Day Tripper

So for all of you who have been dying to know about my life in Rochester, here are some photos (and captions) from last Monday's trip to Niagara Falls. We couldn't go into Canada, because with three foreigners and one A-Rab American, the chances of us getting back into America quickly were about as good as Governor Granholm's chances of being elected president (of the U.S., that is). You know when you can take a picture this close to a waterfall that you're going to be the first one to die in the event of an earthquake. The fearsome foursome look down into the potentially deadly waters of the upper Niagara River. Next time we visit, we'll release a canoe carrying a few panicked-looking dummies a hundred yards upstream from here, and watch the reaction when they reach the Falls. Chen Yi is a classmate and friend. She took most of the photos here, but not this one. You can see how weak the railing is - it's bending under her weight! The inseparable threesome: Fatih Bey, scion of the Ottoman Empire, yours truly, and Anita "The Peoples' Choice" Peoples. Like the rest of us, Anita is a first year student, but unlike the rest of us she's in biophysics and gets a stipend twice the size of any of our class. We economists have to live economically. We arrived in Youngstown, at the mouth of the Niagara, just as their Labor Day parade was breaking up. We stopped at the Fife and Drum Pub long enough to get water and see the price of hamburgers. After fleeing the hamburgers, we settled for ice cream and enjoyed the marine scenery at Youngstown dock. They have a U.S. Customs Videophone, so if you arrive with a cargo of contraband maple sugar, please have the politeness to call and report yourself so they can drive down and stop you. We then drove back to Roch Vegas along scenic Rt. 18, on which we stopped for a proper meal (our first of the day) around 3:00pm. We had excellent buffalo wings and good sandwiches at the beach town of Olcott. Mine was the local specialty: Beef on Weck, a simple roast beef sandwich on a heavily salted bulky roll. Not shabby, especially after a long day outside. All in all, an excellent trip.