Niagara Falls, Buffalo and Bamboozle

I'm sure everyone reading this has been in a situation where they are incapable of truly understanding and comprehending the scale of things; Niagara falls puts you in one of these. The spray or 'mist' that the falls spits out soaks you from anywhere within a couple hundred feet of the falls and despite glorious sunshine streaming down, you are soaked as if being caught short by a heavy April shower. After taking the falls in from above we descended down to The Maid of the Mist boat where we were taken to the foot of the falls and doused yet again in the Niagara River. Again though, even being that close to this static beast, I felt incapable of truly grasping its scale and power, however I'm not saying I want to get into a barrel to get the feel for it. After getting our fill of Niagara and hastily exiting through the gift shop we moved on to Buffalo and had dinner at a great restaurant called Merge where various members of the band (including me) got up onto the restaurant's open mic stage for impromptu songs and laughter.
In the morning we had a 450 mile (8 hour drive) to New Jersey for Bamboozle festival the day after.
It was a long drive that took us through a vast landscape of trees, greenery, blue skies and warm sun. We passed over rivers and train tracks, on bumpy highways and flat, smooth asphalt, stopping at all manner of truck stops on the way. I look forward with keen anticipation to driving around the no doubt arid landscape on the West coast.
Bamboozle was fun. It was a fully catered (very important for the thrifty musician) beach and theatre festival. We were in one of the theatres (The Paramount) which was a relief considering the intensity of the sun outside. The Paramount held about 1200 and was host to many bands that day with speedy changeovers and even speedier sound checks, the gig was a lot of fun though as Theatre gigs always are.
Another highlight of Bamboozle is that I got to see a bit of a band called Less Than Jake which took me back to my teenage years!
Next is Chicago where the G8 and NATO summits are being held, the next couple of days promise to be exciting...
Finally, here are a couple of links to our performances over here so far...
Rachel Ray TV Show (New York)-http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=57I_lcDsFS8
Long Island Show-http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Tx5MvIeKOA&feature=relmfu
Toronto Show-http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dU5fRne2oxk
P.S. Dunkin' Donuts' Coffee is dangerously strong and today's hunt for breakfast was a little harder than at Bamboozle Festival. Oh, the glamour...