Surprise Stop – July 16, 2018

As planned, we drove North on Hwy 101 to Pismo Beach since the crowds were too big and traffic too slow over the weekend.  We were right to think that Monday was a much better day to explore this beach because all the weekenders were gone leaving just a small group of vacationers.  Jim’s assessment of Pismo was, “its just like most small beaches” but the quick look I got made me think of a miniature Daytona, without the wide strip of sand.

We decided to move on to Monterey but along the way, we saw a sign that told us the Hearst Castle exit was in 1 mile.  Without much time to debate the pros and cons, we got off and headed west to see what William Randolph Hearst built for his castle.  We had no idea it would take us all the way to Route 1 along the coast and probably add an hour to our journey to Monterey.

When we arrived, all we saw was a visitors center and no “castle” anywhere in view.  The docent inside explained that there were tours available and you had to take a bus to the house because the driveway was 5 miles long up a very steep winding hill. 

On the bus, we heard a little background on the property and house which was very interesting.  For instance, this property was originally 40,000 acres bought by George Hearst, WRH’s father, as a working ranch.   George made his money after 10 years of prospecting for gold by finding one of the largest silver lodes in the west.  It was this money that allowed him to buy his cattle ranch and grow it to 250,000 acres.  His wife was a school teacher who took their only son, William, to Europe for 16 months when he was 10 years old.  This gave him his love of art and 16th, 17th, and 18th century architecture and antiques.

The very pinnacle of the property was the place the family would go and camp in tents but George never built any structures on this site.  After William was a successful businessman owning multiple newspapers, magazines, and radio stations, he decided to build a cottage on the property for his family.  A modest 8 bedroom, 8 bath two story building quickly became the small house to the quest cottage with twice the number of bedrooms and baths.  Within a short time, these buildings were dwarfed by the main house with 118 rooms, tennis courts, indoor swimming pool with gold tile and an outdoor pool called the Neptune Pool (now being historically renovated).

Neptune Pool under historical reconstruction

Walkway to main entrance

Main entrance of castle

Living Room

Dinning Room 

Library

Hearst’s Office 

We spent the entire afternoon exploring the house and grounds and wonderful furnishing of this one of a kind marvel created by William Randolph Hearst using the first certified female architect Julia Morgan who also acted as contractor for the project.  She was so far ahead of her time, she created all these buildings of steel reinforced concrete including all interior walls which served two purposes; it made each room fire controlled, so would not spread outside the room where it started, and it made the house earthquake resistant.  Actually, when the 2003 earthquake which was a 6.5 hit the area, the engineers found not structural damage to this house even though it is almost 100 years old.

Flowers all around the property

Tennis Court

Te

Indoor swimming pool below the tennis court

View of Pacific Ocean as you leave the castle

We learned much more than we could put into the blog, but suffice it say this was one split second decision we did not regret……… Well, maybe a little.  After spending all afternoon there, we found out the PCH was closed just north of the castle and we had to backtrack the way we came meaning we would not arrive in Monterey until 8 p.m.  The 101 Hwy has nothing but small towns with limited services and more limited eating options.  Oh well, dinner at Subway isn’t too terrible.