Even More Family! Part 2

When last we blogged, Mom made it out to the LBC to visit Chris and I, and she and I were headed up to the central coast on a girls' trip, spending the night in Santa Barbara.

The next morning, I was up early (per my usual), so I took the opportunity to get in some strength training exercises while Mom slumbered.  After she awoke, we cleaned ourselves up and finished some leftovers/food we'd brought with us for breakfast, and we hit the road.  The first major challenge of the day occurred right away, as I attempted to back the car down a fairly long driveway without hitting anything, all pre-caffeine.  I succeeded, and on the first try even!  Woohoo!

Success!

After a quick stop at the Santa Barbara Roasting Company for coffee/chai and pastries, it was on the road again and heading through the hills toward Solvang, the Danish capital of America.  I've visited Solvang a few times now (never to stay, just to stop through), and it's a cute little spot.

Mom with the storks

(not real storks)

Windmill selfie!

While we toured the town just a bit, our main destination in Solvang was Olsen's Danish Bakery.  We wanted some treats, and Chris had asked us to see if we could bring anything home he could take to his buddies at work.  Olsen's is one of the only spots we know where they spell the name right (dang Swedes!  Spelling it wrong all these years!), so we were happy to procure some noms.

Success!  We hope the Medtronic folks

enjoyed their butter cookies

We didn't stay too long in Solvang, as we had places to be and things to see further north.  We headed up the 1 to Pismo Beach, where we wandered around the boardwalk while we waited for our lunch destination to open.

A detail of the logo on the surfing cow

Of course I visited the restroom,

and I found this gem right outside

After just a bit more strolling, it was time for lunch!  Chris and I have visited Pismo several times previously, and I've always wanted to check out this little sandwich spot called Chipwrecked, but it's never worked out.  Today was the day!

Chipwrecked had great (huge!) sandwiches coupled with

homemade chips with a wide variety of dipping sauces.

It was a great place, and the ladies working there,

(one who seemed to be the owner) were absolutely lovely.

After our delicious lunch, it was back in the car, pointing it still further north.  Although we'd be spending the night in Paso Robles, which is a wee bit inland, before we got there, we wanted to tour Hearst Castle, which is in San Simeon, right on the coast.

The coastal highway near Hearst Castle

We'd bought our tickets before we left the house (ha!  You know me - I bought them 60 days ahead of time), so after parking the car near the visitor center and a quick bathroom break, we killed time wandering through the gigantic gift shop before it was time to load up the buses for the trip up the hill.  The land where the Castle was built was originally a ranching encampment for the Hearst family, and even once he started using the area mainly for pleasure, William Randolph Hearst wanted to preserve the land and the animals it contained.  He actually brought in additional hoofstock and had his own zoo on the property (we saw the now defunct polar bear enclosure).

Some of the aforementioned hoofstock,

grazing right near the road the buses take up the hill.

The buses dropped us off right at the foot of the mansion, so we took some photos as we met our guide and started off on our tour (we did the Grand Rooms Tour, which is recommended for first time visitors - it was a good overview of the property and not too long - we were quite done after an hour).

Other docents waiting for their tour groups - 

you had the option to book multiple tours in a day,

and just move from one to the other,

but one was enough for us

The hydrangeas were in bloom, and they were gorgeous!

To make it easier to follow along with our tour, here's a Hearst Castle map.  You can see where we hopped off at the helpfully marked "Bus Unloading" zone, and after we headed up the stairs (behind Mom in the shot above), we were standing in a big courtyard area right next to the Neptune Pool.  While we didn't tour the pool (it was under renovation), we could clearly see it, and it's a doozy.

Helpful map!

Heading up the steps behind our guide

Pretty sweet pool, non?

Getting closer to the main house

A shot of the pool with the mountains and coast in the background - 

not a bad view!

Our guide did a great job throughout our tour giving us information about the house, about Hearst himself and the rest of the family, and the famous guests that spent time at the Castle.  Although I've taken the tour once before, I remembered almost none of it, particularly the informational tidbits, so it was great to hear it all again (I asked Chris if we took the bus up from the center the last time we visited, and he was like, um, yeah.  When I mentioned that I didn't remember that AT ALL, he recalled we had been wine tasting that day, and Dad and Risa drove us there.  So that likely explains that).

Hearst was super into sculptures in the style

of ancient Greek/Roman/Etruscan.

Many of them are actual relics from that time period.

We moved from this amazing courtyard into one even fancier, passing the three guest "casitas" (Casas del Sol, Mar, and Monte - numbered 3, 4, and 5 on the map) along the way.  I have "casitas" in quotes here as these guest houses were easily the size of the house where we live full-time.  We couldn't go inside, but we grabbed some shots of the entrances:

Details from the casitas

Again with the horrible views!

Eesh!

Once we made it to the next courtyard, we were standing right in front of the main entrance door to the Castle (officially known as the Casa Grande - the big house - number 7 on the map).  We grabbed tons of shots of the front door (calling it that is quite the understatement) and the courtyard itself, which was incredible.

I mean, this is what our front door looks like.

Yours too, right?

Details of the front gate and the sculptures

above the doorway

The balcony, hand carved from teak

Listening intently to our guide

Courtyard shots:

Wait - this one may actually be a slightly different courtyard.

THAT'S HOW MANY THERE WERE.

At this point, it was time to head inside the big house itself.  While the rooms were beyond opulent, they were a bit stuffy to be honest, and both of us agreed we had more fun wandering around the outside, taking those shots.  We strolled through a massive formal dining room, living room, and even through the front lobby/foyer, where we saw the front door gates, this time from the opposite side:

Inside the dining room, I think.

These are cloister seats from the 13th century,

which the head of a church in Italy was selling,

as they were too "contemporary" for him.

Hearst was like, yup, I'll buy them...

and put them in my dining room.

As one does.

Flags from the different regions within Spain (or maybe Italy?)

The first tapestry Hearst bought - 

when he was 10 years old.

Not exactly a "rags to riches" story,

at least for WR Hearst himself.

Our last official stop on the tour was the movie theater (not the one in the visitor center - Hearst's movie theater he installed in the Castle), where we saw footage of Hearst and his buddies hanging around doing rich people things like visiting their polar bears.  Our guide sent us on our way, and we spent a bit more time taking shots around the courtyards before we hopped back on the bus for the ride down the hill.

One of the giant sconces in the theater - 

there were around 20-30 of these.

Not bad digs, all in all

We made it back to the center without issue (soothed into a daze by the dulcet tones of Alex Trebek, narrating the bus ride), and after grabbing some iced tea to wake up a bit, it was time to head to our next stop - wine tasting in Paso!

Time to go!

Later!

Amy