No snowflake in an avalanche ever feels responsible.

Day 15:
Rocky Mountain National Park
Boulder

After getting up in the morning, a bit stiff from the chilly night, Jessica and I relaxed a bit in town while planning out the day's activities. Unfortunately, snowfall had kept the high roads closed, so we would be completely denied the chance to do the scenic drive that I had been wanting to experience. We decided to take on one of the longer loop hikes that went around a bunch of lakes. The next few hours were spent hike up the trails and taking in the views, though after a while I think she got tired of the 'same 'ol amazing views', but overall I think it was well worth it. After finishing off the hikes, we headed into Boulder. When Jessica was traveling in Colombia at the start of her AYCJ trip she met a few people, one of which lived in Boulder. Although he wasn't in town, he offered up the home of a friend of his should we pass through and need a place to crash. After a few e-mails and phone calls, we had a place to stay for the night and crashed with a large group of college kids in a small apartment. The shower felt great as it was the first chance I really had to clean up in several days. I rode with the hosts to pick up some food that we cooked out and enjoyed with about 8-10 various people that filtered in and out of the place. I crashed pretty early, as I tend to do, but we were at least able to get in an early start.

Christopher Robin Hood steals from the rich and gives to the Pooh.

Day 9: Portland

After getting up we decided to drive down the coast just a little bit before having to cut back to Portland. Though it didn't really rain last night, we did get to witness the typically dreary Oregon west coast as we headed out of Cannon Beach and were very glad to have had such great conditions when we arrived yesterday While driving through some small towns we passed by the Tillamook Cheese Factory and knew we had to stop. Honestly, coming here was a lot more fun that we had thought and it the overall cheese and other dairy process was surprisingly interesting. We hung out for a while to watch the organized chaos and automated machines before heading down to the tasting area and going into lactose overload by sampling everything possible. After hitting the road once again we drove to Mt. Hood to take in the view, but had no real time to climb. On the way back towards Portland we did make a stop to do a little bit of hiking around an alpine lake that had some nice views of Mt. Hood itself. We had to get back into town in order to join the local Portland Humpin Hash to do a trail. I've always enjoyed away events as a fun way to meet new folks and had a great time on the trail. Unlike a lot of the Florida hash groups, this was a real running hash; there were no walkers. trail was about 5 miles of various terrain and they had about 50 or so folks, which is apparently typical for them. We had a few beer stops and I was able to keep to the front and was surprised as to how well Chris and Danny were able to keep up and how much they seemed to enjoy the event itself. In typical fashion the locals made us very welcome and we had a great time. Kim, our host for the first night we were in town, was kind enough to include Danny in our floor space arrangements that evening once we got back to the house. Overall, a very fun day.

In Boston, drivers don't even obey the laws of physics much well those regarding traffic.

Day 7: BOS - PDX
Boston

This morning I took the subway into downtown with all my bags since I wouldn't have time to get back to Cambridge before I had to fly out. After asking around a bit, I found a nearby hotel that would accept my stuff in the bag check room so I could walk around unhindered. I then traveled back to the Bunker Hill Monument since it was open and I could get the NPS stamp and also climb up to the top of the obelisk for a sweeping view of the city. After that I walked back to the waterfront to the NPS office at the USS Constitution so I could get the stamps there. I'm glad I did the tour yesterday since I then found out that the ship is closed on Mondays. After talking to the rangers for a bit, I hopped a nearby water bus to the passenger docks (saving a lot of walking, especially since my metro day pass included the waterway fare). I wanted to get a nice view of the skyline and decided to take the ferry over to Fort Warren. I only had about an hour to see this island since I had to catch the ferry back into Boston, however it was enough time to allow me to briskly walk around and explore some of the crevices and crannies while learning some of the history. It would have been nice to stay a while an enjoy the warm sunshine, but I had to keep moving. This would be the theme of much of the trip. I really wasn't ever sure what day it was, but I knew that I had a plane to catch. I took the ferry back in, found the hotel again (glad I remember that it was on the Freedom Trail when I lost my way for a short bit), and then headed off to the airport.

I had to fly into JFK first, however I wasn't expecting such a long turn of events. Apparently after everyone had boarded the pilots found that one of the the windshield heaters wasn't working. Since we'd be flying a long time at high altitudes, this wasn't going to suffice. We ended up having to sit in the plane for about two hours, however one aspect that set JetBlue apart was that they allowed people to leave the plane to get food or use the restroom while I feel any other airline would just make everyone sit. I was sending out a few Twitter messages and one of the NYC JetBlue employees came out to find me to say hello, saying he had been following some of the messages and pictures I had been posting. We finally took off and I was able to get in some reading and movie watching on the netbook, so the flight was pleasant enough. After arriving in Portland I met up with Chris B, the guy I first met when I arrived in JFK a few days prior. I had been coordinating with a Portland hasher earlier for crash space and she was very kind and hospitable to allow us some space in the basement to sleep for a few days, even if I wasn't able to get in before midnight due to the late arrival. It had been a pretty long day, but the shower was exquisite and I had no issue falling asleep.

A home, where the buffalo roam, is messy. When all the chips are down, the buffalo is empty.

Day 5: BUF - BOS
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.