A Final Run...

It was with a little trepidation that I started my last trip. It would be my last extended trip to Canada, and it was rather bittersweet. While I'm excited (and more than a bit apprehensive) to start working in the northeast, the fact of the matter is that I have a lot of friends in Canada who, sadly, I'll get to see far less often.

My trip actually began in western New York. I was going to visit clients in Buffalo and Rochester before heading up to Toronto.

The first thing that hit me was the cold. While the east coast was getting battered with snow, western New York wasn't. But it was getting the frigid temperatures. During my drive from Buffalo to Jamestown, I drove through a rather intense snow storm. The snow wasn't sticking but, man, was it falling.

My ride for this trip was a 2011 Dodge Durango. All I'll say about it is "Yes, please". What a nice, comfortable ride this thing is:

After getting some work done around Buffalo and Jamestown, I decided to drive over to Rochester. One of my biggest clients is there, but this trip was also about getting to see my oldest friend, Mike Gladstone. We met at House Of Guitars, then went out for some lunch. It's always good to see Mike, and this new gig will mean I'll be able to visit him and his family more often.



Mike and his very mellow cat...



After lunch, we went over to his house to hang out for a bit. Mike's built a pretty amazing studio in his basement. I can't quote the technical specs, but I know it's a "room within a room", in that it's separate from the rest of the house:

Mike in Tonesearch Studio...

We had a couple beers and, after Mike's lovely wife Tamara got home, we decided to order up a pizza. Man, I'd forgotten how good New York pizza could be. I don't even know if this was good New York pizza, I just know that it beat, hands down, anything you can find in San Diego.

I had to go back to Buffalo for some weekend business so, around 8:00pm, I bid them farewell. It was a good, albeit too short, visit with the Gladstone's, and I'm looking forward to seeing them again the week after next.

Weather-wise, Saturday was kinda' crappy. It was raining, and I hate driving in the rain. I did, though, and got my business taken care of early enough to leave me time to head up to Niagara Falls. I'd never been to the American side of the falls, so this would be a first for me. I wasn't crazy about the weather, but figured I'd give it a shot.

Niagara Falls is a pretty amazing site. On the American side, 75,000 gallons of water goes over the falls every second. That's 4.5 million gallons every single minute. That's 270 million gallons every hour, or just about 6.5 billion gallons every single day. That's a lot of water:  

The American Falls (with Bridal Veil Falls on the right) as seen from Skylon Tower in Canada...

As impressive as that is, though, it pales in comparison to what goes over Horseshoe Falls on the Canadian side. In a single day, over 58 billion gallons of water cascades down the falls. Granted, Horseshoe Falls is much larger, but numbers like that just boggle the mind.

I made my way around a bit to try to take some photos which weren't of the falls. The vantage points for good shots of the falls were, despite the lousy weather, quite crowded. So, I hiked up a path I'd found and shot a few:

Part of the Niagara River...

One of the coolest things to see at Niagara Falls comes only at night. At 7:00pm, they light the falls. I only had the Canon G12 with me, so the quality of this photo isn't the best in the world, but it's good enough to give you a good idea:

The American Falls, lit from Canada...

Now, despite the absolute grandeur of Niagara Falls, the day was not without its ugliness. In this case, the ugliness came earlier in the day, in the form of someone who, for whatever reason, was challenged by the fabulous weather and, in hindsight, was probably wishing he'd stayed home:

Hey, maybe what they say about New York drivers IS true...

So, despite the weather, it was a pretty good photo-day. I'd have one more day in western New York, and was hopeful that the weather would improve...