road trip: cambria & hearst castle
may 18, 2005

moonstone beach

you would never guess how often i checked the weather report during the days leading up to the trip. even up to a few days before, the weather reported rain and gloomy things of that nature. i was really ready to pull the plug on this trip and travel to someplace warmer. but someone was watching over me and gave me fucking awesome weather. highs in the 60's and 70's with lows in the 40's.

on wednesday morning, i got up and took a walk along the beach. it's pretty quiet but a few doors down, there is a place that also allows travelers to bring their dogs. it made me regret not bringing snowbie with me. there's always next time i guess.

oliver's twist art gallery

since my first tour at hearst castle wasn't until 12:20pm, i headed into cambria's east village again and scoured through the shops on burton drive. oliver's twist housed some fine artsy things at rather reasonable prices. i regret not getting some vases there but i will definitely stop back in again when i'm in town. i also thought the design of the shop from the outside was rather unique.

stores on burton drive

cambria really looks like what you would expect a small town would look like. brick and mortar. wood shingles. like something from a picture book depicting small european towns, east coast villages and what not. very quaint. very friendly. and not to mention gas gougers as well at $2.95 a gallon. ouch. you see...evil does lurk in small towns.

yanking my yarn - sounds nasty huh?

i'm going to 'fess up here and tell you the reason why i went back to burton drive was because i saw that there's a yarn shop here. so i HAD to take a look. and omfg, what an assortment of hard to find (albeit pricey) yarns. i only limited myself to 10 minutes and 1 skein. i selected a skein of rayon chenille by colinette at $22.00 a skein (gulp). the lady here was rolling the hank into a nice ball for me. the name of the store is called ball & skein i believe. i'll be back next time. :x

courtyard deli (my photo is better than their website's i think)

the evening before at brambles, the hostess told me that a good cheap place to grab grub is at courtyard deli, located in the west village side of cambria. she told me that she works there during the day as well. so i dropped in before heading north to san simeon and what do you know...she was there. they serve really great sandwiches & salads. i ordered a beef dip sandwich with a garden salad. you know how traveling sometimes makes you "irregular" so i need to eat all the veggies i can get. is that too much info? nah.

courtyard deli
604 main street
cambria, ca
805.927.3833

yummy

yummy squared

the official hearst castle buses

hearst castle is located in the town of san simeon - about 12 minutes north of cambria. during this stretch, there are several vista points for you to pull over and take pictures. i'll show those in another entry though. but they are worth your while to stop and take pictures. just....wow.

upon arriving at hearst castle, you check in at the visitor's center to pick up your tickets. i would highly suggest reservations as i saw several people stop in on a whim expecting there to be tickets but only to be turned away due to it being sold out. you can order your tickets online like i did and pick them up when you arrive.

you head to the bus boarding area at your respective reservation time and prepare to board one of the above luxurious liners for your nearly 10 minute drive up the hill to the "castle". for this day, i decided to take TOUR 1: THE EXPERIENCE TOUR and TOUR 2: UPPER FLOORS OF CASA GRANDE.

to my (un)luck, part of my TOUR 1 tour group was comprised of a senior citizen tour group. nearly 25 of them with canes slow-motioned it onto the bus. little did i know that these senior citizens would actually cause me to want to cancel my other tours during this visit. i'm not sure what it was or what rubbed me the wrong way but they asked so many ridiculous questions and kept on yelling out "i can't hear you". and the pace was slowed down by at least 15 minutes in order for everyone to catch up. i eventually just lagged behind during the tour, taking my own photos and not listening to what the guide had to say. of course the incident that pissed me off the most was when my flash accidentally went off and this elderly man accusingly HAD to re-iterate to me (as if i didn't hear if for the zillionth time) that no flash was allowed. do people think i take photos with flash on purpose when i knowingly am aware that flash is not allowed? argh. maybe i was pms-ing.

neptune pool

now that i've visited hearst castle, i'm not sure if i ever need to go back again. i would like to take the night time tour (TOUR 5) but it all depends on the guide you get and how well in depth of a tour that they give you. like i said earlier, i really had a bad time on TOUR 1 but perhaps i would have liked it more if i wasn't in such a huge group with people who kept on asking questions about patty hearst instead of listening to the guide.

neptune pool from above

i ought to be fair though as TOUR 1 really gave you a beginners overview of the compound and would be a great tour for those who have never been there before (such as myself) but i personally found TOUR 2 to be much more interesting. i liked the rooms they showed in TOUR 2 in addition to the much smaller group (13). check out the links above if you're interested in reading about what you see in which tours.

facade of casa grande

3,500 years old

as i said, the weather could not have been more cooperative. from up high on the hills, the winds blew steadily while the sunshine enhanced the beauty of the place even more so. and the pool...SIGH. this was the main attraction for me. after each tour ends (1 hour 45 minutes per tour), you depart back down the hill again before getting onto another bus for your next tour. it all depends on how you scheduled your time there. if you visit TOUR 1, you also get to watch the 40 minute movie on the making of hearst castle and a bit of the history of the family. it's a good way to rest your feet after all that walking.

the roman pool