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| Big Sur - California Hwy. 1 |
Walked to the laundromat in Carmel early this morning to wash a very ex$pen$ive load of laundry before hitting the road for our drive south along Hwy. 1 through Big Sur. Big Sur is Big and Beautiful!!! The road twists and turns, hugging the dramatic craggy shore. The surf slams against the bluffs and all you want to do is watch it, but of course there's the road in front of you to watch too...Rick!!! There was a lot of road repair going on due, it seems, to rock slides. You wonder whether on some of the outside curves the road is going to slide into the ocean. What a crazy, fun and nervous ride. We stopped for lunch at one of the few roadside restaurants where the food was modest, but the view was killer. Well worth it.
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| Rick driving the Big Sur, Hwy 1 |
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| Elephant Seal with Harbor Seal (foreground) |
Just 7 miles north of San Simeon, we had to stop at Piedras Blancas rookery and watch the Elephant Seals lounge around on the beach, which serves as a home to about 15,000 of them. They use this area for breeding, birthing, molting and rest. It's understandable because they spend up to ten months a year in the open ocean, diving up to 5,000 feet deep. Wow! These guys, and gals, are enormous and put on a real show, baying and sparing with one another. It appears that they share the beach with harbor seals that appear minuscule in comparison. We could have spent hours watching these guys, but it was incredibly windy and after a fifteen minute exfoliation compliments of the wind & sand, we decided to hit the road again.
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| Hearst Castle - "The Ranch at San Simeon" |
Next stop, Hearst Castle, William Randolph Hearst's 165 room "ranch at San Simeon". It's one of the country's grandest estates and was built over 28 years, being completed in 1947. It's filled with historic art and feels in many ways like a museum. The mansion boasts two pools. The outdoor one is called the Neptune Pool and the other, a Roman pool located beneath the tennis courts, has gold tiles. Both were stunning.
Caught an authentic Mexican meal in Cambria, CA and crashed in a very modest motel nearby.
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Neptune Pool
Ancient Roman columns (1st century A.D.) support the temple |
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The Roman Pool
with gold tiles |
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