East Coast Christmas

Well I am on break from school for two weeks and I am making the most of it. I spent a lot of time up at Kyle and Devin's house making my Christmas presents. I really liked these photo fabric montages that I'd seen at the Stock Show in Denver and I decided I would make one for my friend Jess for a Christmas present. (See for details: http://www.lipstickranch.com/) I also wanted to recreate an Old West photo for my mom because I'd seen a quote from the Jesse James gang that epitomized us three children: " We growed up regular, our mama taught us right, reckon we just got bored". We grabbed Max, a couple guns, a bottle of Jack Daniels and some Carhartt's and headed out behind Kyle's house. We posed by the fire pit, in the old grain feeder and in the old dairy barn. It was a lot of fun and Mom loved the photo. Aunt Kathy, Kyle and Devin helped a lot with Jess' gift (basically I sewed a few buttons on) and I am very grateful to have creative people in my family.
Speaking of Jess, she got into town safe and sound (and on time) on Christmas day. She rejoiced at the Christmas ham. Our first order of business was watching the Hannah Montana movie that Amber got me for Christmas. I love Hannah Montana and I am convinced everyone should see it. It's life affirming!
Anyway, our first day was spent at Niagara Falls. It was a bit rainy and we had to stay on the American ghetto side because Jess never updated her passport. Our first stop was at the Observation Tower which was basically a gutted warehouse with no heat. We quickly got out of there (after stealing some food) and decided to just walk around the State Park. We stopped at the American Falls and walked across the Niagara Rapids to get a view of the Canadian Horseshoe Falls. They were more covered in mist but we still got a pretty good view. I'm pretty sure I've only seen the falls from the Canadian side so it was interesting to see a different side of the Falls.


I'd completely forgotten there was an NPS site in Buffalo until I saw a sign mentioning Teddy Roosevelt's Inaugural. After a lunch at Panera and a quick run through Barnes and Noble we headed over to the site. It took Jess a few minutes to get the door opened. I probably could have helped if I hadn't been laughing so hard. The people at the desk saw our trouble and didn't bother to help. Then they told us the only way to see the place was on the guided tour. Jess decided we would just look at the museum but when we went to walk in the idiot at the desk yelled that it was a part of the tour and we couldn't go in there. We then asked how much the tour was and he said it was $10 per person. I told Jess to get out her pass but she argued that it only covered her. Turns out it covered both of us and we got rushed into the museum because we were holding up the tour. I didn't much care for the tour. The guide wasn't very good and most of it was watching movie's. My favorite part was at the end when we got to pretend to be President's. There was a replica of the West Wing and we could take our photo at the desk and pretend to sign or veto bills. Jess posed as Eskimo security and it was hysterical.

That night we headed out for a night on the town. We started out at The Roost, a country line dancing bar that I've been going to since I was 16. A whole bunch of people came and it was a blast. No one really danced besides me (and Daiji). I did get Don on the floor for the Cupid Shuffle and it was hysterical. There's just something about the way he moves. I crack up every time. I had a blast out on the floor. We went to the local townie bar D and D's for the remainder of the night.