We left Monterey around 9.30 am. Our objective for the day was to visit Hearst Castle, see the elephant seals and end up at Santa Barbara, 250 miles south. We achieved all without issues.
To get to Hearst Castle at San Simeon we had to drive down the rather bleak and blustery coast known as Big Sur. Great driving, good highway and the weather was fine, but chilly and windy. When I say the weather was fine, it was fine as long as we were in the car.
Somehow we think/thought/hoped for that as long as we were in California we would be blessed with good warm weather. Not so. It is winter in California and the rains are here. Somehow I think this is an extra ordinarily rainy winter but so be it. We thought about trying to get our winter clothes back from FedEx but that was in jest.
Hearst Castle: It has never been on my hit parade but I was happy to visit it. It is an amazing feat accomplished by a man with a large ego and virtually unlimited funds.
Hearst came from a wealthy family but he made his money on his own, in the newspaper business. he was a giant among men. He also had a mistress and a somewhat complicated arrangement with his wife and mistress. he used his Castle to entertain the 'beautiful people' from the entertainment business and other high profile people from all over the world.
The furnishings came from all over the world and the result is a somewhat mixed assortment of very expensive and interesting bits of history that just does not seem to accomplish what I would call the desired effect.
My uneducated opinion of Hearst and his Castle is of a man, with unlimited money and power who tried to make his home in the style that Europeans have taken hundreds of years to achieve. Hearst tried to do it in 24 years without the taste necessary to achieve the elegant and timeless look that he was trying to achieve. [My opinion.]
We did see the Elephant Seals on the way down. Interesting animals, I pity them, I am not sure who has it worse, penguins or seals and walruses. Both live in terrible conditions with limited mobility on land. [In the photo the big ones are the males the medium are the females, the small ones are the young pups.]
Around 6.30 we pulled into Santa Barbara after torrential rains in the mountains about half an hour prior to hitting Santa Barbara. We were all glad to get into the hotel. It was somewhat less than we expected, but after half an hour we were settled in and happy as clams. I will describe the decor as 'Early 60's Santa Barbara'. It is clean.
So far the accommodation has been less than our expectation level: San Francisco was a 1920's hotel, Wyatt Earp could have stayed there, Monterey was a 1911 Alice in Wonderland theme, and now, back to the 60's. This is not a complaint, just an observation.
A stroll on the beach after a glass of wine and cheese for dinner was where we saw the homeless settling in for the the night in various locations with a variety of clothing and an assortment of possessions. Suddenly our place looks like Hearst Castle!
A good day.
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