After a very cold night in the tent, with no sleeping bag might I add, I headed over to Hearst Castle. To get to the Castle, I took an amazing bus ride through some of the property that showed off the rolling mountains that made up the property and the foggy coast.
The Castle was built by a man named William Randolph Hearst who was a news tycoon back in the first half of the 20th century. He got the idea for the design of the castle (inside and out) from when he spent a year traveling through Europe when he was a young boy. The Castle is modeled after Spanish churches, and the inside is home to relics, artifacts, and art from around western Europe. Most of the things in the Castle are religious based, large christian tapestries, huge roofs from centuries old Spanish or Italian churches, or two story fireplaces.
The Castle is similar to that of a museum, I couldn't imagine actually living in this place; would you want to be sleeping in a 600 year old European bed? someone has definitely died in that thing! Parts of the outside of the Castle and the grounds have not been completed. One of the big things with Mr. Hearst was that he was always changing the Castle. It took three complete remodelings of the outdoor pool until he was satisfied. The Hearst family decided not to complete the unfinished parts of the property because if Mr. Hearst was still alive and finished it, he probably would have changed it soon after!
So, this Castle was built between 1919 and 1947. Can you imagine the difficulty of coordinating the purchase of a two story stone fireplace from an old mansion in southern Spain? Can't just send them a tweet. There weren't hundreds of massive cargo freight boats circumventing the global all day everyday, or DHL to just drop things off at your doorstep. Also, during this time this area of California was not as "developed" as it is now, so things like electricity and running water were not available. Yet, Mr. Hearst had electricity, elevators, and running water throughout the whole Castle. There were also, an excess of telephones in the Castle with its own operator. "Where am I and where's the exit?"
While everything inside of the Castle was really luxurious, so were things on the Castle grounds. Mr. Hearst would always have multiple guest at the property at any given time (some even flown in on their own runway!). Mr. Hearst would mandate that everyone spend their days out of their rooms, enjoying either the indoor our outdoor pool, the two tennis courts, the private ocean front beach, or horseback riding throughout the property. You were really free to do whatever you wanted, as long as you made it to the dinner and nightly party. Not a bad way to live. And these guest weren't your typical set of friends; people like Walt Disney, Amadeo Giannini (the founder of Bank of America), other top name CEOs, and plenty of Hollywood's finest. Again, not a bad way to live!
Unfortunately, they wouldn't let me put a downpayment to own my first home, so I continued to head north. The windy and jagged coast line kept my hypnotized on my way up to Big Sur. Big Sur is a small little town in the woods. A friend of mine recommended that I at least spend one night there and get some good hiking in. Big Sur isn't your typical town; it is really like a bunch of "micro'towns." Each hotel/hotel has its own gas station, restaurant, and convenient store. Unfortunately, every bed in the area was filled as was every campsite. It turns out that the Concourse, a huge classic car show, is going on this weekend in Pebble Peach. So, I drove into the night to find a town with a vacancy. Eventually, I came across a hotel with one bed left; while it was a little over priced, I couldn't continue to drive much longer.
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