Hearst Castle, Big Sur, Carmel

We started the day early with a 300+ mile trip to San Fran on our agenda. Our first stop was in San Simeon to see Hearst Castle, former home of William Randolph Hearst. We were lucky to get tickets for the tour because they typically sell out in advance. We sat through a pretty informative & entertaining 40 minute film, and then got on a bus to make the 20 minute climb to the castle. The tour was nice, but pretty short. We only went through a few rooms, but they were impressive. After the inside tour, we were free to roam the grounds. We stayed for 20 minutes or so, snapping pictures and then headed back. We ate lunch at a sandwich place near the castle that uses Hearst beef from the farm. I got a cheeseburger and it was extremely tasty. It was 3pm before we got back on the road. Our next stop was Big Sur. The stretch from San Simeon to Big Sur is the most scenic, but the roads are very curvy and close to the edge of the cliffs. We stopped at a state park and walked a trail to see a waterfall. Then we headed stopped at a place called Nepenthe, visited the gift shop and checked the view. Next stop was Carmel, which we arrived at sunset. The clouds were bad all day, but the sun was finally showing through a little. We drove through the little beachfront areas and downtown area and I snapped a shot of pebble beach. Since it was dark, we just hopped on the 101 instead of driving the coast the rest of the way to San Fran. We got to our hotel around 9, and called it a day.



A view from US 1





The Neptune pool





A lemon tree


The Roman pool





Big Sur area


Pebble beach