(click photos to enlarge). Many SLO locals rarely or never visit our largest tourist attraction - Hearst Castle. But not us! We recently had guests staying from out of town with us (a couple from Southern Calif. and an undergrad student attending the University of Alaska - Fairbanks). Of course, we took them to Hearst Castle. It was a clear and cold day, with great views of the magic castle that William Randolph Hearst envisioned and that architect Julian Morgan designed, and that a horde of builders constructed.
Mr. Hearst camped near the location of Hearst Castle as a boy. It was for this reason that he chose the same location for a much grander purpose: to build "La Cuesta Encantada" or in English, The Enchanted Hill".
The Castle tour bus winds to the top of the hill, where we get off for the start of our "Large Rooms Tour".
The Castle is filled with antique items collected by Mr. Hearst throughout his lifetime, and the rooms serve as display portals for those collections. The "Billiard Room" in the main Castle building hosts some of the oldest antiquities in the Hearst collection. Above is the Billiard Room's ancient ceiling imported from Europe, and below (in the same room) is the oldest tapestry on the Castle grounds: The Hunter and the Stag, that dates from the 1500's.
There are two pools on the gounds: the Neptune Pool (outdoors) and the Roman Pool (indoors). Both are indescribably rich and are magical in their surroundings, as you can see. Sue enjoys the view from a lounge chair beside the Neptune Pool. Below is the golden tiled Roman Pool.
Finally, one of two unique fountains adorn the west facing view of the guest house: La Casa Del Mar, or the House of the Sea. If you have not been to Hearst Castle recently (or at all!), we encourage you to take a step back in time and enjoy a wonderful part of our central coast heritage.
Above: Special photo of my Dad's (Bob's) 1991 Miata. We sold it to a person who lives in Morro Bay, so we went by and took a photo of it. It means much to us that it lives on with somebody else. It was a great car for us, as we owned it for 6 or 7 years, and it was Andrew's car through his days at UCDavis. Thanks!
