Central Coast - Hearst Castle

Wednesday was a transition day as we drove down south to Morro Bay.  We stopped along the way to see Hearst Castle which is nestled on a hill in San Simeon (almost right in between L.A. and San Francisco) overlooking the ocean.  In the mornings and evenings you can't see it because it is covered in fog and clouds.  William Randolph Hearst was an American newspaper magnate and leading newspaper publisher.  He was born into money and eventually entered the publishing business in 1887.  Basically, he made a lot of money and loved to collect.

He essentially built his "Castle" to house his art and antiquities collection.  So many of the rooms were built around the art rather than that art chosen for the room.  He always wanted this to be a museum and so built it that way.

It's a sprawling estate and you have to be bused to the top of the hill to begin the tour.  There are 4 different tours but we just did Tour #1.  Every detail was thought out.  Its amazing how they got everything up the hill back then and how great it still looks today.

It was a clear day and you could see the ocean just perfectly.

 

Here's a shot of the indoor pool where most of the staff were able to swim.  I'm so jealous!  Hearst donated the estate to the State of California in 1957 for everyone to enjoy.  He was one the visionary men of California, like Getty and Huntington, who looked into the future and wanted to share their love of art and collecting with the people and not have it stored away out of site or put to auction.  Thank you very much we are enjoying it.  After our detour it was off to our house in Morro.

Central Coast - Monterey

On the Tuesday of our trip, we decided to rent some beach cruisers and ride up and down the bike paths along the coast. My parents went to see the aquarium, which was highly recommended by a number of people.  Jamie and I wanted to be outside though to enjoy the scenery.

Here is one of the views we saw along our ride.  I love this picture, it came out awesome.

Our lovely bikes.  It was a gorgeous day and the weather was finally starting to warm up.  We got some really amazing views and we were able to do the whole stretch we had planned to that morning.

After our bike ride we went to Carmel for lunch, the Carmel Mission, and the 17mile drive (I posted those pictures already a bit out of sequence but this way seemed to flow better).  This is a picture of the house we stayed at.  It was only two bedrooms and both were upstairs but there was plenty of room downstairs for additional guests.  We could see all the boats going in and out for the day from the dinning room.  It was pretty amazing.  Here my Dad is packing up to head down to Morro Bay.

Central Coast - Carmel & 17 mile Drive

We checked out the Carmel Mission and were pretty amazed at how beautiful it was.  I had read that it was worth seeing and that it was one of the most complete missions in California but still wasn't sure what to expect.

It was painstakingly restored with much detail and looked amazing.

It was definitely one to see while we were in the area.

After the mission we did the 17 mile drive.  It was pretty foggy in places but it was still a spectacular coastline.

It got pretty cold as well, so it was nice going back to the warm car :)

This was one of the deer's we saw along the way.  We saw a lot more on the golf course which was cool but they just weren't in their natural habitat!  We wish it could have been a bit clearer but it did bring a different mood to the drive and we did enjoy it.

Central Coast - Big Sur

Day 2 we drove down to Big Sur.  It was about 40 miles south of us and the fog was pretty heavy in some areas.  We drove thru the clouds on a winding road to get there which made it quite a journey.

We first stopped at McWay Falls in Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park.  It's a short hike to the viewpoints and you get some amazing views but with the fog so thick it wasn't nearly as dramatic as some of the pictures we've seen of it. 

The hike was really nice though and we got our first views of the coastal redwoods.

We then drove to Pfieffer Burns State Park.  After a short visit to the lodge we did about a 3 mile hike to another falls and to a viewpoint.  It started to warm up as well :)

Everything was nice and green :)

By the end of the hike it was really warm and Jamie started to melt!

We then found a nice little picnic area near the Big Sur River for lunch.  We were pretty hungry and thirsty and it didn't take long for us all to eat everything, lol.

As I mentioned earlier it did warm up and Jamie and I had our water shoes in the truck.  So we walked into the river to cool off for a bit.  The water was pretty cold but it felt really good and it was a lot of fun.  Big Sur was beautiful and it was nice to be outdoors in the forest for the day. 

Central Coast Vacation - Monterey

Well we've been back to the normal grind, sort of, for a few days now (Jamie flew to England so he's not quite back to normal yet).  We had an amazing vacation as usual, we probably did too much and it just wasn't long enough but isn't that how it always is.  We took last week off and travelled up north to Monterey with my parents.  We took  Hwy101 and got on PCH just past San Louis Obispo and then took the coastal route all the way up.

We stayed in Pacific Grove which is just next door to Monterey.  It was a bit cooler than we had thought it would be but we still got plenty of sunshine.  The coast is just amazing.

We explored the seaside and walked up and down the coast on Sunday.  We also explored downtown and got to see the art museum, of course, and one of the oldest adobe homes.  The history of Monterey is pretty amazing.

Sunglasses were needed but sweaters were also required with the cool breeze.  Luckily it gradually got warmer as the week went on but the morning and evening fog did catch us off guard a bit.

You can see the fog hanging out in the background.  You could never tell where or when it would show up, lol.

We were able to see lots of wildlife!

 

But the coastal views were amazing and with the new camera it was great to be able to get some awesome pictures.  Lot of pictures!  I'll be separating this out into a few posts to document our trip.  It's always fun to look back and see what we did each day.

Tucson, Arizona

So this weekend I drove with my Mom to go to a 25th Wedding Anniversary in Tucson Arizona.  We left early Friday morning for the roughly 7 hr drive.  It was my Mom's nephew, Ramons' 25th Wedding Anniversary and they decided to renew their vows in the same church that they got married in.  We made it to Tucson by about 2pm and decided to go wonder around downtown until our hotel was ready.

I wanted to see the Tucson History Museum but unfortunately it was closed on Friday due to illness.  Calling in sick on a Friday seems suspicious but what could I do, I was a bit disappointed about that.  So we drove over to an area that Tata, my Mom's dad lived in during the 1930s.  I know they came to the U.S. in 1919 and settled in El Paso,  TX.  Then in 1929, the family moved to Tucson to work on the roads.  From different documents I've found, I knew they lived at 33 W. Cushing Street.

The area is now a historic block, but at the time was the Mexican Barrio.  The exact location of his house is no longer there, but has now become the Police Department and Jail.  But the view across the street is still there.  So it was still nice to see what him and his family saw as they came out their front door every morning.  Most of the buildings if not all of them, were adobe style houses all painted different colors and some as old as the 1880s.  They are in pretty bad shape now and the city is trying to preserve and re-store them.

These are just a couple of pictures we took.  Of course now I wish I would have taken more but we were pretty tired from the drive and it was over 100F outside.  I'm so happy we were able to walk around and see the area, that's something I'll never forget.  Saturday, we made it to the Tucson Museum of Art in the morning and saw some really amazing southwestern paintings and local artists. 

As for the Anniversary party, Anthony and Laura flew out later on Saturday and we all went to the Church and reception.  It was a lot of fun and nice to see everyone again.  We all drove back together on Sunday.  A super quick trip but a very memorable one.  Only two more weeks till vacation number two :)  At least this one will be longer and slower.

Getty Villa Malibu

Last weekend was Memorial Weekend, which meant three whole days off in a row.  A much needed three days off!  On Saturday, we decided to drive up to Malibu to check out the Getty Villa.  The Villa is the original building, created by J.Paul Getty, to be a museum to house his collection of Greek and Roman antiquities.  Getty made his money in oil and loved the arts and history.  He started collecting and wanted to share his collection with the public. 

So he started construction of a museum.  But this wasn't just any building, he had blue prints to one of his favorite ancient Roman ruins of a villa and combined that with other known sites to create a truly authentic time period house.  He wanted people to experience his collection at the villa as if they had been transported back in time.  As he was an oil man, money wasn't too much of an issue and a lot of thought went in to making everything just right.

It was completed in the 1970s and Getty never saw the finished museum.  It underwent a massive renovation in 1997.  The museum is still free but a ticket must be reserved in advance, of course parking will cost you but for what you get to see, it's worth it.  The collection was amazing and the grounds really put everything into perspective.  Absolutely worth the trip.  Afterwards, we drove down to Santa Monica for some lunch and to walk around.  So much fun and a really beautiful day.  It was a great start to the holiday weekend.  We both were totally relaxed the whole weekend until Tuesday finally creeped up :(