Home at last after a daunting three days on various coasts of the Pacific Ocean. This trip has been fun. I can't even begin to say how cool it's been to get to spend time with no one but my family after what seemed like months on end of not getting to see them for longer than an hour or two each day because of rehearsals or stage managing, and it was cooler cause Amy was actually with us rather than thousands of miles away in Wisco.
Today's adventures consisted of checking out of our suite, a quick trip to Morro Bay to buy some British Candy (Aero bars are now officially my new favorite thing), a long tour of Hearst's Castle, and a dinnerish type meal in Cambria.
I'd been to Hearst's Castle before when I was like 11, so needless to say, I'd forgotten what it was like. Our loverly tour started with a 40 minute long IMAX film on the history of Hearst castle...this was somewhat less than amusing. Especially considering there was a Hispanic woman talking to her little daughter in Spanish throughout the entire movie...even more than somewhat less than amusing. Plus the fact that Hearst kind of looked like a child molestor and was a bit of a creepo was even scarier on a huge IMAX screen.
The tour itself was actually pretty cool. We got to ride up on this bus and as we were driving up to the castle, we had an amazing view of the Pacific Ocean which had a magnificent blanket of cloud over it, with little mountain and hilltop peaks peeking out at various spots...I attempted to take a picture with my phone, but I assure you, it does not do justice to the awesome creations God has made.
When we finally got to the castle, we were introduced to a man named Frank who we found out would be our tour guide for the next 75 minutes *cue eye roll from megan, amy, and myself*. First we got to see the awesome Neptune pool, which was re-done 3 times because Hearst was a freak like that who was never satisfied, though I will admit, it was somewhat amazing to look at.
While listening to Frank ramble on about some fun little tidbits of Hearst trivia, our story received the addition of another interesting character whom I have lovingly christened "Jean Pierre", named as such because his parents spoke nothing but French throughout the entire tour. We were introduced to Jean Pierre as he began pounding on one of the tables on the veranda overlooking the Neptune pool *cue stink eye from mom to frenchie parental units*
Here is Jean Pierre in action. The woman with the motionless, seemingly-dead baby in a hat strapped to her abdomen is Frenchie Parental Unit Part 1 (aka the mama). Daddy Frenchie was wearing an orange shirt with a big blue stripe across the chest...for being french they knew squat about how to dress. I know, this picture kinda sucks, but such is the life of a stealthy photographer with a gold razr for her stealth/spy camera.
awesome ceiling in one of the guest houses...casa del sol, perhaps?
Frank, our tour guide, and the vomiting dog-thing fountain
stealthy photograph part 2. victim: megan.
this thing was pretty awesome simply because it's like 3500 years old or something. Frank said it was around when Moses was floating down the river in Egypt as a baby. How cool is that???? It's a statue of Sekhmet, Ra's daughter and guardian.
Here's the front of Casa Grande. Hearst's big house...I think this is the "castle" in Hearst's Castle.
Stealthy Photograph Part 3. Victim: Jean Pierre.
The living room of el Casa Grande. We were instructed to only walk on the gray guest carpet laid out for us to walk on, since most of Hearst's furniture and artifacts are hundreds of years old. This rule did not apply to Jean Pierre, who ran off the trail and tried to jump on one of these couches. Frank was less than amused. As was Mum.
I thought this was a cool statue of Mary and Baby Jesus. Hearst had some pretty awesome furniture and artifacts. Seriously amazing stuff.
This dining hall inspired the set designers of the Harry Potter movies for how they built the great hall for Hogwarts. Pretty cool.
These choir seats lined the walls of his living and dining rooms. This would've sucked for me whose butt would have most definitely broken it. This was pointed out when Amy dared me to sit in one of them.
Awesome indoor pool with gold tiles hand placed, one at a time on the bottom. This guy had way too much money on his hands.
So, that pretty much concluded our tour. There were a few more outbursts from Jean Pierre and the Frenchie parental units, but none that I was able to capture with the gold razr. It turned out to be a pretty cool tour though. Definitely some beautiful architecture and furniture.
After leaving Hearst's, we drove down into Cambria to find a bite to eat. After much driving and arguing over acceptable parking spots/dining locations, we found an open spot near some pizza place (which also served "Mexican Burritos and Tacos", as opposed to those Swiss tacos you keep hearing about). The car next to us had a pretty sweet bumper sticker that reminded me why I'm glad I'm a republican.
The pizza was good, though we were only allowed one re-fill on our sodas, which sucks for my family since we go through our diet cokes and arnold palmers like celebrities go through spouses (or adopted 3rd world babies).
I think the restaurant's initials were JBJ, though I was only concerned with the JB, for obvious reasons...well, maybe not so obvious if you don't know me...here's a hint (
)....and here's a picture of the table which was branded with the restaurant's initials...
So that concludes my out of town adventures with my family. It's been fun. Now I can look forward to chilling with them at home for a while until Amy has to go back to Wisco, and we all start school again :( Though I am looking forward to next quarter's easiness of philosophy (blegh), music classes (huzzah!), and Evita rehearsals.
I love you all and thank you for listening...or reading, as it were.
Until Then,
mjl
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