We had quite a lot of events laid on at the hotel, but escaped one day and headed up to Haleakala ("House of the Sun"), the world's largest dormant volcano.

It's a really unusual landscape, lots of colours, similar to the moon apparently in terms of the terrain, and having lots of craters.

It can get misty quite early on in the crater, and even though I made it up to the volcano fairly early on I still had to hop and jump around to get shots through the mist.

Silverswords dot the crater floor, a weird looking plant that is only found in Hawaii.

Here's a solitary silversword in bloom. The plant only blooms once in its lifetime.

One of the hollowed cones in the vast Haleakala volcanic crater. It's difficult to convey the scale here, but if you look along the ridge from the right, about a third of the way in you can see a spec about a pixel big, which is someone standing on the other side.

At the summit of Haleakala, Puu Ulaula at 10,023 ft.

On the last day in Maui I got up before dawn and went down to the beach to watch the sunrise armed with Screamadelica on CD and a fresh flask of coffee, bliss.

Arrived in San Francisco, got the bus from the airport and lugged the suitcase six blocks to the hotel (if I'd known how much it was going to hurt I would've got a taxi). Incidentally, it was the Sheehan Hotel which is reasonably priced (it's an old youth hostel), has friendly staff who look kindly after jet-lagged, sweaty idiots who insist on hunking suitcases about rather than get a taxi and helpfully point them towards coffee, orange juice, and bread and jam. The rooms aren't expansive or luxurious but they are clean and comfortable enough and I can recommend it highly.

Anyway, after dropping off the suitcase and stocking up the caffeine levels I jumped on a cable car and ended up at Fisherman's Wharf. I was only in San Francisco for four days and was hoping to see Alcatraz but the Alcatraz visit was booked up for the next few days - book in advance people.

Passing under the Golden Gate bridge. It's often quite cloudy in San Francisco, the warm weather actually brings in fog from the bay making it quite cool on some days.

"I may be a scwewy wabbit, but I'm not going to Alcatwaz..." Oh. I am.

The view from a cable car, looking towards the Transamerica Pyramid. The cable cars are great, I'm a big fan. Hanging off a packed cable car with the wind in your face and the pleasing smell of burning pinewood, can't beat it (they use wooden blocks to brake). The first time I got on one I was inside the car, and the conductor told me I'd be better standing outside - after that I always jogged for an outside spot when a car turned up at a stop, it's definitely the finest way to experience it.

Also the first time I got the cable car I was stood in a big queue at the turnaround at Powell Street (pictured) and a guy dashed into the street, pulled his jersey over his head and started shouting stuff about God punishing the sinful and such like. Meanwhile the next cable car was arriving. The driver rang the bell and shouted at him to move but he didn't acknowledge this in any way, so the driver nudged him out of the way with the cable car and hollered down at him, "We don't play around down here, pal!" He was answered by the guy scampering off with an "I understand that sir!" I was impressed.

Ah the hilarity. Iain on Scotland Street, North Beach in the background.

Chinatown, looking down on Stockton Street from the Kong Chow temple.

I spotted the pub while looking over the Lonely Plant maps of San Francisco and had to visit it. Ended up walking up Larkin Street through Tenderloin at night, which was a bit dicey. See the guy stood in the doorway? In San Francisco you're not allowed to smoke in pubs so there's often a clutch of smokers in the doorway ducking out between drinks, quite strange.

Rented a bike for the day and cycled around Golden Gate Park, Presidio Park, and down to the bridge. Cycling back up to Golden Gate Park afterwards wasn't too much fun, it had been a while at that point since I'd done any cycling.

Let's see. Hackneyed San Francisco pictures: Golden Gate bridge? Check. Alcatraz? Check. Cable cars? Check. Steep streets...

Yes, they are steep. I think this one is Greenwich Street, heading up to the Coit Tower, though it may be Filbert Street (31.5% gradient at its steepest point!)

Onto "crookedest" streets - Lombard Street. I like the "Do Not Enter" sign, like you'd get a chance. There is a constant stream of tourists in cars slowly making their way down Lombard Street, which seems a little odd to me. They even queue! San Francisco is a very pleasant town to navigate on foot and public transport, it's fairly compact, and is warm without being too hot.

Back in Seattle, heading up to Mount St. Helens. We stopped off along the way for a brief stroll and a stretch of the legs. After San Francisco I had become quite brazen about grabbing passers-by and forcing them to take photos of me, so a family minding their own business nearby found a camera thrust into their hands. My apologies.

Up at an earthquake monitoring station at Mount St. Helens.

The clan in full. Dad, Amy, David, Mum, Chris, on the Argosy Seattle Lakes cruise.