The Biltmore

 On the eve of Election, MJ and I visited Asheville, NC to check out Biltmore Mansion, built for George Washington Vanderbilt in the "old money" days of late 1800's, part of America's "Gilded Age" (learned that from Jeopardy!) Slaves weren't mentioned in the history of the mansion nor in its wikipedia entry, which doesn't mean there were none, but it's a good sign. We concluded that the mansion was similar to Disneyland in many aspects: the giant castle in the middle of the attraction, kid-friendly, emphasis on Christmas inside the mansion, beautiful entrance gate taking you inside the grounds of the mansion, and Disneyland prices: $94.00 a head on the weekend we went, although it varies depending on the season and weekday/weekend. Animals spotted included sheep, horses (and horse poop), chickens, donkeys,and a koi pond; we even saw a black bear waltzing around the campus! Not sure if that's safe for other tourists. 

The Biltmore is a bit overpriced in that regard, and I think many people overlook some free places to tour around: colleges! Other than airports, tall buildings, and baseball stadiums around the country, I also like to visit college campuses.....many of them are picturesque and designed to lure prospective 18-year-old fresh minds to their campus for 4 years, so plenty of money has been poured into the architecture and they're ideal for walking around like enjoying a garden! I've compiled a list of colleges in various areas of the country, with the most memorable being Columbia University being in a tight-knight area in Upper West End Manhattan, Peppderdine being built on a huge hill overlooking Malibu and the Pacific Ocean (how does anyone get any work done there?). There are even some local college surprises like Santa Monica College being a quaint community college where MJ took some classes, IIT (Illinois Institute of Technology) where my parents did their graduate school when they first immigrated to the US, as well as where I memorably first learned how to ride a bike). I'm also adding hospitals now to my list as MJ starts to look for work upon graduation. 

Markets have taken a huge leg up since a week ago, when AMZN was down under $3,000 and I tried to convince MJ to put some extra money to use in the market (my exact words were, this stock could be over $3,300 by this time next week). Well, it arrived early: AMZN and the rest of FAANG ripped higher after Joe Biden took the lead on election night, his candidancy virtually assured, but with almost similar assurance of a Republican Senate, preventing any quick passage of higher corporate taxes and capital gains taxes. Other stocks I'm checking out recently: Mercado Libre, the South American version of AMZN, Shopify, the Canadian version of AMZN, and Pinduoduo, the Chinese version of AMZN not named Alibaba. And Bitcoin's over $14,000, worth keeping an eye on. It's sad to see stocks benefitting so much (especially AMZN) from small businesses failing and the average American citizen unable to get a share of the profits, but if I'm not getting into the market, someone else will anyway.