I would definatly reccomend you take a trip up to New England. This is in my (heavily biased) opinon one of the best places for FIRST.
All kidding aside, New England is a cool place for FIRST. We may not have IRI, but many would say that we have one of the best series of off-season events in the country.
If your up in Central CT, I'm sure one of the teams up here would be more then willing to show you around. Like I said though, visiting a team and then going to one of our off-seasons is a great way to experience FIRST in New England.