Day 38

Hearst Castle day. Picked up some water and a few other groceries and headed up the highway. Had a few leftovers to eat before making out way to the visitor center. We had some time prior to the bus leaving so we browsed the gift shop. You cannot drive your car up to the castle, due to the road being narrow and no place to park at the top, so you park at the bottom and a bus takes you to the top. Takes almost 15 minutes to reach the castle. Upon reaching the top you are lead up the stairs to your tour guide for your particular tour that you have chosen.

Our first tour was the Cottages and Kitchen. There are three cottages, smalles being about 2500 sq ft and the others being larger. Each room had it's own bathroom, the bedrooms were on the outside with a sitting room in the middle. The views from each cottage were different, either the mountains or the ocean. The ceilings in this first cottage were amazing and all had gold leaf covering the plaster. Many of the ceilings were purchased from somewhere in Europe. After touring the cottages we toured the kitchen which was in the Casa Grande (big house). None of the cottages had eating areas as guests were required to come together to eat at the large dining table. We also got to check it the wine cellar. The kitchen was huge, and considering it was built in the 20's and 30's it had real electric refrigerators and all the kitchen gadgets of it's time. William Hearst was a man after my own heart (I also love kitchen gadgets). One of the counters (a precursor to stainless steels, but I cannot remember what it was called) could be heated from underneath in order to keep the plated food hot. If I could figure out how to add photos from my iPad I would.

Our second tour was the Grand Rooms, these being the "living room", they called it the assembly room, where the guests would first come while waiting for dinner. The walls were filled with original large tapestries from hundreds of years ago. The dining room, the reflectory, was large with a very long table. After dinner the guests would move on to the billards room to relax and visit and play pool. This was our least favorite tour.

Our third tour, yes we did them all because we wanted to, was the Upstairs tour which included more bedrooms, Williams private room, his office - which was huge, a two story bedroom and the library. We really enjoyed seeing the private areas of their home.

After our tours we walked around the the gardens and checked out the outdoor pool - amazing, and it was heated (when the Hearsts were there) and then before leaving we saw the indoor pool which was beneath the tennis courts. All in all we enjoyed our day on the enchanted hill. If you want to see pictures just check out the Hearst Castle website.

We headed north on California 1 and drove the windy, up and down road as the sun was starting to go down. I was a little difficult driving while the sun was in our eyes but once the sun had set it made it easier. Tim was enjoying all the curves while I was starting to feel a little queasy. We made it safely to Fernwood Resort which was a nice small place down a steep hill. Being nestled in the redwood trees was really quite neat. After settling in we headed up the stairs to the restaurant for a bite to eat. We had nachos with smoked pulled pork, beans and guacamole. We both enjoyed it. Tim fell asleep immediately while I had some difficulty. A hour and half later and some up chuck later, I know, gross, but then I slept sort of but mostly dreaming.