the dad visit

Here is my dad, Bob and his wife Liz. On this day we had stopped by Liz's office. She is the Development Manager for the Fremont Meals on Wheels program. They serve between 250-300 clients a day and we went outside to watch all the volunteers load up the coolers and head out. Quite the operation.


Afterwards we took a drive out to San Jose and up Mount Hamilton to the Lick Observatory. Built arond 1870 by prosperous real estate developer James Lick, this telescope was the largest of it's time. It has a 32-inch diameter lens and took some of the first clear photographs of the moon. It is still in operation, though it is only used a couple of times a week. Current astronomers prefer the newer computer-ready telescopes, of which there are 8 or 9 up here at the site.
In the odd note department: James Lick died before ever getting to make the 5 hour trip by horsecart to see his telescope in action; after his death they loaded his casket into a carriage and trucked him up to the observatory. His body is entombed in the base of the telescope. What I found a little odd about that factoid is that, according to the tour guide, "James Lick is one of the only people entombed at the base of a telescope." I would think he would be the only one.
Who else out there in such a state?



Anyhoo - that was the Dad visit - I got dropped off at BART and headed back into San Francisco to finish up my whirlwind tour.