In the past I’ve told you that my sister Gail and I take a trip together, just the two of us, every five or six years. Well, we decided to include our younger brother Mark and go year before last to visit her in Oakland, California at the end of June. We had meant to take him on a trip three years ago when he turned 60 but schedules did not work out. Mark lives in Irvington too and has delivered our newspapers. This is Day 7 of a 8 day trip.
We were overwhelmed with the beauty and grandeur of the Hearst Castle in San Simeon and knew we needed to stay a second day to take it all in.
We had taken 2 tours the day before and decided to schedule the other 2 tours that following day — tours most people don’t have time to include.
We set our alarm clocks and got going early because the tours fill up fast and we wanted to see as much as we could. We took the “Explore Upstairs Suites” and “Behind the Scenes Tour” ($25 each tour – lasting an hour each). On the first tour we got to go upstairs which is not a grand stairway as you would expect, but a spiral staircase in the corner tower with wrought iron railings in the main house (Casa Gande) to see how Hearst lived in his Gothic suite. His study was church-like and massive with arched ceilings and painted murals inside each arch. Long ornate tables ran the length of the room for Hearst to lay out the proofs of his many newspapers and to do the editing everyday with his red pen.
The 80 foot wide library nearby was enormous with 2 huge connecting rooms lined with 4,000 books. There are 150 ancient Greek vases, all more than two thousand years old, on display. The ceiling from a European church was very dramatic with it’s deep insets. The oriental rugs were worth some ungodly amount of money – thousands!
Hearst’s bedroom was actually rather plain compared to so many we had seen. It did have a magnificent hand-painted ceiling from a church but the bed and furnishings were simple and functional. It was actually kinda of cozy.
The second tour (which was only for a limited time and the 4 of us were the only ones on the tour) were areas that they normally don’t even show up to the fourth floor. We were in the top of the towers where we could peek out and see the land for miles down the hill to the ocean.
We were also guided through the third of the guest houses which was just as impressive. These guest houses (3 in all) were used for the many famous guests who visited Hearst over the years.
On the way out we experienced a new route to the gate, including the vestiges of the “bear pits” that were built for Hearst’s renowned private zoo.
As we left the Hearst Castle we stopped down the road to the oceanside to see the elephant seals that my sister had been told about. Sure enough, there they were sunning themselves on the beach — the largest seals I’ve ever seen. The females are 10 ft. long and can weigh 2,000 lbs. while the males are up to 16 ft. long and 5,000 lbs. – unbelievable . They can stay underwater for 100 minutes without coming up for air. Amazing creatures. Some were showing their muscle (mating time) and others just sleeping. We headed back to San Fran that evening.
Next time: Day 8 – a day back in San Fran before flying back home.