{"id":3216,"date":"2012-05-06T09:05:22","date_gmt":"2012-05-06T16:05:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/icalltheshot.wordpress.com\/?p=3216"},"modified":"2012-06-24T21:39:47","modified_gmt":"2012-06-24T21:39:47","slug":"san-simeon-to-big-sur-ca-may-6-2012","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/icalltheshot.com\/?p=3216","title":{"rendered":"From San Simeon to Big Sur, CA"},"content":{"rendered":"

Good day from San Simeon, CA!\u00a0 It truly was a\u00a0beautiful day.\u00a0 A nice vacation day where we let the day unfold.<\/p>\n

We fell asleep to the sounds of the crashing waves and woke to the same amazing sounds.\u00a0 This was the morning view just outside our hotel sliding glass doors.<\/p>\n

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Many thanks to Yelp for helping us find this 5 star hole in the wall for lunch.\u00a0 The food was fresh and amazing.<\/p>\n

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My tuna sandwich made with fresh ingredients.<\/p>\n

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So yummy and HUGE!\u00a0 I could only eat half.<\/p>\n

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I particularly loved this old tractor they had parked out front.<\/p>\n

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Just outside the restaurant was\u00a0this old\u00a0schoolhouse that was\u00a0built for the workers who were employed by William Randolph Hearst in the construction of his castle in San Simeon, CA.\u00a0 If you look really close, you can see Hearst Castle to the left of the schoolhouse bell, up on the mountain top.<\/p>\n

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Speaking of Hearst Castle,\u00a0it was our next stop.<\/p>\n

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What a grand place.<\/p>\n

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With amazing detail.<\/p>\n

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Hubby and\u00a0I\u00a0having a grand time.<\/p>\n

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A bit of detail<\/p>\n

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A little sneak peek of the side.<\/p>\n

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Just me, trying to take it all in.<\/p>\n

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And the views?\u00a0 I do believe the views were my favorite part.<\/p>\n

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No doubt my absolute favorite part.<\/p>\n

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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.<\/p>\n

One of the indoor fireplaces – From floor to ceiling.<\/p>\n

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The dining room\u00a0set up as\u00a0if\u00a0they had dinner prepared for us.<\/p>\n

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Dining room detail from the other end of the room.<\/p>\n

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Billiards room<\/p>\n

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While I was fascinated with much of the artwork and rooms\u00a0inside, I was more interested in the gardens, views\u00a0and the great\u00a0outdoors.<\/p>\n

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There was so much to see and many views to take in.<\/p>\n

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My heartbeat.<\/p>\n

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Yet another amazing view.\u00a0\u00a0Currently there is\u00a080,000 acres\u00a0but Hearst\u00a0used to\u00a0own a whopping\u00a0250,000 acres which included all of the mountains you see in the far\u00a0distance.<\/p>\n

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I was in awe of the whole feeling and area surrounding the castle.<\/p>\n

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Such beauty at each and every turn.<\/p>\n

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The indoor swimming pool.<\/p>\n

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We were able to walk the grounds alone (after our tour) and stay and enjoy the place until our hearts were content.<\/p>\n

As we left, I was sure to capture a portion of the winding road that led us to and from the castle.<\/p>\n

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Once we were finished, we hit the road on up the coast to\u00a0Big Sur.\u00a0 Yes, we’re on this amazing\u00a0road winding along the\u00a0coast\u00a0again!<\/p>\n

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Lucky for us, we were not on any deadlines to be anywhere at any certain time.\u00a0 So in hubby and wifey fashion, we stopped along the way whenever we felt the urge to get out and enjoy the beauty.<\/p>\n

Side Note: The stopping along the way part, was\u00a0the plan.\u00a0 Say we were\u00a0on a regular road trip, neither of us would want to stop to smell the\u00a0roses,\u00a0unless\u00a0we had to.<\/p>\n

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I took so many shots that\u00a0I find it difficult to know which ones to post.\u00a0 Thus, a lot of pix!<\/p>\n

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Another look at the same coastline, we’re\u00a0just in a different spot.<\/p>\n

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While we were out there enjoying our surroundings, we heard the loudest noise down below.\u00a0 We quickly looked down to see THIS!<\/p>\n

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Have you any idea how excited I was to see this whale?<\/p>\n

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Again, I couldn’t stop taking pictures.<\/p>\n

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This was the first time in my life to see a real whale, in the ocean!<\/p>\n

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Next thing, there were TWO!<\/p>\n

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I was such a happy lady.<\/p>\n

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It was hard to pull away from this amazing sight.<\/p>\n

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This is the rest area where we stopped.\u00a0 Thank goodness we took the time to smell the roses.\u00a0 We would have never seen the whales had we not taken the little hike out there to get a view of the ocean.<\/p>\n

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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.<\/p>\n

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

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Another day on the road where there was no desire to grab for the pillow and take a little rest.\u00a0 Why, I couldn’t put down my camera long enough to relax.<\/p>\n

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I did get a bit concerned that I would get carsick.\u00a0 Last year, we took a similar winding road sort of drive and I got so carsick.\u00a0 But this trip, I had no\u00a0trouble.\u00a0 I wonder if it had to do with the\u00a0weight loss and the shape my body is in?\u00a0 I have no idea, but I took these\u00a0winding roads\u00a0in stride.<\/p>\n

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On up the road and soon to\u00a0pull over again.\u00a0 That’s Bixby Bridge in\u00a0Big Sur\u00a0up ahead.\u00a0 We stopped the next day on the other side of that bridge for more pix.<\/p>\n

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Another view<\/p>\n

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Same view panned out a bit.<\/p>\n

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Back on the road again.<\/p>\n

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Taken from the passenger seat.<\/p>\n

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Next stop, the hotel.\u00a0 Pic taken from our room that evening.<\/p>\n

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While we had an ocean view\u00a0room, we were located in the Bay and did not have sunset views from our room.\u00a0 So we drove up\u00a0the the road (approx 10 min)\u00a0to\u00a0enjoy the\u00a0sunset.<\/p>\n

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I was so taken with our hotel on stilts.\u00a0 The ground level was where we enjoyed dinner that evening.<\/p>\n

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And the moonrise from the balcony of our room, could not have been better.<\/p>\n

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What another amazing day filled with so many great memories.<\/p>\n

If you made it to the end of this post, you are a trooper!\u00a0 Sorry it was hard for me to post less pictures than this.<\/p>\n

I need this post with all the details.\u00a0 After all,\u00a0this blog is for any who want to visit and for\u00a0us during our rocking chair years as well.\u00a0 \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n

Blessings – Debbie<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Good day from San Simeon, CA!\u00a0 It truly was a\u00a0beautiful day.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 This was … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[11,18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3216","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-just-the-two-of-us","category-vacation"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2xHQP-PS","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/icalltheshot.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3216","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/icalltheshot.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/icalltheshot.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/icalltheshot.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/icalltheshot.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3216"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/icalltheshot.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3216\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3875,"href":"https:\/\/icalltheshot.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3216\/revisions\/3875"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/icalltheshot.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3216"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/icalltheshot.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3216"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/icalltheshot.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3216"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}