone 3GS. The road directions worked incredibly well when driving through New York and Maine (though I had my normal GPS as backup), but dealing with public transit can be another beast. I loved the features and abilities that the Google Map application for the iPhone provided. A few days prior I coordinated with a hasher in Boston that graciously allowed me to crash on her couch for a few days.
Normally finding ones way from the airport to Cambridge via a series of buses, subways, and walking would be a pain, however the application made everything so easy. I merely entered my location, airport, and the address in Cambridge that I wanted to target and the application immediately gave me directions and time tables for every step of the way. It told me to walk to a certain airport exit, take the silver line at a particular time to some point, switch to another line, exit at a particular station, and walk a few streets to arrive at my destination. The application was able to consistently get me exactly where I wanted to go and was able to predict the arrival time within 3-5 minutes in every instance. Thank you Google Map team. It was pretty easy to find my destination, especially since the 3GS has a magnetic sensor and can determine the direction in which I am facing and provide feedback as to where I need to start walking. Way too cool.
I got to my hosts place and after plugging in a few things, she made some phone calls and coordinated with some local hashers to coordinate an impromptu pub crawl to show me around. We ended up staying out until we shut down the bars and had a great time! After an experience like this I was thinking that Boston was definitely a place I could live if it was not for the frigid weather 6 months out of the year, however I seemed to have been able to visit at a time of perfect weather just before the first big chill came through.
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