Vacation Part 3: Hearst Castle/Ventura, CA

Well our vacation was finally winding down:(  Driving down Highway 1 on the California coast is absolutely BREATH-TAKING!  Seriously the prettiest road trip I've ever been on. 

Just before reaching the castle we saw these things and just HAD to pull over!!!  I have NEVER seen Elephant Seals before and was absolutely stunned by them!  I could have watched them for hours!  There was at least 100 of these enormous creatures!!!

I had to take a video of these things moving along the beach, talking to each other and bathing themselves in the sand:  (the burping noises are the seals:)

Our next stop was going to be at Hearst Castle in San Simeon, CA.  This unfinished castle was built by William Hearst and his architect Julia Morgan.  William Hearst was a very successful business man with his newspaper in San Francisco being his main business--in his prime he operated 32 businesses!  The construction began in 1914 and continued over the next 27 years.  It was really quite amazing.  I wondered how it could take 27 years to build but I quickly understood why when I learned a little more about William Hearst.  He loved the art/architecture/style of the European countries.  He loved this plot of land in California that he grew up camping on as a child.  He wanted to combine these two things, and well, he did just that.  The castle was truly "recycling" at it's best.  They couldn't just draw up plans for the house because the house needed to be built to accommodate his artifacts that he acquired.  William bought statues, artwork, tapestries, old choir risers, sarcophagi, fireplaces, and anything else he liked.  Here are some of the pics of the inside:

A Tapestry

This is the ceiling

Only 1 piano in this entire place!!!  What?!?!  I should have walked out:)

The chairs in this room are old choir risers:)

Some shots of the outside:

Max was all about finding the sarcophagi (coffins) on the grounds:)

The view from his castle

We tried convincing the kids that it would be a PAIN to live here.  How would you EVER make the decision each and every day to swim in the outdoor pool:

Or the indoor pool?!?!

One of the coolest things about William Hearst was that he was not some weirdo that liked to keep all his things to himself.  He LOVED to share his castle with everyone.  He often flew friends out--mostly famous actors/actresses--to his castle for weekend parties.  There was tons to do there--pools, tennis courts, and a full on ZOO (with polar bears, zebras, and giraffes)!!!  When William came on some hard  financial times,  he donated the animals to local zoos.  But the zebra stayed and you can STILL see the descendants of the original zebra running around the property with the deer and antelope!  We saw them while we were driving away!!!  Look REALLY close!  

So we were absolutely EXHAUSTED at this point of our vacation.  We spent the last 2 days in Ventura, CA.  While we were here, we caught up on all of our lost sleep:)  So we slept late and enjoyed the rest of the time at the hotel pool/hot tub and the beach:

We had a fantastic time but it was sure nice to get back home again too:)  This summer was just jammed-packed with fun.  It went by way too fast for me but boy we sure had LOADS of fun:)  Back to reality again:)