Day 39 – May 13

We were on the road shortly after 8, in preparation for a busy day. We wanted to visit the Hearst Mansion in San Simeon which was about a 2 hour drive. We headed out on the 101 to avoid driving past the Vandenberg Air Force Base which we assumed would not be a scenic marvel and then back to the # 1 at Pismo Beach. Again however the fog was playing havoc with our view of the ocean. We drove through beautiful hilly grasslands that seemed to be dedicated to raising cattle and horses and some agriculture. We passed through several vineyards that stretched to the horizon and many other cultivated fields of strawberries, cauliflower and other market crops.

Traffic was light which made for a much more leisurely drive than the previous day. Shortly after a pit stop and coffee break we arrived at the Hearst Mansion at around 11:00. Now owned and operated by the State of California. You enter the site at a 7,000 square foot visitors centre/boutique/cafe/movie theatre where you buy tickets for the various tours and await a shuttle bus for the 10 minute drive up the hill to the ‘castle’. We chose the recommended tour for first timers, the Grand Rooms tour, and set off at 11:40 for our guided tour.

Depending on your perspective on sites like this the Hearst Mansion would lie somewhere along a spectrum of an outlandish display of obscene wealth or an amazing creation of a man who had a dream and had the capacity to make it happen. It is hard to judge past events through the lens of today but for me, who has more than a few cynical bones in his body, this was a delightful place.

Started relatively late in Hearst’s life for such a mammoth undertaking at 56 Hearst devouted the next 28 years of his life to the creation of his hill top part-time home. Built in a style reminiscent of grand European villas Hearst spent decades collecting art as well as pieces of demolished and decaying European structures that he and his architect through all these 28 years knit into the fabric of his creation. Never afraid to change his mind and pay the cost for doing so there were frequent rethinks of approaches and resultant demolition to accommodate a new purchase or vision.

We walked through room after room where Hearst wined, dined and entertained his steady stream of guests drawn from the diverse backgrounds of business, entertainment and the arts. He was know as a generous host and guests stayed as long as they wanted, although the practice of moving long standing guests further and further from their host at successive dinners may have been a less than subtle reminder of a visit overstayed.

Dining with the Hearsts

After the formal tour we could spend as long as we wanted wandering the grounds, imagining what a weekend visit to this site would have been like as we sat beside the beautiful column surrounded swimming pool. My favourite spot by far was the enclosed pool. Lit from above with natural light supplied through glass block inlaid in the roof of the structure which also served as the tennis court. This was clearly a concession to the pool as the inlaid glass block, all be it along the net line surely would have limited footing at net side volleys. The pool itself, a explosion of cobalt blues and gold with marble ladders was like something out of a fantasy.

Following a 40 minute IMAX movie in the I house theatre that played through the history of the Hearst family, its humble beginnings and the construction of the ‘caste’ we headed out, hoping to make it to Big Sur for the night.

And tonight’s guests…

There were a couple of state parks along the route so our plan was to check them out as we got closer to Big Sur. We all had been anticipating this coast drive but the sea fog was playing havoc with our views of the sea. Depending on headland configuration, wind direction and strength of sun we either had a wall of fog, whisks of fog climbing up the hillsides or a clear view. At one point we stopped to watch a group of sea lions basking on the beach below while two male elephant seals fought over supremacy of some rock that seemed very important to them.

Following a few more photo stops and some unnecessary exploration due to poor park signage we finally made our way into the Pfeiffer Big Sur State Park. For possibly only the second time since we have been travelling we actually arrived at a site while there was staff at the check in.

In hindsight, we should have waited around the corner until he left. Of all the accolades I might throw in this guys direction fast would not be one of them, nor would motivated be on the list for that matter. Buddy had a process and nothing was going to deter him from following it to the letter, nothing that is unless it had breasts, which seemed to allow him to forget the growing line that was forming outside his booth and allow him to devout his entire attention to the owner of the aforementioned artifacts. We drew straws and at the next park Ike has to wear a bra.

We were told to drive through the park, pick a couple of options and then return to the check in to see if any of them were still available, i.e. someone else makes it back to the booth before us. We were told to not leave anything on the site in an attempt to reserve the spot until he had approved it. We sort of split the difference on that one. After finding three sort of level spots in close proximity we abandoned the women folk to stake the land claim and returned to register, confident that any interloper who tried to steal our lot was in for a major attitude adjustment – it was getting late, we were tired and hungry, not a pretty combination for the uninitiated.

Carla whipped up a noodle and leftovers dish which was delicious. We sat around a campfire for a while, still burning wood that we have been carting around through I don’t know how many states, probably in violation of multiple state laws. The wood for sale in the park was $10 for a small bundle, meaning that any single tree in the park would have been worth in the range of seven figures.