Good day from San Simeon, CA!  It truly was a beautiful day.  A nice vacation day where we let the day unfold.

We fell asleep to the sounds of the crashing waves and woke to the same amazing sounds.  This was the morning view just outside our hotel sliding glass doors.

Many thanks to Yelp for helping us find this 5 star hole in the wall for lunch.  The food was fresh and amazing.

My tuna sandwich made with fresh ingredients.

So yummy and HUGE!  I could only eat half.

I particularly loved this old tractor they had parked out front.

Just outside the restaurant was this old schoolhouse that was built for the workers who were employed by William Randolph Hearst in the construction of his castle in San Simeon, CA.  If you look really close, you can see Hearst Castle to the left of the schoolhouse bell, up on the mountain top.

Speaking of Hearst Castle, it was our next stop.

What a grand place.

With amazing detail.

Hubby and I having a grand time.

A bit of detail

A little sneak peek of the side.

Just me, trying to take it all in.

And the views?  I do believe the views were my favorite part.

No doubt my absolute favorite part.

The 90,000 + sq foot Hearst Castle featured 56 bedrooms, 61 bathrooms, 19 sitting rooms, 127 acres of gardens, indoor and outdoor swimming pools, tennis courts, a movie theater, an airfield, and the world’s largest private zoo.

One of the indoor fireplaces – From floor to ceiling.

The dining room set up as if they had dinner prepared for us.

Dining room detail from the other end of the room.

Billiards room

While I was fascinated with much of the artwork and rooms inside, I was more interested in the gardens, views and the great outdoors.

There was so much to see and many views to take in.

My heartbeat.

Yet another amazing view.  Currently there is 80,000 acres but Hearst used to own a whopping 250,000 acres which included all of the mountains you see in the far distance.

I was in awe of the whole feeling and area surrounding the castle.

Such beauty at each and every turn.

The indoor swimming pool.

We were able to walk the grounds alone (after our tour) and stay and enjoy the place until our hearts were content.

As we left, I was sure to capture a portion of the winding road that led us to and from the castle.

Once we were finished, we hit the road on up the coast to Big Sur.  Yes, we’re on this amazing road winding along the coast again!

Lucky for us, we were not on any deadlines to be anywhere at any certain time.  So in hubby and wifey fashion, we stopped along the way whenever we felt the urge to get out and enjoy the beauty.

Side Note: The stopping along the way part, was the plan.  Say we were on a regular road trip, neither of us would want to stop to smell the roses, unless we had to.

I took so many shots that I find it difficult to know which ones to post.  Thus, a lot of pix!

Another look at the same coastline, we’re just in a different spot.

While we were out there enjoying our surroundings, we heard the loudest noise down below.  We quickly looked down to see THIS!

Have you any idea how excited I was to see this whale?

Again, I couldn’t stop taking pictures.

This was the first time in my life to see a real whale, in the ocean!

Next thing, there were TWO!

I was such a happy lady.

It was hard to pull away from this amazing sight.

This is the rest area where we stopped.  Thank goodness we took the time to smell the roses.  We would have never seen the whales had we not taken the little hike out there to get a view of the ocean.

I was so excited on our way back to the car, that I was telling perfect strangers that if they hightail it to the ocean fast enough, that they too could see the whales.

We hit the road again, but we were no more than on the road and it called for another stop to take in beauty.

Another day on the road where there was no desire to grab for the pillow and take a little rest.  Why, I couldn’t put down my camera long enough to relax.

I did get a bit concerned that I would get carsick.  Last year, we took a similar winding road sort of drive and I got so carsick.  But this trip, I had no trouble.  I wonder if it had to do with the weight loss and the shape my body is in?  I have no idea, but I took these winding roads in stride.

On up the road and soon to pull over again.  That’s Bixby Bridge in Big Sur up ahead.  We stopped the next day on the other side of that bridge for more pix.

Another view

Same view panned out a bit.

Back on the road again.

Taken from the passenger seat.

Next stop, the hotel.  Pic taken from our room that evening.

While we had an ocean view room, we were located in the Bay and did not have sunset views from our room.  So we drove up the the road (approx 10 min) to enjoy the sunset.

I was so taken with our hotel on stilts.  The ground level was where we enjoyed dinner that evening.

And the moonrise from the balcony of our room, could not have been better.

What another amazing day filled with so many great memories.

If you made it to the end of this post, you are a trooper!  Sorry it was hard for me to post less pictures than this.

I need this post with all the details.  After all, this blog is for any who want to visit and for us during our rocking chair years as well.  🙂

Blessings – Debbie