I went for a few nice hikes in and around Ithaca, including one in Treman State Park.

I also happened to be in town for the kick-off event of the Ithaca Festival, the parade. Highlights included tap-dancing tofu...

...and the hybrid hoedown.

From Ithaca, I drove into Canada, stopping at Niagara Falls (where I'd never been). Even the rapids upstream from the falls are impressive.

It's hard to get a sense of scale in these pictures, but believe me, there's a lotta water going over the falls!

Not surprisingly, it was pretty misty, and some folks opted to really get wet with a boat-ride up to the falls.

Still hard to see how big they are, but they're big.

The area around the falls, however, is awful built-up and touristy.

Not feeling a burning desire to hand over my money at the Casino Niagara, I took off for GenderBlender, a frisbee tournament taking place in Fergus, Ontario.

The tournament pretty much took over Fergus (a town of about 10,000), and the 40 or so teams all camped at the Community Centre.

Unlike other tournaments I've been to, the big party at GenderBlender was scheduled for Friday night - before any frisbee had been played. After a debaucherous evening, most of us felt like Kris on Saturday morning.

Much (Canadian) beer was drunk over the course of the weekend.

I didn't take any pictures with my camera during the games 'cause Alan (above, kissing beer) rented a nice lens for his camera. I'll post a link to his pictures when they're up.

There was an impromptu footrace during the all-star game - I wasn't in the game, but I did run in the race. Greg (on my right in this picture) and I are two of the fastest guys on our team, but we were towards the back of the pack in the race.

The tournament was good fun, but neither personal hygeine nor sleep was a particularly high priority there. I was happy to head off to Pittsburgh from Fergus, where a hot shower, cell-phone reception and an internet connection awaited.