Coastal Trip
So Saturday, Sunday and Monday Steph and I took a little road trip up the coast. It was a pretty fun trip, and I took loooots of pictures to share with you all. Aren't you excited? I can tell!
The first stop on our trip was the legendary Hearst Castle. I always figured that the whole 'castle' bit was just an exaggeration for a really big mansion...but they really aren't kidding. It's an amazing place.
Alright, so they took us around the outside first, so some pictures of the outside.
Now before you look at these three pictures and say "That's it? Not much of a castle!", do not be alarmed. This is only the guest house he built for his grand kids. Pictures of the inside to come a little later.
These photos are, of course, the outdoor pool. I say outdoor because there was naturally an indoor pool as well.
According to the tour guide, at the time Mr. Hearst lived here, he owned all the land you can see in this picture (He called it his 'backyard'). The front yard is a magnificent view of about half a mile of rolling hills and then the Pacific Ocean.
This is the interior of the guest house built for the grand kids.
And the Hearst Castle itself. Pretty crazy. That brown area between the two towers is the master bedroom.
Now before we move indoors, let me just say that the only problem was that our tour started at 4:10, and it lasts for an hour and fifteen minutes, so by the time we got indoors, the sun was down and there was only interior lighting to rely on for pictures (no flash photography allowed). Not too many of my photos turned out as you weren't allowed to touch anything, which made finding anything to stabilize the camera on rather difficult. So I apologize for the poor quality of many of these indoor photos.
These three photos are of the lounge area guests would come to wait in before dinner was served in the dining room.
And here are some not so great photos of the Dinning Room. Very castle like with the super long table, the coats of arms draped from the ceiling, and then pews taken from old cathedrals lining the walls.
And of course what mansion is complete without its own movie theater. Notice the awesome lighting fixtures.
And lastly (we only saw a VERY small portion of the castle) is the indoor swimming pool. Notice the diving platform in the second picture (its hard to see as it is above the lights).
After the Hearst Castle we went out to dinner at a TERRIBLE Italian place (My $14 spagetti and meatballs tasted exactly like a frozen dinner) that I'm sure preys on ignorant tourists who don't know who bad it is. I was pretty ticked about that.
The next day we spent driving up the coast on the 1 Highway, stopping every 5 or 10 miles to admire the coastline. Our first stop was this beach that is renowned for its elephant seals. See for yourself...
(yes...all those lumps on the beach are elephant seals)
Do not fear! Despite all appearances to the contrary, these animals are not dead, they just really are that lazy.
And I LOVE rocky coastline. If you do not, you might as well skip the rest of this entry, because that's what there is going to be an awful lot of.
Ok, so this one was pretty cool. I forget the name, but some lady donated this land to the state under the condition that people can't go on the beach so everyone could enjoy it 'pristine' (not the waterfall to the left).
This was a very out of place mound of earth jetting into the ocean. Atop is a lighthouse. And cows. Steph liked the cows.
Note the fisherman? I'd be scared of getting pulled off balance by a big fish and taking a dunk!
This is the last place Steph and I stopped that I have pictures of. Not sure what happened, but my camera ran out of juice, and then the next day after I charged the battery, it said the memory card was full, even though it was only half full...any ideas what happened there?
That night we went out for seafood at a much better restraunt (I think we were in Monterey).
Now one of the places we went before we drove back on Monday was a little stretch of beach that was supposed to be good for its tide pools, but we must have been there at high tide, because it was just more waves crashing against rocks. But I found an amazing spot there. I was on the edge of some rocks about 10 feet up. there was a channel of water about 10 or 15 feet wide and then another set of large rocks, and the tide was just at the right point where the large waves would break against the rocks, sending HUGE walls of water a good 25 feet in the air, but it would fall short of soaking us. It was amazing and I was very bitter that my camera wouldn't take pictures of it. Bummer.
Anyway, that was our trip. It was pretty awesome. I highly recommend it to anyone who has not done it already. Its a twisty, turny highway for a while...but it is absolutly beautiful.
The first stop on our trip was the legendary Hearst Castle. I always figured that the whole 'castle' bit was just an exaggeration for a really big mansion...but they really aren't kidding. It's an amazing place.
Alright, so they took us around the outside first, so some pictures of the outside.
Now before you look at these three pictures and say "That's it? Not much of a castle!", do not be alarmed. This is only the guest house he built for his grand kids. Pictures of the inside to come a little later.
These photos are, of course, the outdoor pool. I say outdoor because there was naturally an indoor pool as well.
According to the tour guide, at the time Mr. Hearst lived here, he owned all the land you can see in this picture (He called it his 'backyard'). The front yard is a magnificent view of about half a mile of rolling hills and then the Pacific Ocean.
This is the interior of the guest house built for the grand kids.
And the Hearst Castle itself. Pretty crazy. That brown area between the two towers is the master bedroom.
Now before we move indoors, let me just say that the only problem was that our tour started at 4:10, and it lasts for an hour and fifteen minutes, so by the time we got indoors, the sun was down and there was only interior lighting to rely on for pictures (no flash photography allowed). Not too many of my photos turned out as you weren't allowed to touch anything, which made finding anything to stabilize the camera on rather difficult. So I apologize for the poor quality of many of these indoor photos.
These three photos are of the lounge area guests would come to wait in before dinner was served in the dining room.
And here are some not so great photos of the Dinning Room. Very castle like with the super long table, the coats of arms draped from the ceiling, and then pews taken from old cathedrals lining the walls.
And of course what mansion is complete without its own movie theater. Notice the awesome lighting fixtures.
And lastly (we only saw a VERY small portion of the castle) is the indoor swimming pool. Notice the diving platform in the second picture (its hard to see as it is above the lights).
After the Hearst Castle we went out to dinner at a TERRIBLE Italian place (My $14 spagetti and meatballs tasted exactly like a frozen dinner) that I'm sure preys on ignorant tourists who don't know who bad it is. I was pretty ticked about that.The next day we spent driving up the coast on the 1 Highway, stopping every 5 or 10 miles to admire the coastline. Our first stop was this beach that is renowned for its elephant seals. See for yourself...
(yes...all those lumps on the beach are elephant seals)
Do not fear! Despite all appearances to the contrary, these animals are not dead, they just really are that lazy.
And I LOVE rocky coastline. If you do not, you might as well skip the rest of this entry, because that's what there is going to be an awful lot of.
Ok, so this one was pretty cool. I forget the name, but some lady donated this land to the state under the condition that people can't go on the beach so everyone could enjoy it 'pristine' (not the waterfall to the left).
This was a very out of place mound of earth jetting into the ocean. Atop is a lighthouse. And cows. Steph liked the cows.
Note the fisherman? I'd be scared of getting pulled off balance by a big fish and taking a dunk!
This is the last place Steph and I stopped that I have pictures of. Not sure what happened, but my camera ran out of juice, and then the next day after I charged the battery, it said the memory card was full, even though it was only half full...any ideas what happened there?
That night we went out for seafood at a much better restraunt (I think we were in Monterey).
Now one of the places we went before we drove back on Monday was a little stretch of beach that was supposed to be good for its tide pools, but we must have been there at high tide, because it was just more waves crashing against rocks. But I found an amazing spot there. I was on the edge of some rocks about 10 feet up. there was a channel of water about 10 or 15 feet wide and then another set of large rocks, and the tide was just at the right point where the large waves would break against the rocks, sending HUGE walls of water a good 25 feet in the air, but it would fall short of soaking us. It was amazing and I was very bitter that my camera wouldn't take pictures of it. Bummer.
Anyway, that was our trip. It was pretty awesome. I highly recommend it to anyone who has not done it already. Its a twisty, turny highway for a while...but it is absolutly beautiful.
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Amanda