Buffalo NY. I spent five days in Buffalo this past weekend supporting a friend with family issues, mother going into assisted living, sister drama, the whole works. It was fascinating tooling around a half-dead city - and that's generous, as it may be on the upswing from almost 3/4 dead - seeing abandoned buildings everywhere, and almost no traffic. There is history there, certainly, and I made my way around a place called Silo City, with all these old grain silos, long empty and surrounded by rotting ships piers and rusty railyards. I paid visit to the Anchor Bar which lays claim to originating the Buffalo Wings, now an official accompaniment to every porcine Sunday football television gathering, and to my delight, found a wonderful ship museum in the harbor featuring the WWII era Fletcher class destroyer named in honor of the five Sullivan brothers from Iowa who were lost serving together on the light cruiser Juneau, sunk off Guadalcanal in 1942.

A short drive away was Niagara Falls, which I'd never seen, and it is truly spectacular, even if surrounded by tourist trap names like Ripley and Tussaud. It's no fun to get covered with spray when the outdoor temp is in the 30s.

Normally, it's tempting to give consideration to moving to a place where home prices are so cheap, but in the case of Buffalo, resisting that idea is not a challenge. There's a reason homes, anywhere, are priced the way they are.

It was a fun trip, really. The airport is quite nice, and so are the people I encountered.