Day 272

272/365, originally uploaded by Aaron LaRue.

Day 2 of the road trip, and today we hit Hearst Castle, which was incredible. 

We woke up early again today and set sail back towards beautiful Santa Barbara. The weather was dreadful, it rained on and off (or off and on?) all day, and at some points it got so heavy that I almost had to pull over because I couldn't see. 


After a quick pit stop at Jaimie's apartment, we kept driving up the 101, eventually merging onto Highway 1. Highway 1 is the scenic drive that winds up and down the California coast, and while it takes a little longer than taking the 101, it's amazing. Even with pouring rain, it was still beautiful, and we eventually made it to Hearst Castle (just in time for our tour, too!).


I've never been to Hearst Castle before and I was in heaven. I didn't know much about W.R. Hearst, but I'm a film major and I've seen Citizen Kane, so it made everything that much more interesting. The "little ranch" at San Simeon is 250,000 acres, and at one time had it's own private zoo. It still has 2 epic pools, a small village of guest houses, it's own airport, tons of priceless art, and is a working cattle ranch. We took a tour of one of the guests houses, parts of the main house, the indoor and outdoor pool, and the movie theater and it was amazing. Two things really jumped out at me. First, the ceilings were ridiculous:




I didn't even know you could import/export ceilings and install them in different houses. Hearst was a big fan of importing ceilings apparently and there were these opulent artworks hanging over your head in every room. It only added to the fact that there were priceless tapestries, statues, fireplaces and paintings everywhere else in the room, you are literally surrounded by antique pieces of art history. 


The other thing that amazed me were Hearst's pools:




This is the indoor poor, which has some awesome skylights, is surrounded by white marble sculptures, and has tiles with gold leafing covering the walls, ceiling, and even the bottom of the pool. While I loved this pool, Jaimie was in love with the outdoor pool, which was has a Greek theme. Out of curiosity, she asked the tour guide if they ever get to swim in it. Apparently, when the Hearsts donated the estate to the state of California, they put a clause in the agreement that lets them swim in the pools when they want to. How brilliant! 


We also got to watch some Hearst newsreels in Hearst's private theater, which I totally geeked out on. Every once in a while the film nerd in me comes out to play. That's where today's picture came from. Lining the walls of the theater, there are these statues holding candelabras and I couldn't stop staring at them. I loved the way the dim lights faded into black and I'm really excited with how that picture turned out. 


After our tour at the castle, we headed up the coast to check out some elephant seals. Along the way, we kept seeing signs about closures on Highway 1. We figured that there must have been complications from the rain, maybe a landslide or something, and we just hoped that it would work itself out before we were ready to leave San Simeon. 


The elephant seals were crazy. I was expecting a few seals hanging out. I realized I was sorely mistaken when we got to the beach, there were hundreds of seals playing in the ocean, in the water runoff drain, and laying on the beach. Some were playful, some looked intimidating, and some looked so big that I was sure they were dead until I saw them wiggle their heads. This seal picture was my favorite, he saw me with the 16mm Bolex and Jaimie with my t2i and was quite curious.




After hanging with some seals, we stopped for a late lunch/early dinner, a.k.a. linner. We found a couple of places off of the highway, and we had to choose between Mexican food and a Bar & Grill. Jaimie chose Mexican, so we went in and grabbed a table. Right from the start, this place was terrible. It was awkwardly empty, which just accentuated the restaurant's odd choice in music. There were weird decorations, like puppets, hanging from the ceiling over our table. Our waitress was trying really hard to be a good server, but ended up being really snippy. When other people started to come in, they were really old, and there was a kerfuffle with one group in particular. They were supposed to get some sort of deal and weren't going to get it, and it was just awkward for everyone involved. The whole atmosphere was just extremely uncomfortable, I couldn't wait to get out of there. Jaimie couldn't stop laughing at me. And to top it off, we found out that a 60 foot chunk of Highway 1 collapsed and fell 250 feet into the ocean and it would be closed for at least a month. 


So after we finished our dolorous dinner, we had to backtrack down the 1 to Paso Robles, and then cut across the 46 to get back to the 101. That little detour definitely added some time to our trip, but I have to say the 46 is a beautiful stretch of highway, so at least it was enjoyable. Then it was a straight shot to Santa Cruz. We didn't have directions coming from the 101, so we just winged it and we figured it out. There was one scary incident where I was freestyle rapping, killin' it as always, and completely blew through a stop sign. Luckily we were the only car for miles so there were no repercussions, but it still got my heart racing.

Once we got to Santa Cruz we met up with some of Jaimie's friends. We hung out at their house, had some tea, and talked about our adventures. After a bit, Jaimie and I were tired and decided to go to where we were staying that night. It was a bit down the freeway, and we weren't quite sure what exit it was off of. To make it worse, both of our phones were dying, and apparently the last time someone broke into my car the only thing they took was my cell phone charger (dirty!). After trying every exit off of the freeway, we finally found it. It only took us an hour to go about 10 miles down the road. 

It was another long day of driving (more than we expected to be doing), but it was an adventure and totally worth it. To see more pictures, check our the flickr album from the trip!