Farewell Tour

I've billed my trip to California as my farewell tour.  In the past two days I've visited former students and old friends in Berkeley, El Cerrito, and Sacramento and relatives in Grass Valley and Chico.

Back in Pennsylvania people sometimes ask me, "Do you miss California?"  Well, yeah.

It is so nice to walk into a Burger King where the entire staff is speaking Spanish.  To be in a state where people know how to merge onto the freeway.  To be in a state where the hills are green in winter   before they turn golden in the spring.

The politics are corruption free, and most politicians are actually interested in solving problems, perhaps one reason why the state is so prosperous, running a budget surplus.  This is the state that for many years was represented in the U.S. Senate by two Jewish women and has for its governor Jerry Brown, the smartest governor in the U.S.

There are a few hoofties here, but not many.  Some of the Central Valley and foothill counties went for Trump, but the Bay Area and L.A. were overwhelmingly Clinton.  There are a large number of smart people in this state.