Hearst Castle was the very most exciting thing Beatrice had been looking forward to on our vacation. She was convinced that a real princess lived in this castle, and that she was going to meet her. I attempted to tell her on one occasion that that wasn't the case, but when her imagination got the best of her, I decided to let "truth" take a back seat...she would find out in due time. :0)
We arrived at the Hearst Property first thing on Saturday morning...
We boarded the shuttle bus...
...and headed up the mountain to Hearst Castle! The view of the castle from any angle on the winding road was SOOOO IMPRESSIVE!
Pretty much the first thing we saw when we got off of the tour bus, was the gorgeous outdoor pool...
...and then all of the gardens and views from on top of the mountain...
...and then after passing by one side of the castle...
...we finally made our way to the entrance!!!...
When you book a tour reservation of this castle, you have like 3 options (areas of the house) to choose from...we selected the "Grand Rooms" tour.
We were able to visit the library...
...the dining room...
...a living room...
...the billiards room (not pictured), the home theater...
...and finally, the indoor pool...
The castle was totally beautiful! Rick and I thoroughly enjoyed the tour...I'm really glad we did it...but I don't ever feel the need to go back and see the other parts of the house (bedrooms, kitchen, etc.) As much as I loved the castle, I also loved hearing the stories of William Hearst, his marriage, his girlfriend, his children (he had 5 sons, and between them there were 13 divorces!), and all of his famous guests he would entertain in his home. The Castle tour was definitely a high point on our vacation. :0)
After we made our way down the mountain from the castle, we boarded our own "bus". We were headed for our final vacation destination...Santa Barbara!!!...
On this drive, the kids requested more TV trivia (I think I thought up every question you could possibly ask about the movie Home Alone), and then with Rick's Jedi training, I MASTERED the state capitols!!! :0)
We arrived in Santa Barbara mid-afternoon. A perfect time to hit State Street in downtown Santa Barbara! :0)
State Street is basically just an upscale strip mall, lol. There was shopping...
...shopping...
...and more shopping!
Unfortunately, I was the only one out of the four of us that liked the shopping! Rick was "hot"...Wyatt's "legs were tired"...and Beatrice was "hungry". It was very obvious that our trip was coming to an end...everyone was starting to get a bit cranky, and home was sounding SOOO good!
IF, IF, IF my peeps had been more agreeable on State Street, I think Santa Barbara would have topped Monterey, BUT, since that wasn't the case, Monterey still holds the top (coastal) spot for me.
However, I am eager to give Santa Barbara a 2nd chance with any/all of the wonderful ladies in my life...I imagine that would be a FABULOUS experience! :0)
After State Street, we added insult to injury, and dined at our home away from home...
Ihop is a staple in my immediate, and my extended family! Now we were REALLY missing home, and missing the family we hadn't seen in SO long!!!
We made it an early night...because we wanted to make it an early morning...again, we were so excited to get home!!!
We set our alarm for 5am, although of course, with my kids, that wasn't necessary...they were up before the alarm went off, lol.
We were checked-out of our hotel before 6am, and back at Ihop (LOL!!!) for a quick breakfast before we got on the road. :0)
We were San Diego bound...WOOHOOOOO!!!
The usual 4 hour drive only took us 3 hours, and even those 3 hours passed super fast! We battled it out with more TV trivia (I focused my questions more on Marry Poppins this time), and Rick continued to quiz me on the state capitols, lol!
Before we knew it, we were home again! The trip we had been plotting and planning for almost a year had come and gone. :0/
I had such a wonderful time!
Because of Rick's work/sleep schedule, a lot of the time it feels like the kids and I have a pretty independent life, and I was so curious (fearful?) to see how we would all interact with each other, when we were in such tight quarters, and around each other non-stop without our usual (large) distractions/activities. But it turns out, nothing really changed...we were still kind to one another, we still had fun with one another, we never had a disagreement (okay, there was still the occasional brother-sister squabble, but even those were few and far between), we TRULY enjoyed each others company. :0)
The main standout for me this vacation was my Beatrice! She seemed to have matured so much over this 7 day period. She looked fantastic, because I packed her clothes, lol, and was able to do her hair everyday. She totally abandoned the occasional baby talk she does at home (that I find uber annoying). The whole TV trivia concept that she mastered was SO exciting to be a part of. And most exciting was her progression with swimming!!! We spent SO much time in the pool over the last 7 days! Even after we left Yosemite, the kids were wanting to go swimming at every other hotel we stayed at (the hotel at Santa Cruz was the only one I said "NO!" to!). My daughter is such a scaredy-cat when it comes to the pool. She claims she likes going to the pool, but she always wants to have a floatie on (and the more, the merrier)...and even with her floaties on, she only ever wants to sit on the steps of a pool. Whenever I hold her in the middle of a pool (with her floaties on) it is usually against her will, and she is clinging to me like crazy! I'm usually nonchalant about the whole thing. Other kids try and talk her into doing all kids of fun/normal things in a pool, but my Bea won't budge! After a while, I tell those kids to back off, and that she will get off of the stairs when she is ready. Apparently this was the week she was ready! One day she left the stairs, and crab-walked the whole pool...she was SO PROUD of herself! The next day (with her floatie still on) she pushed off of the side wall and was free-floating in the middle of the pool...that is HUUUUUUGE for her!!!...and again, she was just SOOOO proud of herself! The next day, she saw Wyatt doing forward rolls under the water, and she randomly decided that she wanted to do it too! I told her that she had to take off her floatie in order to do it, and even though I held on to her the whole time, she totally did tricks in the water without her floatie on! By the time we made it to the pool in San Simeon she was asking me to let her go in the middle of the pool without her floatie on. :-0 She totally sank though, LOL! It's only funny because I was next to her the whole time, and would pick her up immediately...her life wasn't in danger. But she finally trusted me that I wouldn't let her drown, and so she kept letting me let her go, and despite her trying to kick/propel-herself, I would keep scooping her up from under the water, lol. I'm so excited for her! I'm so happy that (for this moment??) she is overcoming a fear!!! Go Bea Go!
Well that's about it for our Yosemite vacation! We sure had a great time, and I'm eager to see where our next adventure takes us! :0)
Good stuff Cheech!!!! Thoroughly enjoyed the read tonight. Looks like lots of good weather. Lots of smiles!!!! So glad you guys had a good vacation.
ReplyDelete