SLO

This weekend, I visited San Luis Obispo with my high schools friends.. or rather, my high school friends were supposed to be there but only one other person came. Still, we had fun.

We chose SLO because my friend wanted to visit Hearst Castle. Luckily, I have a friend from SLO who offered us her home since she would not be there. Central California is really amazing. We went to a winery (there are at least 15 close to the city),  we visited a hot springs, we hiked.

Montana de Oro

        We ate good food. We toured Hearst Castle:

Indoor roman pool -- from the internet

aerial view -- huge main home, 3 separate guest houses, an indoor and outdoor pool, tennis courts,  a theater, 116 bedrooms, 50 or so bathrooms

The castle is the property of the State of California. After Hearst died, the heirs apparently did not want to maintain the property and sold it to the state for $1. Hearst had an interesting will. He did not allow his 5 sons to inherit his wealth directly. He set up a trust (or some legal entity) in which each child and grandchild owns shares in the Hearst Corporation.  The privately held company has 13 board positions and only 5 can be from members of his family. The company is now very valuable so I am not sure what shares are worth now. I read an article from 2006 that said each heir got $10 million a year from the estate. When the last of the grandchildren die, it seems like the heirs will then split the value of the company.

I heard an interview with Warren Buffett where he said the two worst words for the human spirit were welfare and trust fund. It seems most of the Hearst heirs are the idle rich but they do seem to have the energy to sue the estate on occasion apparently in search of more money. 

I understand why Hearst chose central California for his Shangri-la. The weather is perfect. The views are always amazing no matter where you stand. Birds of Paradise (my favorite flower) are everywhere as are bottle brush trees, palm trees, flowers of all colors.

We really enjoyed our weekend. Luckily, I get to return in July with the family while we visit my husband's family. Yahoo!

A Short History of Nearly Everything

I FINALLY FINISHED THIS BOOK. I started it over a year ago.

It's a history of how of world formed to look like it does today. Most of the story takes place between billions and millions of years ago. If the history of the world were a 24 hour day that starts a midnight, homo sapiens come on the scene at 3 minutes to midnight the following day.

Our existence seems entirely improbable and very tenuous. There is no chance we are going to survive indefinitely as a species because no species ever does .. although did you know alligators were around with the dinosaurs? I also learned that Yellowstone is a giant volcano and the bulk of the park is the cone that is 40 miles wide. 

He also introduces us to the great thinkers of the 19th and 20th century ( and a few from earlier centuries ) who studied how the universe was formed. When Albert Einstein developed the theory of relativity, he was working in a patent office because he couldn't get a job as a teacher. It took people a while to understand the significance of his work.. and by work, I mean his thoughts. He seemed to have worked out the theory of relativity in his head.

Sadly, I have a hard time with natural history. I was interested when the book focused on cell development and genetics. I liked the part about the formation of Yellowstone. Otherwise, I struggled with this book. 

Ready Player 1

There is a quote on the front of this book from the Huffington Post: Delightful! an adult Harry Potter.

I would never call this book delightful. It was suspenseful, imaginative, clever but not delightful. Harry Potter is a story about love, self sacrifice, friendship, and defeating an evil dictator. This book also contains elements of those things. It's the setting of the two novels that makes one delightful and the other vaguely creepy. At times while reading, I felt the same queasy feeling I had when I read the Handmaid's Tale.

The book takes place in a video game / virtual world called the OASIS.  The real world is a miserable, hopeless place that everyone wants to escape because they are mostly destitute due to living under a fascist government.

The creator of the OASIS dies. He has no heirs or friends and lived a very isolated existence because (people assume) he had Asperger's.. and he was a mad genius and billionaire because of the world he created. He decides to give his company and his billions to the person who can win the game he created within the OASIS.

The book's author is clearly passionate about video games. He creates a fantastic virtual world -- far more creative than anything you could experience in the real world.. like Disneyland would be super dull in comparison.  At the end of the book there are a few sentences of dialog between characters about the fact that the real world is a better place to be .. escaping is not a good idea. This would be like reading a book about people who have the best time of their lives all while high and then at the end, someone says, you know, drugs aren't good.

The best part of the book were all the obscure references to pop culture in the 80's.  Fun book.. I just hope that future does not become reality.

Homegoing

This is the best novel I've read this year. I love this book.

Every year, the Seattle Public library chooses a book that they suggest the city read. The idea is that the city can participate in a conversation about the book as people do within book clubs. They buy hundreds of copies and make sure there are many available at each branch.

The author, Yaa Gyasi, is a young woman (29) born in Ghana who immigrated here with her family when she was very young. Her father is a professor. Their fanily ultimately settled in Mobile, Alabama. Gyasi attended Stanford, then the Iowa Writer's workshop.

The New Yorker wrote a lovely review:

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/05/30/yaa-gyasis-homegoing

The book is an interesting story of Africans who stayed in Africa and those who were brought to the US. It feels like an explanation of how we got here since slavery shaped this country and our politics. It is also a story about the disintegration of community in a culture that values the individual over the family and how that causes suffering especially to vulnerable populations but really, to everyone.

Oddly, it is not a depressing book to read.

local adventures

I've never been much of a hiker.. instead I've chosen cycling or running or other outdoor endeavors. Suddenly, I love hiking.  There are so many great hikes right around Seattle so I decided to start exploring.

For Mother's day, I decided to go to Poo Poo point on Tiger Mountain. On a Sunday morning it only took 25 minutes to get there. I went with a dear friend and we enjoyed the 4.5 miles to the top with one small exception: we saw a black bear.

There are signs all over Tiger mountain that tell hikers bears live there but everything you read says it is highly unlikely you'll see a bear. As we approached the end of the trail, we passed two women raising their arms in the air saying in loud voices "there is a bear right there there is a bear right there." And sure enough, 10 yards away: a bear. My friend and I imitated the women and because rational thought was beyond my grasp I just kept walking forward on the trail. The bear just watched us. When my friend and I reached the top, we tried to figure out how we could get down without going back the way we came. 

Here's the top:

It's a popular place to launch para gliders so we wondered if we could hitch a ride. Alas, not possible so we headed down after a long conversation of who the bear would likely attack.. my friend insisting I run because I have children and me refusing to be the person to leave anyone behind. Or one hopes..

To celebrate Mother's day with the family, Ryan rented a very cool electric boat on lake Union. It was a beautiful day and great fun for all.