April 18 - United States: Monterey, CA
We woke up from a really good night's sleep. We both slept in until around 8:30 or so, and didn't realize that Rob has been waiting for us - he wanted to take us to breakfast. We showered and packed up the car and then followed Rob to a nearby diner. This place was a little hole-in-the-wall, which means it's good. Jon and I both ordered the Huevos Rancheros, which were delicious. After breakfast we said our good-byes and headed to Highway 1 - the Pacific Coast Highway.
Gorgeous scenery! Right away, we hit the coastline with its rocky cliffs and beautiful showers. I've done this drive once before - years ago with my friends Kathryn and Jenny when we drove up the coast to Oregon. It was just as lovely today as it was in 1994.
San Luis Obispo
We stopped in San Luis Obispo to get a few errands out of the way. Most importantly, we had to get fuel for the camping stove Jon's Mom loaned up (Thanks Jo!). We also found an automotive store for various things and located a post office to mail a package.
San Luis Obispo is a cute college town (home of Cal Poly) with small streets and a lot camping shops. We would have liked to stay there for longer, but we really wanted to get to San Simeon and the day was getting late.
San Simeon - Hearst Castle
About an hour north of San Luis Obispo is San Simeon - home of the famous Hearst Castle. We made it there just in time for the 3:10 "Experience Tour". Because the castle is up on a steep hill, the parking is down in the valley and all tours are bused up to the top. During the bus-ride, there was an informative audio of the history of the castle and some of the sites we saw from the bus. For example, one of the animal-feeding shelters for the zoo William Randolph Hearst had on the "Enchanted Hill".
The View From Hearst Castle
Our tour guide - Andrew - met our bus at the base of the steps and we began our tour of "Camp Hill". At one point in time, WR Hearst owned 50 miles of California coastline. He and his family used to camp here and, eventually, he wanted a "little something" built so they wouldn't have to camp anymore. So this little something turned into a huge complex with 500 year old statues and 400 year old ceilings. The art alone is worth millions of dollars. The main house - Casa Grande - has 1600 feet of closet and storage space. My dream home.
Casa Grande
The interesting difference between this tour and the tour I took eight years ago is an obvious one - security. Our pictures were taken before we boarded the bus, a second tour guide was stationed at the back of the group to prevent wanderers, and we were not allowed to wander through the gardens after the tour. This later restriction was disappointing because we could have gotten some great pictures, although the ones we did get are quite lovely.
The Indoor Pool - With Tiles in 24 Carat Gold
When our tour was finished and we'd returned to the Visitors Center down in the valley, we decided to watch the film "Hearst Castle: Building the Dream". This was a very good movie that went into even more history about the castle. The architect was a woman named Julia Morgan, who was a pioneer of her own right, seeing how she was a successful female architect in the 1920s.
Elephant Seals
Just past Hearst Castle on PCH, there was a little turn-off on the beach with a viewing platform for the elephant seals. It was windy and terribly cold, but we hung out for a while watching the elephant seals laying on the beach and snorting.
Sunset Through Big Sur
Then we were back on the road. By this time it was around 6:30 and the sun was beginning to set.
On Pacific Coast Highway (PCH - Highway 1)
It was lovely because we were just getting to the twisty cliffs of Lopez Points and Big Sur. And the colors of the setting sun only added to the scenery. We stopped just south of Big Sur for some final photos.
Sunset Over Big Sur
Around 8:30ish, we drove into Monterey. We had directions to a campsite outside of town, but it was dark and we were tired, cold, and hungry (such a sob story, right?). We also had to charge both batteries for the digital camera. So we figured we could rationalize a night in a Best Western Motel.
Jon ran out to grab some food and I got the room settled with the bags, bathroom stuff, and uploading journal entries. When we were in Australia, we caught about three episodes of "CSI" and decided we really liked it. (According to Neilson, we're not in the minority here). So were psyched that it would be on again tonight. Unfortunately, tonight's episode was a rerun which just happened to be one of the three we saw in Australia. Figures!