Seattle to San Fran

It’s been barely a week since my last update but already feels like I’ve been in America for an eon. Has a day gone by that I haven’t eaten fries? Not that I can recall. As I expected, the portion sizes are generally gargantuan and the smothering of salt, fat and sugar into everything is beyond belief. How anyone survives without a finely tuned shopping and eating strategy baffles me. Surprisingly, the size of the people hasn’t caught my attention – perhaps the obesity problem in Australia explains why. Many Australians eat just as much rubbish (perhaps in less enormous quantities) and just as little fruit and veg, and exercise less than a dead person. My complaints with the USA could extend to how annoying, loud and ignorant the vast majority of people I’ve come across are, the few exceptions to this make the generalisation more than fair in my view.

The positives in the USA, where they exist, are also staggering. The landscapes on offer include every conceivable environment – and I haven’t even been far. Deserts, rolling fields, agricultural monocultures, permacultural diversity, alpine meadows and hills, snow capped craggy mountains and dense concrete jungles are what we’ve passed through in a week, including a temperature varying by nearly 30 degrees Celsius. The forces for good in the US are also powerful. The extremes of the US make Australia appear a lumbering mass of apathy being poked at with sticks by the tiny rabid left and right wings. But of course the strong progressive nature of the US is counteracted by the howling conservative army led by the religious right, racists and republicans.

The wedding we attended in Sonoma was a success and we had a fun few days together with friends. We’re now with my brother Luke in Seattle, watching the rain set in this afternoon following a quick hike (1000m gain in altitude) up and down Mt Si.

I should mention that of all the many buses I have ridden on, the greyhound bus from Vallejo (near San Fran) to Seattle was the worst with the loudest, smelliest, most disturbing passengers I've ever seen.

Photos are up of the past week