San Simeon/Hearst Castle Trip

Gloriously, Art got the entire week of Thanksgiving off from work without taking vacation!  Thanks Apple!  Poppi and MiMi were headed our way for the week as well.  A good combination for a family vacation!  I was thinking along the lines of LegoLand, but then Art came up with the great idea of going to San Simeon, CA to see Hearst Castle.  I was very excited about this idea!  Many years ago Art and I watched a PBS special about William Hearst and part of that was this castle he built.  Dad and Faye were on board with going there with us.  We decided to go for two nights, Monday and Tuesday, returning Wednesday.  Joy was to fly into SFO late Wednesday night, and then of course Thursday is Thanksgiving.  We decided to drive along HWY 1 for awhile to see the beautiful scenery along the coast.  Knowing it would take us about 4 hours instead of 3 hours to get down there.  So so beautiful!

We rented a car last Friday for a week while Dad and Faye are in town.  Dad and Faye took our three boys in our car, and Art and I took the rental.  So already, we are getting a little vacation!

It was a beautiful drive down there, but after two hours of swerving along the coast, I had about enough.  We stopped at a restaurant on the coast for a quick bathroom break and walk around.  I am sure in the summer you can see whales from the patio of the restaurant.  We passed through the Big Sur area and tried to make note of some places to camp next year.  It is beautiful but not if you are looking for beach access.

Our goal was to get to the elephant seal beach before nightfall.  Goal reached!  It was crazy to see these giant, or what we thought were giant elephant seals.  On Tuesday, when we came back again, we learned from a docent that all the ones we see are adolescent seals and the adult seals should be coming in within the next few days.  We could hardly believe it on Wednesday when we took one last visit and saw 2 adult seals.  MASSIVE.  And so loud!  Yannick had a blast just listening to them, and yelling "potty humor on YOU - you made gas noises" at their grunts.  So funny!  The boys made up stories about some of the seals, especially one that seemed to want to cuddle with other seals but was so blubbery that the other seals scooted away from him.  We also got to see a bit of a stand-off with two adults.  They are so big and slug-like, it seems impossible that they can move fast, but shockingly, they can!  

They look dead, but they are plenty noisy and moving around a bit.

Here is the bully seal trying to to cuddle with everyone.

Then we went to check into our motel.  I chose this one specifically because it was on the beach and it had an "indoor heated" pool.  We went to dinner at a tri-tip restaurant that was recommended to us by our friends that lived in SLO.  It was a good place for our kids.  It was loud, plenty of football on the tvs, and plenty of room for the 7 of us at one circular table.  Z got a grilled cheese sandwich and WY shared a hotdog.  We got a basket of fries for the table and it was - try to believe this - too much!  

After dinner, we decided to take the kids swimming.  MISTAKE!  The water was horribly cold.  I refused to get in.  Art also did not want to get in.  The hot tub that we had seen in the pictures was no longer there.  There was no door to the enclosure, so the clold air just blew right in.  Luckily, Yannick deemed it too cold to play in.  Dad, the bravest Poppi around, got in with Zachary and Wyatt who did want to swim for awhile.  Faye and Yannick went back to the room to get into pjs and ready for bed while Art and I watched the kids and Poppi.  They did not last long, it was just too too cold.  The entire thing was a big disappointment because we had specifically planned for a place with a pool for the boys.

Tuesday morning we at breakfast at the hotel next door.  Our motel provided vouchers for a free continental breakfast for all 7 of us, or it could be used for $5 off a restaurant breakfast.  It was quite yummy!  We all fit in one booth that ended up being "our booth" every time we went there.  So much so that we would walk into the restaurant and Yannick would not wait to be seated, he would go straight to our table.  Then off to Hearst Castle.  We were hoping to get the 9am tour, but it was ok because there was one every 30 minutes.  We JUST made it for the 9am viewing of their IMAX movie about Hearst Castle.  Not surprising, their documentary left out all the 'storied' past associated with Mr. William Randolf Hearst.  Staci will appreciate that I always imagined Mr. Hearst from Newsies when they talked about him.  After the movie, we took the bus tour to the top of the hill to see the castle.  There are wild animals on the grounds, left over from the days Mr. Hearst had a zoo on site.  We got to see grazing deer, another species of deer, and ZEBRA!  A herd of Zebra living wild can be seen on the grounds.  So crazy to be in CA and see wild zebra.  Once we got to the castle, there was a 45 minute tour of the main parts of the castle, then a self-guided tour of the grounds.  The boys did amazingly well on the tour - being quite and patient in each room.  They loved the full theater inside the castle where they got to watch some cartoons from that era.  We got lucky that quite a bit of the castle was already decorated for Christmas which was so lovely.  It was an amazing house.  There are several other tours we could take, but we took the Grand Rooms Tour.  It was recommend for first time.  Maybe one day we will go back and see more, but I was happy to see what we did.  After the official tour, we walked around the grounds.  We got separated from Poppi and MiMi at the Roman pool, but met back up with them at the Neptune pool.  The plants and flowers were amazing.  The boys all liked the statues.  They also delighted in the echo they discovered by the tennis courts.  

This is the indoor Neptute pool.  So amazing!  The picture cannot come close to doing it justice.  The very cool thing is that they open the pool to the staff and volunteers twice a year.  I would LOVE to that.  It might be worth it to volunteer there just to get to swim in that pool!  And dive off the royal-looking platform!

The tour was over about lunch time.  I had packed a lunch for the boys in the car.  They ate that on the way back to the hotel.  We decided to eat in "our booth" at the restaurant by our motel.  I ordered a fruit plate for the boys and a delicious lunch for us.  Croissant with ham and cheese!  YUM!  Then back to the motel for naps.  Yannick and I fell asleep.  After ZW took an hour rest, Art took them down to the beach while Dad and Faye went to look at some shops.  Then we all met back up when Yannick woke up and hurried to get into the car so we could go see the elephant seals again before dark.  We made it in time!  Then for dinner we "let" Dad and Faye have pizza with the boys while Art and I went to dinner at a Mexican restaurant.  A lovely date night with Sangria.  

Wednesday is the day I realized we messed up.  Ok, I messed up.  I wanted us to take a lighthouse tour, but it is only offered on Tuesdays and Thursdays.  I knew this, and originally planned for us to do the Hearst Castle on Wednesday instead of Tuesday.  Then, days later, I changed our time for Hearst Castle to Tuesday, forgetting that the lighthouse was not going to be open.  S.I.G.H.  Perhaps it was for the best because it was a 2 hour tour with a lot of walking.  Still, we would have loved to see it, so I am bummed that I messed that up.  Instead, we decided to go to the beach after breakfast.  The kids had a blast running around on the beach, playing with sand toys and bubbles.  It made me wish we were spending another night here, so we could hang out on the beach for a relaxing day.  It was a great time.  It was chilly, but warm enough in the sun.

We had to cut the fun short to go back to the hotel and clean up.  Boys were completely sandy and needed a "foot shower".  We got packed up, into the car, and off to a bakery to get lunch and gas.  Hit the road.  On the highway this time!  We got back around 4pm.  Art and I left immediately to go pick up our turkey from Dick's BBQ.  Time to shift from vacation mode to Thanksgiving mode!