It was another day of rain.
While it poured down, I had another wonderful breakfast at the Bike Lane
Inn. This time it was cut up fresh
watermelon and cantaloupe along with some amazing pancakes. These pancakes were whole wheat with berries
and nuts. Yum! Shortly after that I got my car loaded and
off I went for the day.
I quickly fueled up and then I swung by the Jack Creek
Farms. I wanted to thank the gal for
helping out yesterday when I had gotten lost.
I also still wanted to take some more time and check out the cute shop
there. I ended up purchasing a bit of hand
lotion and a couple of flavored honey straws.
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| Photo- A scarecrow boating along Main Street in Cambrai. |
Off I went through the rainy landscape on Hwy 46 towards the
beach and turned north on Hwy 1. I was
going towards Cambria, a cute town nestled in a valley just off shore. I decided to take a quick drive through its
Main St. They were having a Scarecrow
Festival the whole month of October. As
I drove along I would see scarecrows in front of almost every shop or
restaurant. Unfortunately, because of
the weather some of them were covered in plastic but not all. There were all kinds of scarecrows; some in rowboats,
some dressed in elaborate dresses, construction workers, Snoopy, cyclists,
surfers, and characters from movies. I pulled over to take a few pictures;
especially when I saw the row of scarecrows on bikes.
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| Photo- Bicycling, surfing, and Snoopy Scarecrows... NOW I've seen it all! |
I turned back on to Hwy 1 and continued north another 5
miles to Hearst Castle. After I parked I
headed into the visitor’s center. I went
straight for the ticket booth to see what was available for the Grand Rooms
tours for the day. The clerk said that
there was still a couple of places open on a bus in 5 minutes or an hour if I
wanted to wait. I said 5 minutes would
work for me. I got my ticket and
immediately headed over to the line for the next bus.
A short time later, I was on a bus headed up with the hill
to Hearst Castle along with about 15 Japanese tourists. One of which was taking a picture of
everything in the bus and out of the bus on the way up. The rest seemed to be a bit more restrained
with their cameras on the way up. Meanwhile a pre-recorded message played Alex
Tribeck’s voice as the bus headed up the hill we learned of history and animals
that used to be on the property.
It was a bit surreal climbing the hill seeing glimpses of
the castle here and there as you got closer.
It was awe inspiring and with some amazing views too. The road up had been designed by architect
Julia Morgan to let you see the castle and then go around a bend only to lose
sight of the castle. In fact, she was
the architect on the castle and collaborated with Mr. Hearst to build the castle. There were a lot of references made to her
during the tour later on.
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| Photo- Getting the Japanese translation. |
The bus stopped and the group got out. There was a tour guide waiting for us. Shortly after everyone was grouped one of the
Japanese tourists translated the directions that had been handed us before we
got on the bus. Our tour guide waited patiently while she
finished and then he said something in Japanese. He said that he just wanted to emphasize that
there was no flash photography in the actual castle. He said it in a comical way and had everyone
in the group laughing. The tour guy
seemed quite the character. He teased
that he would give all the dirty family secrets as the tour went on. Then, as
we headed around and up to the Main Terrace he gave a bit of the history of the
family that had lived in the Castle.
William Randolph Hearst was quite the interesting man or as some would
say “eccentric”. He would be considered strange
if he had been poor. Why do we do that?
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| Photo- Hearst Castle from one of the terraces. |
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| Photo- The Receiving Room. |
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Photo- Gold touches that are real gold all throughout and on the Castle.
No messing around with the fake stuff here. |
Next, after we were directed again to stay on carpeted areas
and not to touch anything but railings, we entered by a side door into the
castle. The first room we saw was the
receiving room. It was HUGE with 27 ft.
high ceilings that were carved wood. We
were told that this room was almost 3000 sq. ft. It was dark wood and very elaborate
overall. There were tapestries, statues,
elaborate furniture, and simple couches and chairs all throughout the room. In Mr. Hearst collection, there was quite a
bit of art from lovely carved statues to 2000 year old mosaic floors. It was rather overwhelming how much money everything
was worth. The tour guide directed us to
statues that could now be worth almost 1.5 million dollars today. I was afraid to touch anything for fear I
would paying for the rest of my life and eternity.
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| Photo- The Dining Hall. |
Then, we went through doors that lead to the dining
hall. This room again had the 27 ft.
tall ceilings but was only 28 ft. tall.
There were flags from several different countries that hung in the upper
areas on each side of the room, and a very long plain wooden table was situated
in the middle of the room. There were pew chairs lining the room; all of which
had been taken from a church somewhere in Europe. Our
tour guide explained the meal times, the serving of the meals, and who sat
where. It was interesting because if you
were a guest the first night you would sit in the middle by Mr. Hearst and then
as the nights progressed you would sit further out towards the ends. If you were sitting on the end chairs, it was
really time to go.
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| Photo- The tour guide explaining meals at Hearst Castle. |
Then, it was on through a gothic door way to a den like room
where there were unique chandeliers and another carved ceiling area. Though, this ceiling was painted and Moorish
in nature we were told. They were
currently trying to restore the original colors. This ceiling was not as tall as the other two
rooms, and the size of the room was maybe about half of the dining room. Our tour guide explained that often after
dinner there was conversation and then the guests were expected to go into the billiards
room. Eventually, they were expected to
go in to the theater room and watch a movie.
The bedtimes were almost 2 to 3 AM.
All were expected to be present. Quite
often, Mr. Hearst would see his guests off for the night and then would go
upstairs and work. He would wire off
instructions to companies all over. He
wasn’t much of a sleeper.
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| Photo- The Moorish details in the ceilings and gothic doorways. |
Mr. Hearst had a few rules that he expected of his guests: no
sharing rooms of unmarried guests; another words no hanky panky going on. There was no calling the servants by their
first names; only he was allowed to do that.
Also, there was no bribing of the servants.
Then we went through another gothic arched door way into the
Billiards Room. This room was long and
narrow but maybe half the size of the dining hall. It also had the Moorish ceiling with chandeliers. There were two pool tables. There were Persian art mosaics on one wall
and a row of gothic arched windows overlooking an open terrace on the other
wall.
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| Photo- The Theater Room statues. |
Next, it was onto the Theater Room where we got to sit and
watch a bit of home movies in black and white.
The guide said who we were seeing and would give interesting little
facts along the way. The room was covered
in a red brocaded material and had female sculptures holding lights.
Then, we exited the Theater Room and were allowed to wander
the gardens and grounds at our leisure.
There were several other houses around the castle; most of them built
prior to the castle. The landscaping and
the statues were amazing. There were
fountains and a Neptune Pool area that just took your breath away. There were terraces where you could see views
of the surround area; that just happened to be shrouded in rain clouds today
but I imagine on a clear day would have been glorious. I walked around enjoying and taking pictures. What a wonderful way to spend the day!
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| Photo- Wonderful statues intermixed with landscaping. |
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| Photo- The Neptune Pool area was just amazing! |
Eventually, I had seen everything and started for the Tennis
Courts and the Roman Pool that was below the Tennis Courts. This was where the bus picked you up to take
you back down the hill. I heard Roman
Pool but wasn’t prepared for this Roman Pool.
OMG! It was amazing.
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| Photo- The Roman Pool which is 10 ft. deep but doesn't look it. |
While I waited for the next bus, I talked with an
employee. Outside of the local wineries,
the Hearst Castle State Park was the largest employer in the area. Hearst Castle was donated to the state in
1958. They eventually decided to do
tours and it took a while to get organized to what it is today. They employ almost 60 in the museum, another
20 in the visitor’s center, 9 gardeners, 10 bus drivers, and several others
that are on the maintenance staff.
Another fact, I thought was interesting was that all of the bathrooms in
the Castle were made non-operating. It
was just too high of a cost for the state to maintain. So there are only the visitor’s bathrooms
that were available.
I got back to the visitor’s center and wondered around a bit
in the gift shops and what not but it was getting to be almost 3:30PM and I
needed to be at a hotel in Thousand Oaks for the night. I had about a 3 hour drive ahead of me.
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| Photo- Morro Bay with a sunnier weather than earlier in the day. |
I did stop for a late lunch or an early dinner in Morro Bay. It was a cute little two area where there a
bay with sea otters. I stretched my legs
for a bit and looked for somewhere to eat along the dock area. I found a little bar called Otter Rock Café which
looked casual and easy. AND not as overpriced as some of the restaurants in the
area. I had a beer and a blue cheese
burger that just hit the spot.
Next, I was on my way chasing the sun and driving towards
the outer edges of LA. Traffic was heavy
at times but it kept a steady flow even when it was slowed down. I was kind of surprised because I was
expecting it to be worse being a Friday night, but this wasn’t bad at all. I eventually found the exit and got checked
into the hotel by 8PM. That was enough
for one day.
