Doug and Kerry Hudson in the United States

On the last day of our stay in Canada, we took the bus down from Vancouver to Seattle. We left the bus at the Checkpoint, and stamped into a whole new country: For the entire month of June 2002, we would be staying in the United States.

Although it didn't feel physically any different to us, when we crossed the border we had entered into a significantly different country. It was immediately apparent that the United States had been exploiting its environment for far longer than the relatively pristine Canada.

The next big difference we noticed struck us when we arrived in Seattle. Within minutes of arriving in the country, we'd been shocked by the sight of a literally enormous woman whose stomach sagged down to her knees, only held up from the ground by the amazing power of lycra.

From Seattle, we flew down to San Francisco for a few days. From there we hired a car and drove in a big loop:

along Highway One down the coast to the small beach town of Cayucas,
inland through the Californian desert to the ghost town of Johannesburg,
to the world gaming capital, Las Vegas,
touching into Utah, where we visited Zion National Park, Bryce Canyon National Park and the awesome Grand Canyon,
returning to San Francisco, via Death Valley and Yosemite National Park.

In summary, we really enjoyed our stay in the United States. It boasted some of the finest scenery of our whole world trip. Indeed, in our opinion the National Parks are the best thing about America, and quite a few Americans agree with us too. However, we found the food to be extremely lacking in variety, and we we challenge anyone to find a salad that isn't smothered in cheese and bacon bits.

We flew back to the UK, where we prepared for our next trip: Europe.

World Trip >> USA

Last updated: Sunday August 27, 2006