December 27, 2011
This was, sadly, our last full day in the Spanish Bay/Carmel/Monterey area. There was no golf, so our whole family spent the day together. We took the Find A Parking Spot challenge around Carmel again, but with much more luck. We window shopped for a bit before starting our day trip up Highway 1, which goes straight up the California coast and is breathtakingly beautiful the entire way.
Our final destination was Hearst Castle, but we made several other stops along the way. I believe we went over one of the world's largest arched bridges called Bixby Bridge. We also saw several beautiful beaches. We stopped for a snack at a bakery, and then drove up the road for lunch at The Nepenthe. There is usually a long wait there, but it's not for the food. I was told that many celebrities came to eat there, and I could see that everyone else did too, and it was because the restaurant is located on a cliff with a spectacular view of the coast. You would think such a famous and popular place could afford decent chef. You would be wrong. The food was not good, overpriced, and there were no free refills. Have I mentioned my issue with this? There was no non-fast food, sit-down restaurant in San Francisco or anywhere we stopped between Carmel and Hearst Castle that offered free refills. A Subway in San Francisco allowed only one. What kind of crap is that? (Spoiler alert: we found a Mediterranean place in Carmel the next day that had free refills AND it was my favorite meal of the trip.) The least The Nepenthe could do is offer free refills, since that's all they could do right.
We hiked off our lunch on a trail to a waterfall in a California State Park. There were several along the highway. Another one we stopped at had a steep path to a beach that has some jade for the taking. Our last stop before Hearst Castle was the elephant seal rookery. It's a beach where the biggest seals anyone has ever seen come right up to the walkway. I guess to mate, but we just saw them huddled together. Apparently, one male will have several calves and they all sleep in clusters. If another male comes too close, they fight. Or, as we saw, they burp at each other and kind of... wiggle after each other... very slowly. But that wasn't a real fight, was I informed. When they're serious, blood is drawn. I preferred our comedy version.
Then, to end the day, it was Hearst Castle! Owned by What'shisface Hearst, CEO of... basically everything. William Randolph Hearst started out in the newspaper business, first inheriting the San Francisco Examiner from his father. What followed resulted in a castle somewhere, a ranch in California, and somewhere down the road, a kidnapped granddaughter, with whom you might be more familiar.
Yes, if you caught on, Hearst had two castles. An ACTUAL castle - I can't remember if it is in Europe or on an island somewhere - and Hearst Castle in California - which was actually just his ranch!! It was built (but not completely finished) over 28 years, starting in the 1920s. If you did the math, yes, he was building a castle during the Great Depression. He actually created a lot of well-paid jobs by doing so, so I haven't quite figured out how conceited that fact made him. The castle was built to include his antiques, which he began collecting at the age of ten. I guess that's why it had to be so big. He had two guest houses. His guests were all famous people he'd invite to stay (but they weren't allowed to bring their own booze, and he made sure no one had more than two drinks of his own, which he locked up in a safe). He even had a huge theater in the main house, two swimming pools, and two libraries.
TWO LIBRARIES.
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