Hearst Castle was one of the six homes of William Randolph Hearst, a media mogul of the late 1800s/early 1900s after whom the movie Citizen Kane was modeled.
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| Front entrance to Casa Grande |
The Assembly Room
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| Flooring imported from an ancient castle, somewhere... |
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| Carved Italian walnut ceilings |
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| Choir stalls that were imported and placed into the wall |
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| A Venus once owned by Napoleon Bonaparte's brother |
The Refectory (a monastic word for dining room)
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| Hogwarts! |
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| Choir stall in the dining room |
Billiards Room
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| Restoring the ceiling |
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| I want to have Christmas here |
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| Serial doorways (unfortunately, off access) |
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| We may have gotten in trouble for lagging behind the rest :) |
The Theater
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| Arabic? |
The Gardens (grounds, sculptures, pools)
Ceilings were the most fascinating thing to me when I was in Rome. Imagine the work to carve them, then import them, then raise and install them.
Nerd alert!
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| Staircase tiles |
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| More intricate ceilings |
The Roman Pool
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| The floor is inlaid with gold. |
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| Indoor, multi-chambered swimming pool. |
It's true, what they say: beauty heals. I can wander around architectural wonders like this for hours. I hadn't heard of this place before my sister suggested it, and it is quite the national and even international attraction. From fellow participants we heard French, German, Italian, Chinese, Arabic, Russian...and I loved it. Beauty speaks its own language, and I paused to listen; occasionally, I even tried to converse with others.
We stopped first at Sam Simeon Pier on the way back down the coast, and then in the little town of Cambria for late lunch. My sister prefers to drink only Starbuck's iced skinny vanilla lattes - for which I promise I don't judge :) - but before leaving our restaurant I asked our waiter where the best local coffee was, specifically saying, "NOT like Starbucks," to which he answered with a grin, "Oh no, we don't have anything that commercial in
this town." Little Sister rolled her eyes at Hippie Big Sister, but we both got delicious coffee (and a fabulous homemade lemon bar) out of the deal at
Cambria Roasting Company, before continuing down to Santa Barbara.
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| Beautiful sister profile |
How powerful and enduring the world is. How small and fleeting we are.
A little seaside yoga :)
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