Today was the Buffalo and Canada day, meaning that we woke up in Lockport, rode through Niagara Falls, down the Niagara River on the Canadian side and ended up spending the night in the hostel in Buffalo.  It was a great day.  The morning ride through Lockport and the ride in Canada went by in a bit of a blur.  I've been to the falls before so no big deal there although it was nice to see it again and have my friends see it.  Believe it or not the weather has been perfect, if possibly even a bit too hot and sunny.  My body is getting used to the sun slowly but the overall effect is to make me a bit sleepy.  I was excited to get to Buffalo.  Since the hostel couldn't take us we went to the Hatch and had some delicious food while watching the expensive boats come in and out of the harbor.  Buffalo is clearly on the rise; I saw all the signs of a good, healthy economy.  Brian explained to me that the frontier of hipsters moved from SF to Portland to Austin and now to Buffalo, and that seems true.  We went to his brothers' brewery and it looked a lot like Portland.  Of course it's a bit of an illusion since the weather happens to be awesome right now, but still.  There are a lot of bad neighborhoods still but definitely signs of resurgence - which was the name of the brewery, not by coincidence.  We then went on to a bike shop and helped Brian be on local TV, then to his friends place, then the hostel.  I could write a whole entry about hostels and how awesome they are.  Buffalo is trying to shut the hostel down because they want to do something more lucrative with the building, which is a shame.  Hostels really contribute to the artistic and social nature of an area.  Without a hostel we'd be camping out outside the city most likely and it wouldn't be nearly as easy to explore.  And explore we did; a bunch of us went to the Anchor Bar for wings and beer.  The Anchor was way more awesome than I remembered; I always thought it was dumpy but it isn't at all, and the wings were amazing.  Sometimes tourists do get the best stuff!  I was able to pick up the tab for everybody too, which felt nice.  It's really great to be able to connect with where you're from and realize that it's a lot more awesome than you remember.  So often things are the other way around.  :)

Goodbye, Buffalo!  I think I may come back sooner than I might have previously thought.  :)