Continued from Cali Coast Day 3 Part 1.

The main room when you enter the castle. The man loved collecting art, all sorts of art. Tapestries, statues, paintings, antique ceilings, etc.

Antique ceiling.

Antique fireplace.

The reason why we went through a side door to enter is so that we don’t ruin this antique mosaic.

Ugh. I hate people who walk around and take photos with their iPads. Seriously, why? You carry this huge thing that takes crappy photos. Just because the screen is big doesn’t make the photo great.

The next room is entered through a hidden door that looks like a regular wall panel.

The teak floor here is sightly bowed in the middle so that it would give some bounce when they used to dance on it.

Unfortunately, a lot of my photos came out blurry. It was dark inside, and the other people from the tour kept on streaming in behind me, so I couldn’t take my time in taking photos.

More antique ceiling.

I still remember this room when I went through the tour some 15 years ago. I remember them moving the racked balls out of the way, showing how much the felt had faded around it from the sun.

Was this original?

This keyboard plays the electric bells that are in the bell towers.

At the end of the tour, we saw a short film with Hearst, his girlfriend, and his architect. Probably still the same video that they showed to me 15 years ago.

That was that for the tour. The tour was quite short, 40 min or so. There are other tours to take that would show us the guest cottages, or the upstairs rooms, but we opted not to see those. Maybe I’ll come back in another 15 years and take those tours then.

Back outside exploring the beautifully manicured grounds.

There are three guest cottages that surrounds the main house.

Notice our theme?

Without people blocking the building.

Steps outside.

Hearst even collected sarcophagi.

Everyone and their mother has a copy of the discus thrower statue.

The Neptune pool!! I almost want to “accidentally” fall into it just so I can swim in it.

Marble rails to help you get out.

What a baller pool.

There’s an indoor swimming pool under the tennis courts.

At first, I was surprised to see a fire truck here. Then it made sense to me. If the buildings catch on fire here, by the time fire trucks from other areas come, everything would have burned down already.

Fruit trees. Hearst had an whole orchard on the grounds.

The stairway to…a wall. I guess these were the original steps, then they had to be ADA compliant, so a ramp was built over.

Last stop before heading to the buses back down is the indoor Roman Pool, right below the tennis courts. I love the lamps made with translucent stone.

The tile work at the bottom of the pool.

I think that high platform is a diving platform.

Time to board the bus and get back down. That was fun and interesting.

The bus took another route heading back down. These are the animal pens of Hearst’s private zoo.

Some of the descendants from his zoo still live here.

Stunning!

Back to the car. It’s so beautiful everywhere you look.

I miss my big dumb dog.

Back to our hotel just down the street to check in, finally.

When I booked the room, I had the option of booking one with an ocean view, for a premium, of course. I didn’t book it, since I figured that I’ll just be sleeping and blogging anyway.

Well, guess what I saw when I opened the door to the room, an ocean view. I guess they upgraded the room just because. Sweet!!

The balcony walks right out onto the grounds, which leads to the beach.

Amazing.

Looking back at the hotel. The group of lawn chairs on the right side surrounds a fire pit, which the hotel lights up at dawn.

Beach! I touched the water, and it was very cold.

That looks appetizing.

Time to head back to the room. We knew we’d be back eating at Linn’s tonight, but since the room is so awesome and faces the beach, we decided to take the food to go and eat on the balcony.

These two ladies were totally oblivious. They stood in the middle of the road for a good 30 seconds before they realized that we were waiting on them.

Back at Linn’s. Go go go, we are trying to get our food and make it back to the hotel to catch the sunset.

The sun is still up!

Back at our hotel, viewing the setting sun.

I, of course, had to get the fried chicken again. It was simply the best ever. Notice I changed back to shorts, but now it’s cold again, so I had to put on a jacket.

Look at that serious face. The chicken was fucking good!

RH decides to get something substantial and hearty for dinner. Yum.

AAAAhhhh!!!! It’s from heaven!

Of course, I didn’t just get fried chicken. I also got pork chops and a chocolate cake!! Hah. Me being me, I finished all of it. Delicious. The chicken was still the best.

I found the humpback of Notre Dame eating dinner.

Sun sets behind the thick fog.

A happy and content man. This beautiful and relaxing setting was the perfect way to end the day. I’ve got my girl here with me, I’ve got the beautiful beach, I’ve got the ocean view room(that I didn’t have to pay extra for), I’ve got the sunset, I’ve got the chocolate cake, I’ve got the pork chop, and I’ve got the best fried chicken, ever. Life is pretty fucking good right now.

I think RH is pretty happy too!

They’ve got the fire pits started.

We’ve got a fireplace in the room. It was getting kind of cold, so we figured we’d get it started. Awesome, they give you these fire starter packets to help you start your fire.

They had already premade the fire for us. All I had to do was light the starter packet.

Chocolate cake and fire. I don’t know what could be better right now. Oh wait, I do. Chocolate cake, fire, and fried chicken from Linn’s.

To be continued at Cali Coast Day 4 Part 1.