Seattle II

Walking home last night I began crossing the road, even though it wasn't my right of way. The only traffic was a parked bus, and when it pulled out I ran the rest of the crossing in order not to get in its way.

As I continued along the street, the bus pulled up beside me, driving very slowly and the driver opened the front doors. He was speaking to me but I had my headphones in playing loud Beirut and I couldn't hear what he was saying. But I feared the worst - remembering warnings when I was a child that in some states jaywalking (crossing when it's not your right of way) is illegal...

I finally got close enough, sans headphones, to hear him. He said "I'm sorry I pulled away - were you hoping to get on this bus?"

Seattle

On arrival in Seattle, I managed to get myself and two old Russian ladies locked in a stairwell. Luckily we were rescued after a while by a woman who heard us banging on the door.

I have rather taken against a city in whose main station it is so easy to get trapped... but I have only just arrived; I expect things can only get better.

San Francisco III

Today I took a boat across the bay to a state nature reserve called Angel Island which is another former army base, as well as "the Ellis Island of the west" and an internment camp for Japanese Americans during the war.
It was incredibly creepy, old abandoned buildings and no one about for miles around.

San Francisco II

One really nice thing about America is the street life. Possibly this has something to do with the climate, which encourages people to spend time outdoors with their fellow citizens. Two examples:

In Denver, and again in San Francisco, I saw public chess boards, at which crowds of (apparent) strangers gathered to play each other!

And this morning I saw this group of elderly Chinese women (there was a similar group of men on the other side of the park) doing some kind of co-ordinated dancing (Chinese line dancing?) in the Italian quarter. They seemed unselfconscious in the face of a number of curious photographers.

San Francisco

I was lucky enough to enjoy the best tour imaginable of San Francisco yesterday - on the back of an ancient Vespa! We went right up to the twin peaks for the most fantastic views of the city and the bay, then through Haight-Ashbury (centre of the 1960s hippy revolution) and out to the Presidio - a former army base to defend the Golden Gate Bridge which is now a public park.

It also happens to be Navy week, which means the skies are full of Blue Angels (the equivalent of our Red Arrows) and other stunt planes roaring about and making the good people of California wonder if this is how it feels in Afghanistan...

Santa Cruz IV - an unfortunate accident

Ho ho, this is very silly but it might make you laugh...

Those of you who are friends of 6 Rochester Road will remember that Peter was unfortunate enough to have a strange accident when he was in Santa Cruz - and by terrible co-incidence, during my trip I suffered the same fate! Fortunately my head has now been re-attached to my body, enabling me to resume blogging.

Santa Cruz III - the tree house

My other treat yesterday was a tour of Ned's tree house and grotto. The photos don't need much explaining, it was incredibly beautiful, everything cobbled together from thrift stores and other people's rubbish. To wonderful effect.