Dinner Cruise

I went on a dinner cruise of Lake Washington last night. SPU Alumni put it on for graduating seniors. Lael, my roommate, is graduating, and so Emily and I went as her guests. It was kind of a cloudy night, so there wasn't that great of a sunset, but it was still pretty fun. There was a jazz band, which was really cool. We did go past Bill Gates' house. Here are some of the interesting things we learned about it:

Only 40% of the Gates' mansion is visible (and is only visible from the lake). The other 60% of the house is underground. To get to it from the street, one must travel through a tunnel.

The house took 7 years and 109 million dollars to build. To make up for the seven years worth of construction noise, Bill paid off all the mortgages of his surrounding neighbors' homes and sent them all on a year long vacation (mind you, all of his neighbors are also very wealthy and have very impressive homes). His home is currently the most expensive house in America, but not for long. A 120 million dollar house is being built in Santa Cruz (I can't remember by whom), just to top the Gates mansion.

The home includes a 6000-sq ft 30 car garage. The home also has a home theater in it, where Bill can invite 75 of his closest friends to come and watch the latest flick. Oh, and he doesn't have to wait until movies come out on DVD, either. As soon as a movie is in the theaters, it is also in his home theater.

To maintain privacy around the home, Bill bought eleven of the lots around his home, nine of which have homes on them. The Gates' nanny lives in one of these homes.

There is a small beach on the lake front, which is odd, since none of the other homes on Lake Washington have beaches. That's because Mr. Gates has sand from the Caribbean flown in every week to replenish his beach. So a million years from now there will be large deposits of Caribbean sand in what used to be Lake Washington. Great.

The docks in Gates' lake property are made from purple African wood that is the densest wood in the world - so dense that it won't even float.

The home also features an extensive 2,100 sq. ft. library that includes a domed reading room with oculus (light well), fireplace, and two secret pivoting bookcases, one containing a bar. It's the fitting home for Leonardo da Vinci's 16th-century notebook, the Codex Leicester, which Gates bought for $30.8 million.

There are guest houses in the Gates' mansion. Upon arrival, each guest is given a computer chip, in which the guest programs what kind of music, artwork, and lighting they prefer, so when they walk through the door to their "home" all the plasma screen TVs are showcasing their favorite paintings, the stereo systems are playing their favorite music, and the lights are dimmed perfectly.

An artificial stream and wetland were designed in part to solve the problem of runoff caused by the retaining walls behind the house. It is stocked with salmon and sea-run cutthroat trout.

After all those mansions, I've decided that I would still rather live in a hundred year old farmhouse on a dirt road in the middle of nowhere. :)

It was a pretty fun cruise of the Lake. There were lots of other really old and amazing houses in the Gates' Medina neighborhood (I've decided that it would be a good neighborhood to babysit in). We also got to see some great views of houseboats, the University of Washington, crew teams practicing, and the city. We were amazed at just how emerald green everything really is!