Greetings from the USA. The starship Hubert docked in Seattle yesterday after a four hour Greyhound trip from Vancouver (including an hour to cross the border!) Its Bumbershoot weekend (arts and music festival - busiest weekend in Seattle), the sun is shining, the beer is cheap and I haven't got to do any work!! Using free internet at the library at the mo, then catching the monorail to the Space needle for views of the city. Like Vancouver it's got a great setting - streets sloping steeply down to Elliott Bay and Puget Sound, with Mount Rainier rising to the south - lovely! The Pike Place market is a couple of minutes from where I'm staying, and is really cool - lots of food stalls from round the world, lots of noise, smells, interesting characters. Similar to Rochester market! Ooh - must mention - couple of nights ago in Vancouver I stumbled across a film set and said hello to Lucy Liu from Charlies Angels. She looked a mess (hope she's not reading this!) Anyway, I've got a couple of nights here then I'm off to Portland then the Redwood National Park. Bye for now Stuart