Sep
17
Destination LA: Hearst Castle to Brads
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We got word from Judy (Danielle’s mom) that Hearst Castle was really cool and worth seeing. This was part of the motivation to take the Coastal Highway down to LA as the Castle was right off the highway.
What is Hearst Castle?
Well this dude Mr Hearst was the early 1900’s version of an eccentric billionaire and so he got a butt load of land out in the middle of nowhere (back then anyway) and built a huge house that he expanded on each and every year.
This was a major event house back in the olden days, with people like Charlie Chaplain, Bob Hope, and a bunch of other stars attending the events Mr Hearst would host.
To take the tour, you buy one of 5 different tour packages, and then get bused 5 miles up the mountain to the actual castle from the visitors center. Once there, they have a guide and a tag along who talk and make sure that you don’t touch anything, steal anything, or walk off their special matts (wouldn’t want the floor wearing down).
Us at the bottom of the hill, waiting for our Tour to start. We were actually 20 minutes late for our reservation, but they were super nice and just put us on the next bus. Unfortunately after we were done, several people came into the center and the tours had stopped for the day. Poor people missed the tour. =(
The start of our tour. The lady facing us was our tour guide, very nice lady.
Another picture of the start.
He had stuff like this scattered everywhere.
This was one of the 4 or 5 houses in the castle, I forget its purpose, but yea it was cool.
And then what would a large castle on top of a mountain in California be without a huge outdoor swimming pool made to look like it was plopped down in a Roman Colosseum?
It was a nice pool.
Proof we were there! 
This portion of the trip was about an Hour and a Half. Nice to get out and stretch after the drive, but we still had a lot of road ahead of us, so it was nice to be on our way.
At this point we were actually starving, we were in a rush to get the Castle so we didn’t really eat before, breakfast was the cheap continental kind at the hotel, and so we drove about 10 minutes and found a nice grill. Of course they specialized in BBQ so I had a GREAT pulled pork sandwich. It was really good.
I’m a big BBQ fan, love the sauce, could drink it, so it was surprising to see the contrast between San Francisco (1 BBQ place I know of) and the LA/Southern Cal area, that had BBQ everywhere. It was heaven, even though I stayed away from it most of the time. Little known fact about myself, I had BBQ ribs 3 nights straight on my last trip to Hawaii. (They didn’t have anything else on the menu I liked, I swear!)
Okay, so on the road again…
Time for a hotel! Well, just a stop off at the Madonna Inn, it has some weird features which include super stylized hotel rooms, and fancy bathrooms. (My feet got wet)
Well, here check out the dinning room for yourself.
Yea, strange.
Moooooving on.
We get to LA around 9:00, and looked set to arrive at Brad’s place right when we thought we would, when it turns out the directions we got were a bit incomplete and we drove 15 minutes past our stop. Woops, 35 minutes later and we are greeting Brad hello. Here’s a picture of him from our time at the Getty.
Cool dude, he escorted us all around town, showed us a great time. Though its peculiar that he has the largest remote control of all time.
The thing was huge, trust me.
Well, that’s a lot for one night, so Universal Studios will have to wait.
Next up: Universal Studios! Woooo
I think it’s important to note that San Simeon was built by newspaper mogul William Randolph Hearst, not former 49ers running back Garrison Hearst (no relation). Also, the movie Citizen Kane was loosely based on Hearst.
Oh, and that is one damn cool pool. I wish I had one of those.
Such interesting facts you have. We could have used you as a tour guide who wouldn’t yell at me for stepping off the mats.