Here are some processed Vegas photos. I have more but want to hang onto them for a bit.

Really? Really? You can’t take a Coca-Cola from the casino to your room?

Customer service FAIL. Don’t stay here — they claim to have poker, but they mean that they have one empty table and no room manager.

Just awful.

I did this trip back in May and forgot about writing it up until now.

Cattle Point Road is asphalt concrete, so it’s not smooth. I made the mistake of inflating my tires at the start of the ride – it might be better with softer tires or shocks. On the plus side, unlike cement there are no pebbles or pot holes on the side of the road to watch out for.

The trip down to San Juan Island National Historical Park is rolling hills through farmland with no ocean views and no shade. Traffic was regular but every car gave cyclists a lot of room. I’ve heard there are enough cyclists on this road in the peak season that you need to pull off the road when you stop – there are some stretches without a lot of driveways.

The two-sided ocean view at San Juan Island National Historical Park is stunning. I’d recommend going up to the Redoubt and down to Grandmas Cove (foxes and otters and deer, oh my!). There is very little historical content: it’s more about playing on the beaches and wandering around the field. There are bike lock-ups and bicycles are not allowed on most trails in the park.

I’m pretty fit and found the trip reasonable but not easy on a fixed gear bike except for a long, gradual hill by Jakles Lagoon. The shortcut from the American Camp to Pickett’s Lane is a gravel road full of potholes that is extremely unsuitable for cycling.

By the time we got to Cattle Point we didn’t have time to visit the lighthouse. The beach at Cattle Point is kind of boring, so I’d suggest visiting Fourth of July Beach if you’re short for time.

In Seattle this…

… is an appropriate police response to jaywalking. And that’s why I don’t travel through or to America.

Gladiators with a cloth ankle are huge in Milan and Cannes. Pictures possibly to follow if I can get my effing photography pipeline to cooperate.

Milan is also the place to buy fake (or stolen) bags. I have pictures of the vendors set up around the fountain in front of the Sforza’s castle. Supposedly.

I’m back from Germany, jet-lagging hard, and hating effing technology and the American media.

I’m in Switzerland at the moment, wondering what North America is good for.

Admittedly I have a good case of grass-is-greener vacationitis, but so far none of my travel companions have given me a good answer. Here are the top three:

1. We work harder and have less vacation time, so our technology is more advanced.
2. We have more, cheaper consumer products to buy.
3. Driving is easier.

I don’t do, or care, about any of those things though, even if I were to stipulate them. So, again: What is North America for?

Natural resource extraction? A mass media market? FAIL?

That last is called The Whale and you need to walk around and through it to fully experience it. It’s shape appears to change as the viewer walks around it via clever perspective tricks.

Here’s how Dutch grass comes pre-rolled. This was a pure (sans tobacco) White Widow (sativa-indica hybrid) rollie.

Beside it in the first pic is my crap Bavarian tourist lighter, which gave out after just three days. The plastic joint capsule is well-sealed and barely smells at all (it is sealed for freshness though, not concealment).

The joint itself is on the left in the last picture, and is king-sized — between double and triple the size that people “normally” smoke in Canada. It cost €7.