where the pacific meets land 1-6 june

wriggling our way up hwy 1 with the beautiful pacific ocean on our left and cooler temps and the marine layer, or june gloom as the locals call it, shrouding us in the evenings and early mornings.  day times have been blue and crisp.  camping just south of pismo beach and morro bay where we met up with one of buddy’s old peace corps pals from mali, jim and his wife penny.  we had good fun perusing the beach front, cycling around morro bay and morro dunes, nibbling hors d'oeuvres and sharing stories.  moving north towards the hearst castle.

pismo beach volley ball courts and pier

village of morro bay

morro rock in morro bay

buddy, penny and jim in morro bay

morro bay june gloom

what an over-the-top, out of sorts on the california coast type of place, or so it seemed to me…this castle would have been better suited in the loire valley in france.  165 rooms in the main house-or casa grande, as they call it, 3 guest houses, 2 jinormic gorgeous swimming pools, statues, columns, gardens, and grounds that really showed off the side of william randolf hearsts’ hoarder and wasteful tastes (even his parents used to call him wasteful willy).  he was the only child of george (who struck it rich when he found silver near reno) and his mother phoebe, 22 years george’s junior, both of whom hail from missouri.  wr hearst inherited all his parents wealth after their deaths, but also built his own empire in newspapers, movie production, cattle ranching and other dabblings.  in 1937 he was $126 million in debt to the USG and had to sell off stockpiles of art and land.  he and his wife, millicent, had 5 boys, who between them had 16 marriages.  patty, the infamous hearst believed to suffer from the stockholm syndrome when she was captured by the symbionese liberation army, is the daughter to one of  wr’s youngest son’s (a twin), randolf hearst.  wr hearst died in 1951, his wife millicent died in 1974 and all 5 of their sons have since died as well.  today there are, 62+ hearsts living around the US and the world.  the castle and the land the castle sits on is now owned by the CA state parks system, but the adjacent thousands of acres are still owned and worked by the hearst corporation in cattle ranching.

hearst castle

the front door and bell towers

some of the gardens

a window view of the gardens

guest sitting room off of a guest bedroom

a guest bedroom

wr hearsts public library with an amazing collection of books

his private library where only special guests were invited with another amazing collection of books

a taste of his art collection

outside carvings on the eves

another guest bedroom

a guest loft bedroom

ceilings in the loft bedroom

the neptune pool

again the neptune pool

and again

from the pool area to another level of gardens

some of the gorgeous flowers

one of his many statues

another of his statues and the view from the castle

the view from the castle 5 miles up from the sea with beautiful views

continuing up the coast just a few miles from the hearst castle, a beach of elephant seals caught our attention.  the seals are only there for a month every year when they shed their old layer of skin for a new layer and don’t swim or eat during that molting period.  the beach was covered with molting seals.  when they return to the sea, north bound they are headed, to their feeding grounds of northern washington state for the females and the aleutian islands for the males.  males reach 5,000 lbs and females 2,000 lbs.

elephant seals molting

and sunning

a bit of a squabble

their tracks

awwwwwww...

the CA coastline is absolutely gorgeous—world star.  windy air made for white capped swells on the sea next to the twisty hwy 1.  we have had sunshine everyday with strong head winds—makes us happy we’re driving and not riding our bikes as we see many intrepid cyclists.  traffic isn’t too bad as it’s still off season.  diesel prices have maintained around $4/gal.  quaint towns dot the entire coastline--san simeon, cambria, big sur, carmel by the sea, monterey, where steinbeck wrote 'cannery row', santa cruz and pescadero.  this is a drive not to be missed.

the mision san carlos in carmel by the sea founded in 1771

cannery row in monterey

pigeon point light house--the tallest light house on the west coast of the US just south of the san francisco bay

we're staying in half moon bay visiting with an old friend of aly's, just over the hills from the silicon valley, the techno hub of the world.  our next stop is san francisco then on to napa valley to meet up with more friends.