Sally-Anne was understandably slightly nervous about the bike-ride over the Golden Gate Bridge, given her last attempt at cycling. But it went off without incident, the weather was great and it was a fantastic experience. We took a packed lunch, and sat in a sunny, sheltered spot on the Sausalito side of the bridge, watching the tour-buses come and go. A great way to end our stay in San Francisco. We really liked the B&B in the end, too. We weren't sure about...

We saw most of the city yesterday on the open-top tour, the weather was fantastic, and we had a great day. It's good being on a tour bus, because it gets you away from the nutters, and there are bloody loads of them in the States! We were waiting for a bus connection in Union Square, which seems to be 'ground zero' for head-cases in San Francisco, desperately trying not to make eye-contact with them, but they home in on the tourists with unerring accuracy, and s...

I'm lying in bed typing this, and I can occasionally hear the strange cracking sound from the electric street-car cables outside our window, or I can when Sal stops snoring! We're in San Francisco, the city of trams, hills, gays, hippies, and Alcatraz! We arrived yesterday afternoon, but we were sad to have spent so little time in Seattle. The B&B which we stayed in was fantastic; gorgeously decorated, designed, and furnished, impeccably clean, a beautiful h...

Only having a couple of nights in Seattle, we had to make the most of our time. Last night we walked to Volunteer Park, where we had a lovely view across the city to the Space Needle. We'd stopped in at a restaurant on the way to book a table for later. 'Hello, can we reserve a table for later tonight, please?' I asked the waitress. She looked at me for a minute, and it was clear she hadn't understood a word I'd said! 'I'll get the manager', she said, what she me...

We'd noticed there seemed to be a lot of homeless people in Toronto, noticeably more than we're used to seeing in the UK. Many of them looking like they also had mental problems. So we mentioned this to the guide on the Toronto tour we did, he said it was 'a lifestyle choice', and that the welfare system was ok, hmm. We heard a similar comment from one of the guys on the train, he reckoned there was help 'if they wanted it'. Then, having seen many, many more peop...