New York to Los Angeles
Ah, dear old America - land of the free, apple pie, two cars in every garage. Here we see, as I'm sure you know, The Statue of Liberty - actually called, with typical American self effacing modesty 'Liberty Enlightening the World.' It's good to know that we can always look to America for enlightenment.
On the next island along in the harbour, Ellis Island, is the building that was once the main immigration centre for  the whole of the United States. This was where the 'huddled masses yearning to breathe free' disembarked. Nowadays the huddled masses on the ferries are anything but tired and poor. They come bearing Pentax and Nikon and yearning to take photographs.
Niagara Falls is, as any Canadian will tell you, best seen from the Canadian side. This is what it looks like from the American side. By cunningly choosing my camera angle I have managed to lose from the shot the two enormous viewing towers and the massive hotel which stand on the Canadian rim and are one of the main reasons that the American side view is poorer.
"I love that mountain with the four big heads"
Alice Cooper
(I Love America)
South Dakota's other mountain carving is the Crazy Horse Memorial. The large picture is how it's supposed to look, the small one is how far they have got with it. Considering that this represents fifty three years work it could take quite a while to finish it.
I waited and waited and waited but not only didn't I see any spaceships or aliens I didn't even hear any music going "Dum dum dum dum DUUUM".
I didn't feel an overwhelming urge to build a model of the mountain out of kitchen refuse either.
Chicago is just such a weird town. The great fire of Chicago was allegedly started when a cow kicked over a lantern which has nothing at all to do with the fact that there were over three hundred decorated fibre glass cows in the city. This 'Swiss Cheese' cow was one of the more sane and sensible ones.
The only thing than you can rely on more than Old Faithful is that there will be a thousand people there to see it. For anyone wondering where they all are I was standing in front of them when I took the picture. Just behind me, out of shot are all the families of Americans sitting on the metal benches. You need to imagine the picture accompanied by the sound of a thousand camera shutters all being clicked within a second or two of each other.
Anyone who doesn't love the National Parks of the North West United Staes must have the soul of an accountant. Yosemite is absolutely marvelous, full of incredible walks, gorgeous waterfalls and stunning views...
...and plenty of very high cliffs to strike a dramatic pose and look like an intrepid adventurer.
You would need the constitution of a marathon runner to live there but San Francisco is a pretty nice city to visit and the best part of it to visit is Chinatown. When they invent 'aromavision' for the PC this kind of picture needs to be accompanied by the mixed smells of a thousand Chinese restaurants and two thousand Chinese apothecaries.
Of course just across the bay is Alcatraz which historically speaking has been a military prison, a civil prison and now a museum and park site. Like the rest of San Francisco it's a nice place to visit but in Alcatraz' case you definitely wouldn't want to live there.