Friday, 9/30 - Highway 1 and Hearst Castle

We left Ventura and headed on up the coast (back through Santa Barbara) up Highway 1.  It was very nice, but were surprised how empty it was once past Santa Barbara.  We were going in and out of the Marine Layer fog and eventually turned inland onto highway 101 (bypassing Vanderburg Air force Base) and eventually getting back on Highway 1 on the coast just past San Luis Obispo and Morro Bay.

We were aiming for San Simeon so we could tour the Hearst Castle.

Before we got there, we were driving around San Simeon (not much to it - just two streets) and saw a building named the Friends of the Elephant Seal.  We stopped in and found out that there is an Elephant Seal viewing area just off Highway 1 about 8 miles up the road.  They had a beach cam showing the area (you can find it at Elephantseal.org) that showed that there were seals on the beach.

So, after lunch we headed there.  It was amazing.  Evidently, this group of seals were juveniles.  The adults show up in the winter months (December through February).  At that time, the females give birth, nurse their pups, and then mate again.  Then the seals head out individually on their migration, some as far north as the Aleutian Islands.








Then we went on the tour of Hearst Castle.  

It was interesting.  After you heard the stories, you really appreciated the architect, Julia Morgan, who managed the project as William Randolph Hearst's imagination kept things challenging...  She was well known in San Francisco, but she worked most of her career (almost 30 years) on this project.  She designed not only the buildings, but also the gardens, the roads (the road up to the "Castle" is 5 miles from the coast and up 1600 feet to the top of a hill), the dam and aqueduct system to feed water to the buildings (and pools), the zoo enclosures and everything else necessary to keep the place running.

Her main challenge seemed to be to incorporate all of the European items Hearst had acquired over the years (statues, furniture, walls, pennants, tapestries, fireplaces, ceilings, windows, etc.) into these grand rooms.  And he liked the idea of designing buildings and rooms, so she worked with him on the final designs.

The place is fascinating to see, but, to me, it seemed more like a fantasy (bringing Europe to California - kind of like Disneyland) than a true architectural project.






Then we wandered around the little town trying to decide on a place for dinner.  Evidently they were having a "scarecrow festival", which seemed a little strange, but they has some displays around town...




Link to next post:  10/1 - Highway 1 and Big Sur









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