Chapter 1379 Centennial Studio (1/2)

Li Du said to Lu Guan, ”We have been very busy in the past year. Everyone has been working, so we need to rest, and we're taking a holiday from it all.”

”I see. To hell with the news then,” Lu Guan laughed.

Li Du smiled too. ”As you understand, the boss has his responsibilities. Say, what's the news? Is there an auction coming up?”

Lu Guan only looked shiftily.

The news did relate to a warehouse auction which was due to take place that weekend, in four more days. The theme of this auction was photography.

The city, which was founded in 1796, initially became a manufacturing center thanks to the intersection of canals and railroads. After the collapse of big industries, the emphasis shifted to finance, insurance, and health care.

Besides that, there were some art-related industries in the city, such as photography.

Cleveland's photography industry had started quite early, and the city was home to the oldest surviving photography studio in the United States.

Founded in the 1860s, the studio, called Bourne and Safford's Eyes, was once famous across the US for its portraits.

In 1910, the studio moved to a building owned by what later became the Ohio Life Insurance Company.

The studio has been leasing the building, and due to space and rent issues, they could no longer reach an agreement with the landlord.

”The studio has been open for 150 years, and they have their warehouse,” said Lu Guan. ”The auction itself is divided into two categories: office and warehouse. Both belong to the studio.”

Once Li Du heard that there were still four days left, he said, ”Take a rest, there's no pressure. Still, pay attention to the relevant information occasionally, inquire whether there are good things in the warehouses.”

One admirable thing about both Hans and Lu Guan was that they were good at finding valuable warehouse auction information, and had a sort of sixth sense for good things just waiting to be picked up.

Li Du trusted that if Lu Guan deliberately mentioned this warehouse auction information to him during the holiday, then the information should be valuable.

Li Du asked him to follow up occasionally. They were now, after all, at a resort with the main purpose of relaxing and resting.

They were warned about brown bears in the surrounding woods, but because of their long-time interaction with tourists, the bears were somewhat domesticated and not very fierce.

Watching the bears was, in fact, one of the attractions of the resort, and as long as one didn't mess with local bears, it was usually safe.

In addition, brown bears would usually stay in the woods and did not appear too near the resort area. The ones who would come nearer to the resort to get some food were the younger bears.

The resort had a nature exhibition room, which included samples of the local wildlife, birds, fish and so on, and offered tourists information on which species could be hunted or fished legally, and which were protected.

There are plenty of activities around, including lots of independent homesteads and open tourist areas where people could camp, swim, fish, hunt, build treehouses and ski in winter.

However, before going fishing, one had to get a fishing license from the bureau of fisheries outside the resort. For two dollars, one was allowed to catch eight fish a day.

The exception was Asian carp. One didn't need a license to go fishing for Asian carp in the lake, and Asian carp could gain one an extended fishing qualification. Catching two Asian carp specimens allowed one to fish for a native species.

Asian carp were so widespread in America's rivers and lakes that the government had allocated a budget of 200 million dollars to reduce their population, but with little effect.