The clouds have rolled back in and we're set for rain for a week - that's what the weather talking heads say - but this is how I'll get my sun fix - I'll think back to my day on Lake Washington, floating along in the nicest-best-most-reliable-dependable boat EVER (thank you for starting each and every time dear boat!) with good friends and good food and one handy little book of info:
Lake Washington 130 Homes by David Dykstra is available here and might be at your local Seattle Barnes and Noble or Borders, which is where I found my copy. This book is fascinating, if you're into stalking, voyeurism, peeping, playing papparazzi or like my friends and me - just into beautiful homes and yards. We floated under the I-90 bridge up the Gold Coast past them all - the huge and the huger, including the Windows 2000 House (owned by the guy who created Windows and according to the book his house is valued at $12 million...I spit on that!), Bill Gates house (where he is having a bit of work done on his dock and again, according to the book, he has 8 bedrooms and 25 bathrooms...they must have very small bladders in that family - can't go ten feet without needing to go potty! Oh, it's valued at $150 million...that I can't spit on!), and we picked out our favorite house - the one we'll buy if we win the lottery - a really, really big lottery!
The book points out the 130 most magnificent mansions, impressive in some manner or another, like the house that has a Statue of Liberty on the balcony and the house that put up a sign that says: "Only an egotistical JACKASS would build a house like the one next door!" Hilarious! Most of the homes listed in the book are owned by the movers and shakers of Seattle (Microsoft, Costco, Nordstrom, Starbucks, Seahawks, Amazon, etc.) - people who laugh all the way to the bank - not hysterical laughter as in "PLEASE LET ME GET THIS DEPOSIT IN BEFORE ANOTHER CHECK GOES THROUGH!" No, no, no...laughter as in, "I'm just going to withdraw some pocket change, I'd like a hundred grand in small bills, my Gucci purse is stretchable!" I begrudged them nothing - after all, this is America, the land of opportunity...so like the old joke where the lady is begging to win the lottery each week, over and over she prays to win and finally God says, "Do me a favor, meet me half way and buy a ticket!"
I have a ticket...I'm half way there!
Thanks for the great day at sea Janice!