Sunday, April 3, 2011 – my oldest daughter Cali turned 20 years old. That is CRAZY!! (I think I may over use that expression. Anyway…) Because we are just a couple of wild n’ crazy girls, we decided a wild n’ crazy adult girls day trip was in order!! ‘Cause that’s how we roll. And so we headed south. To San Simeon. To take a tour of Hearst Castle!
Note: Hearst Castle is also on my 101 things in 1001 days list!! Double Score!!
Since it’s a nearly 5 hour drive we left super early (we had to take the long way. Part of Highway 1 had washed away. Again.) The drive was quiet, peaceful and without incident. We talked the whole time, catching up on each others lives. Laughing, joking around, getting to know each other again. We got there wicked early and decided to have a leisurely lunch at a seaside Bar & Grill. More talking, laughing, a little gossiping. Those important moments that weave our lives together in unending tapestries.
After lunch, we strolled along the bluffs overlooking the beach. The weather couldn’t have been more perfect. A light ocean breeze, scent of salt and sand in the air. Gulls flying overheard.
We couldn’t believe the number of elephant seals floating in the surf! There must have been a hundred at least. (You can’t really see them in the picture.) None of them came on shore, darn it. But it was to fun point out “there are more… and more… and MORE!” Soon, it was time to make like Cinderella and head to the castle.
This is our first view of it up close. Everyone rides by bus from the visitor center up to the actual castle, called Casa Grande. There are also three guest houses. The big house has 38 bedrooms and 41 bathrooms! Finally, no lines!
Casa Grande is over 60 thousand square feet! And my kids complain about vacuuming.
The Neptune pool is even larger and bluer than my sad little camera could capture. I would love to play mermaid in that thing!
There are a lot of Egyptian artifacts and inspired statuary. You know Cali was in heaVEN! Or Mt. Olympus. Or whatever the Egyptian equivalent is… man, I need to go back to school.
There are 6 huge original tapestries in this grand room. Copies of them hang in the Louvre. That fireplace is ginormous! You know I’m thinking s’mores! This is the room where guests hung out and had cocktail hour before dinner. Cary Grant, Charlie Chaplin, and other major movie stars from that era were frequent guests here. Bob Hope and his wife spent their honeymoon in one of the guest houses! How cool is that?!
That is a real Venus de something or other. A REAL ONE! There is so much art in this place, it rivals the world’s museums. In fact, I think it’s like the biggest collection of art in the US. I’m pretty sure of that. It is totally impressive!
OMG – does this look like the dining hall from Hogwarts or what?! You can’t tell from the pictures, but in between each set of gargantuan candlesticks are bottles of French’s mustard and Heinz ketchup. For some reason this totally cracked me up!
Of course, what castle would be complete without it’s own full size movie theater. These statue things that have a real name span down both walls. They provide most of the lighting for the room, to give it that real movie theater feel. They just had these small lights throughout most of the room, so the other pictures I took look like fireflies at midnight.
The indoor pool. All the gold patterned tiles are 23K gold leaf? They are all over the place, up the walls, the ceiling, the bottom of the pool. I don’t know if you can tell, but the pool goes into the next room. It is freakin’ HUGE!! That would be one hell of a game of Marco Polo!!
Afterwards, we took the tour bus back to the visitors center. Then we got to watch a movie called “Building the Dream” by National Geographic about the life of William Randolph Hearst and the building of the castle and grounds. It is seriously awesome. Cali and I had the best time! We love this stuff. When we were in New York a couple of years ago, we spent a whole day at the Met and then another at the Guggenheim. We are total art and history buffs!
After the movie, we headed home. It was a long way back. Cali slept most of the way, and I got to zone out listening to music, which is my favorite thing ever when I’m driving long distances. We finally arrived home about 10:30. Cali spent the night again and I drove her to her place the next morning on my way to work. I got to have her home two nights in a row!! That hasn’t happened since she moved out.
It was the best. day. ever!! Happy Birthday, Cali-wali!!
