It was my first visit to San Diego and Portland, both of which are cities I really liked. As well as visiting friends, I tried out an animal shelter rescue program which lets you walk rescue dogs along the beach to give them some exercise. The doggies were very excited about their walk.

San Diego Zoo is one of the best in the world and I checked out the pandas.

The Museum in Denver had a special exhibition on the Dead Sea Scrolls as well as wolf sculptures that may have been hot.

In Portland I visited Powell’s, which is one of the world’s greatest independent bookshops.

There is even a giant bear trying to get into the Denver convention center.

I visited friends and toured some of Denver’s art galleries and museums.

I also visited Rocky Mountain National Park.

I New York I also visited friends, went to museums, and ate lots of cupcakes. I tried out the Ghostbusters virtual reality experience – you get to carry around a proton pack and blast ghosts – which was so much fun. I also made some important announcements.

I’d visited the Grand Canyon years ago, but it was good to see again.

I also went out to Horseshoe Bend.

And Antelope Canyon, which has beautiful colors.

And Monument Valley, which has been used as scenery in many movies.

The real Los Pollos Hermanos is a Twisters restaurant.

The owners of Walter White’s house have had to deal with a few people throwing pizza onto the roof of their garage.

I was accepted into a 2-week science fiction/fantasy novel writing workshop, which was held near Taos, New Mexico. There were 18 students in total and we had classes where we critiqued each others’ work, along with lectures from Nancy Kress and Walter Jon Williams. We had a special guest lecture from George R. R. Martin and then went out for dinner with him. We were warned not to ask him when the next Song of Ice and Fire (Game of Thrones) book was coming out.

We stayed at lodges in the Angel Fire Resort and on the weekend went for a hike in the nearby area.

In South Dakota we visited 1880 town where things ended badly.

We visited the Badlands.

The Crazy Horse Memorial is much bigger than the Mt. Rushmore memorial. It has been under construction for more than 60 years and still isn’t close to being finished.

In Wyoming we visited the Devil’s Tower, which you might recognise from Close Encounters of the Third Kind.

Doing my part to prevent forest fires.

Yellowstone National Park

Grand Teton National Park

This is what happens when I’m put in charge of getting dessert.

Antler Arch in Jackson

Salt plains in Utah

Yosemite National Park

San Francisco

After the tour ended, I went to the wedding of some friends and then went up to Seattle. The Chihuly Museum has some amazing glass sculptures.

I also visited the EMP Museum which has lots of music displays and science fiction displays.

Swords from The Princess Bride and Highlander movies.

I finished the trip by visiting friends in Spokane. The weather was really nice for wandering around Manito Park.