Day 23, Monday March 23rd: US1, Hearst Castle, nephew Mike.

Monday we departed Birchwood Nipomo about 08:00 for Pismo Beach SP.  We planned to stop and walk the beach for a little exercise before continuing onto tour the Hearst Castle. 

We stopped at the booth and the young lady asked if I was going to drive the dunes, I said "not with this"...too funny. If you don't drive on the beach, parking is free, so we parked and walked. 

Pismo Beach

Pismo beach has some of the finest sand we have ever seen and it is a chore to walk the dunes since it is so light and fine you just spin your wheels.

Pismo Beach

The tide was out leaving a nice sand bed that was hard enough to easily walk on, so we did.

June had mentioned earlier that the beaches had few shells, well Pismo has lots of shells and sand dollars. We picked up a few (dead) sand dollars for our grandkids. Getting them home without breaking them will be a bit of a challenge. 

Taking Clams off the beach is illegal, unless they are empty. We did see some cool shells. 

Pismo Beach Stream

Pismo Beach has a stream that runs across it to the ocean, it is about ankle deep and is cool....it was nice to wade through. 

Pismo Beach

You can walk or ride on the beach, bring your dog or even your horse to the beach. 

We walked a little over an hour up and down the beach, at least a mile in each direction, it was good to get some exercise. 

Pismo Beach Dunes

When we left the beach we walked the dunes a little. It is tough sledding in the fine sand. I find it interesting that on the east coast, in particular the outer banks, they strongly discourage walking on the dunes, here I saw no signs saying you could not...hmmm. 

We left Pismo Beach and set out for the Hearst Castle in San Simeon, a little over an hour drive. Yesterday I made a tour reservation for 12:20 and we wanted to arrive in plenty of time. They offer multiple tours, we signed up for the most basic, the Grand Rooms Tour.  

We arrived at the Visitor Center in plenty of time and toured the museum, it is pretty well done. 

Hearst Castle from the Visitor Center

This is the Castle from the visitor center, it is a 5 mile bus ride to the mansion. 

The mansion and grounds are absolutely stunning.  

Hearst Castle

The views are spectacular and the whole place just flows with opulence. 

Neptune Pool

The Neptune Pool was just begging for us to jump in, but they would not let us. The marble columns were constructed from Vermont marble.

Much of the art around the premises is legit, not replicas, some of the Egyptian statues are over 3000 years old. W.R. Hearst collected fine art from around the world and brought much of it back to his castle. 

Heast Casa Grande

The Main Mansion, called Casa Grande, looks like it should be in Europe. Hearst and his architect, Julia Morgan, incorporated features from places in Europe they had visited and brought home many artifacts from Europe. 

The grand rooms are grand, opulence is everywhere, it's hard to get your head around. 

The Refectory

This is the dining room, the Refectory; it's just over the top. 

They tell a funny story about when you are invited to stay at the Hearst Castle. Your first night at dinner you will be next to WR Hearst but each successive night you move down the table. When you get to the end of the table, your stay is over 😏.

Billiard Room

Many of the rooms have Tapestries hanging on the walls, WR liked them better than paintings. The Billiard Room has one of the oldest from the 15th century. 

WR's Theater

Every evening WR showed movies to his guests in the Theater. For the tour we sat in the theater and saw a few of WRs home movies. 

Hearst Indoor Pool

The last stop for the tour is the indoor pool, with millions of tiles from Murano, Italy. It is beyond imagination....just crazy. It's ten feet deep but looks shallow and has a diving platform.

After the tour, we watched the 40 minute film, Building the Dream, which covers how WR got his European influence and the building of his castle, it was well done. 

Hearst Zebras

The views as you approach and leave the castle are amazing, at one time exotic animals were all over the property.  WR had one of the largest private zoos in the world. In the 1940's the depression put financial pressure on WR and he sold or donated many of his animals. 

Zebras are still thriving on the property and can be seen from the highway. 

We enjoyed our visit to the Hearst Castle, we only toured a small portion of the estate. If you get the chance, for $35 it is worth the tour. 

After the Hearst Castle we checked in at our campground, Hearst San Simeon State Park.  June contacted her nephew, Mike, who lives about 45 mins away in Paso Robles. Mike came and picked us up, we had another Uber driver for the evening 😊.

San Simeon Elephant Seals

Mike Ubered us to the viewing area for the Elephant Seals. They are huge but Mike said these were the small ones, the bigger ones come during mating season which just passed. There were Elephant Seals as far as you can see. 

Elephant Seals sunning themselves

Most were just sunning themselves on San Simeon Beach

Mike took us to a place called Moonstone Beach, where they have a beautiful board walk, hotels/inns and a few restaurants. 

Dinner at Moonstone Beach Bar and Grill

We stopped at the Moonstone Beach Bar and Grill for dinner.  It was delicious, the weather was perfect and we had nice views of the ocean. 

Sunset at Moonstone Beach

We enjoyed catching up with Mike. Mike has worked here in California for over 20 years for T-Mobile and is clearly happy with his west coast lifestyle. We hope to see him back east in the not too distant future, but he said he is not coming in the winter, I wonder why 😏.

It was a great day, tomorrow we will continue north on US1. We have no place booked for tomorrow night, so we may have to move inland to find a camping place, everything on the coast is booked.