I am frequently asked what it takes to be awesome. It really starts with a state of mind, but an illustrative example from my own life taken from the most recent Saturday demonstrates how this translates into action: All of this took place in the span of 8 hours…

We started out at noon in the WRX to Lick Observatory, enjoying the twisty road (Route 130) on the way up… Tradition maintains that this road has exactly 365 turns from start to summit.

If you don’t get stuck behind someone, the drive up is great in a sports car (such as a WRX) or on a motorcycle…

The Lick Observatory is an astronomical observatory, owned and operated by the University of California constructed between 1876 and 1887, from a bequest from James Lick. It is situated on the summit of Mount Hamilton, in the Diablo Range just east of San Jose

Here is a 360 degree panorama taken from the top of Mount Hamilton…

A still image of the view…

The view from the main building across the rest of the mountaintop…

A view of the main Observatory building…

Despite being in the Bay Area, the mountain gets a fair amount of snow…

This is the interior of the great Lick Refractor… In 1887 Lick’s body was buried under the future site of this telescope, with a brass tablet bearing the simple inscription, “Here lies the body of James Lick.” Not many telescopes also serve as a crypt…

The road up is popular with motorcyclists…

Brandon and Amanda on the top of the mountain…

Justin and Amanda on the top of the mountain…

One of the smaller telescopes on the mountain…

The Hamilton Observatory… SETI runs a program from here: Optical SETI Program. Today, after four decades of Moore’s Law growth of optical laser technology, we have the technological means to transmit effective interstellar optical signals…

Another telescope from another view…

We started the day with a dose of science and technology, but we were just getting started…