Big Sur for Sure

We headed out of Vegas (see our last post) and through several hours of dry, brown hills. Finally, we reached the coast at San Simeon and were rewarded with our first sight of the Pacific Ocean. It really sunk in that we had come all the way across the country!


We stopped for the afternoon in San Simeon because I am a big antiques fan and had heard about a cool place to check out: Hearst Castle. This estate was the former "ranch" of publishing magnate William Randolph Hearst, and it's a really spectacular piece of architecture as well as the place where he housed his formidable collection of antiques and art. It's situated on a hill overlooking the Pacific, surrounded by a fully operational ranch. He used to keep more exotic animals at the ranch as well (e.g., bears, lions, etc.), and there are apparently still a few zebras that happily roam the nearby hills. Much of the property has been turned into a state park, and there are very good guided tours of the grounds. We signed up for a tour and traipsed up the hill with the rest of the tourists for the full story.

Below is a photo of Mr. Hearst's outdoor pool, which incorporates facades from actual Roman ruins.




The main house is largely Spanish in influence, but the brown triangular roof you see below the two turrets is carved teak from southeast Asia. As you can see, we were there on a gorgeous day.


This is the INDOOR pool, which is massive and uses tiles flecked with real gold.

Other highlights of the house included the huge movie theater, where Mr. Hearst often got to watch movies before they were released to the public; the dining room, which was filled with a significant collection of silver, but also had all-American condiments on the table in their original Heinz bottles, just as Mr. Hearst insisted on serving them; and a statue on a patio that came from ancient Egypt and was made approximately 3500 years ago! The tour also included a guest house, which we would happily have moved into. Every room had its own bathroom, which was quite rare at the time.

After the tour, we hopped back in the car and continued driving north, up the central coast of California. We stopped briefly at a beach where large numbers of elephant seals hang out-- very strange-looking dudes, and they make very funny noises. As we got further north, the gently rolling hills evolved into steep, narrow winding roads that followed the contours of the cliffs; Chris and the Prius did a great job with the driving, and the views around some of the sharp corners were well worth it. Photos can't do it justice. Parts of it reminded us of the Napali coast of Kauai, which we have seen only by helicopter.


By late afternoon, we reached our campsite, which was in a grove of redwoods next to a river. We stayed in a "tent cabin," which was basically a large, sturdy canvas tent on a wooden platform and frame. The tent sites were a bit close together, but it ended up being kind of nice to smell the campfire from your neighbor's tent site and hear some kids playing down at the water's edge. We got settled in and fired up Chris's little camping stove, made a quick mac-and-cheese dinner, and crashed early after a long fun day.



The next morning, we were up with the sun and headed a bit further up the coast to a couple of the state parks in the Big Sur area. We did a handful of short hikes, including one through the redwoods to a little waterfall. Our photos of the waterfall didn't come out so great, but the trees were awesome.




Our favorite hikes, though, were in a state park called Point Lobos, where a friendly ranger pointed us in the direction of some cool stuff we might not have otherwise seen. He also lent us a pair of binoculars, taking our car keys as collateral. Below are a couple of shots from Lobos. Highlights included a 500-year-old cypress tree clinging to a cliff; a grove of cypress trees covered in a rare red algae, which looked really wild; and great views of tons of sea lions and seals sunning themselves on rocks along the coast. They come to this area to eat the kelp that grows in the ocean here, and they were fun to watch.









On our way out of Point Lobos, we passed the ranger we'd talked to, cruising out of the park in a blue Prius with a Ferrari sticker on it. Hilarious.

We really loved our one full day in Big Sur. The hiking was accessible, there was a ton of wildflowers and wildlife, and the views were awesome. Because of the many state parks, there are very few private residences in the area, so most of the views are unobstructed by houses (or mansions), unlike other sections of the California coast. There were a fair number of other people out and about as well, and most of the lodges and campgrounds were full, but the crowds didn't really bother us. There is something for everyone along this stretch of highway. You can stay in a campground, a yurt, a lodge or a luxurious resort. You can cook your own food over a campfire, fuel up at a casual "road house" or hippie cafe, or dine at a fancy restaurant (we stopped at one place for lunch and changed our minds when we found that it was $16 for a turkey sandwich). My point is that it's a really beautiful area, and if you get a chance to explore it, it's worth the trip.

That night, we headed back to the campground and built a fire in the fire pit at our campsite. We cooked hot dogs over the fire and sat up after the sun went down, enjoying the fire and the last of the daylight lingering on the river. We spent our last night in a tent-- my one little regret about this trip is that we did not camp nearly as much as we hoped we would. In the morning, we loaded up the car and headed south again.

Almost immediately, we encountered thick fog, which made driving a bit more challenging, but made for some cool views at the points where we were high enough to be above the fog. Chris said it looked like the Cloud City in Star Wars.


At one point on the foggy Highway 1, we were stopped for 15 minutes while CalTrans blocked the way in order to mow the strips of grass along the side of the road. Since we were stuck there anyway, we chatted with the CalTrans officer who was directing traffic. He was curious about our Prius, but then mentioned that he himself drives a BMW. No wonder California's in a budget crisis. :)

As we moved further south, the hills flattened out again and driving got easier. I finally stopped being nervous about the winding roads and fell asleep. A short while later, though, I was awakened by Chris telling me to wake up, as we were being pulled over by a police car. Turns out Chris was going 12 miles over the speed limit-- so frustrating to get all the way across the country and then, so close to our final destination, get a ticket. Ouch.

Other than that unfortunate snag, however, the rest of the drive down the coast was uneventful. Eventually we began hitting the beach towns around LA. After Malibu (no celebrity sightings, sadly), we decided to cut across LA via one of the freeways, which was, to be blunt, terrifying. Traffic ticket or no, I spent much of our time during this part of the trip feeling so grateful that Chris is such a good driver.

We survived the freeway and entered Orange County. We were highly amused by this sight as we pulled up to a stoplight in the O.C.; yes, that's a Smartcar and a Corvette.



We'll write more soon about our visit to the O.C. and our continuing adventures in SoCal, but for now we leave you with a fun song.

	The Thrills - Big Sur
	Found at skreemr.com

Sure, it's a catchy song, but we would submit that you ignore it's general advice and GO BACK TO BIG SUR. OFTEN.

Finally, if you are interested in seeing the first views of the Big Sur coastline along with us (where Chris almost swears a bunch), check out the video below (thanks Liz & Rob for the Flipcam!).