Continued from Cali Coast Day 2 Part 2.

Woke up early this morning, again. Now the 2 hours of time difference is working to our favor and getting us a head start on the day. We have reservations for a tour at Hearst Castle later this afternoon, so this meant that we needed to get out of town by late morning. The newly weds are having brunch at the restaurant attached to our hotel at 10AM. We thought about attending, but 10AM sounds optimistic for everyone to show up on time and for so many people to order and eat, it would take too long. At the end, we went by the restaurant to say goodbye to everyone and went on a search for a quick breakfast.

This Danish bakery will do.

Let’s eat and let’s go!

Someone took the effort to paint this old Camero flat black. They must really like this car.

Time to hit the road.

Hitting the road.

Went to gas up the car and use their restroom. The restroom key is connected to a piece of mangled up shelving bracket.

Lots of motorcycle groups in these areas. Don’t blame them, it’s beautiful out here.

Illegal U turn on the highway. There was actually a cop who parked maybe 100 feet farther down. I wonder if this guy ended up getting pulled over?

The weather today is a nice 72!

What’s up with all that smoke? Is there a forest fire?

Oh wait, it’s not smoke. It’s fog from the ocean.

It’s also cooler here by the seaside.

The temperature drops by 10 degrees within just 5 minutes. Incredible how much the cold ocean cools the areas immediately next to it.

Fog by the ocean.

Compared to two photos above, less than 20 seconds of driving inland away from the sea, the fog quickly disappears.

The Madonna Inn, a famous landmark in San Luis Obispo. It’s a motel that has all 110 roomed decorated to different themes. We didn’t stop by, maybe next time.

We can tell where the coast is just by where the fog lies.

It’s pretty cool out here. Feels nice!

Needless to say, the ocean is always beautiful.

Hahaha, it looks like a penis. This is the screen of my old school GPS. The direction arrow is by coincidence attached to two circles at the bottom. I am a child.

Made it to our hotel!! Shit! It’s too early to check in. It’s about 1:00PM and our tour is scheduled for 3:20PM. The hotel is in between Hearst Castle and Cambria, the nearest town. We haven’t had lunch yet, so asked the front desk to recommended a place to eat. The front desk recommended a list of several places in Cambria. As I am walking out of the lobby, another guest urged me to go eat at Linn’s in Cambria. He said that he’s been coming to the area for years, and Linn’s has by far the best food. Sure, why not, we’ll give it a try. We saw a Linn’s ad on the highway earlier with the pun “Berry Famous Pies”. I also changed from my shorts into jean, as it’s actually kind of chilly here when the sun is blocked by fog.

Back on the road into Cambria.

In about 5 minutes, we’ve reached Cambria.

There’s Linn’s, located in that red brick building. The other tourist who suggested I go here said that the building used to be a bank.

Definitely gonna eat some of these later.

Does look like a bank in here.

The menu consists of American comfort foods. I ordered the fried chicken. I can’t believe this one snuck up on me so unexpectedly. I started eating the chicken, and after a few bites, I realized that I am eating the best fried chicken I’ve ever eaten in my life. Fried chicken is always so damn good already, I didn’t think I could find the best fried chicken ever in a little town in California. But, it’s true, best fried chicken, EVER! The sides were also cooked to perfection. Blown away!! It was decided that we will be having dinner here tonight as well. Oh, RH had a cobb salad.

As we left Linn’s, I am in kind of a stupor. Did I seriously just have the best fried chicken experience of my life? Yes, yes I did. Holy shit, it was good. It was just the right combination of hunger, ambiance, unexpectedness, and damn good cooking and seasoning that did me in. Damn, I am hungry for it right now while typing this.

Anyhow, we left a very satisfying lunch, and decided to drive to Hearst Castle to see if they’ll let us exchange our tickets for an earlier tour instead.

Visiting a vista point that’s all along the highway. As the day heats up, the fog retreats.

LOL! We were already standing here behind the bushes taking photos of the ocean when this guy comes by and just starts doing his business. I don’t think he knows that we are here.

His travel companions sneak up behind him to take photos and laugh at him. They were too late to show up, and didn’t get any good photos. I yelled out to them not to worry, I’ve got the photos that they are looking for. Hah.

Beautiful beach when the fog retreats.

It’s very sunny out here.

Entering Hearst Castle.

You can see it at the top of the hill.

We were able to move up to an earlier tour, by 10 minutes. But that’s ok, because we took so long eating and checking out the ocean scenery that we ended up only having to wait about 15 minutes at the visitors center. Perfect.

Remember this guy with the red pants? Heh. Almost everyone in this area is here to see Hearst Castle since there’s nothing much around.

Not a machine gun.

Caucasian.

Asian.

Waiting for our bus to take us to the castle.

As the bus starts driving, a recorded voice comes on the speaker to give us a tour. The voice says “Hi, I am Alex Trebek!”, and everyone starts laughing. I do enjoy how they were able to get Alex Trebek to record for them.

It doesn’t look like it, but it’s a 15 minutes drive to the top through a very winding road.

Spectacular views of San Simeon Bay. I can see why Hearst built his house here.

We’ve arrived. It’s kind of hot up here. I kind of wish I didn’t change from my shorts into jeans.

The only way to see the castle is through a guided tour. After the tour, you are allowed to freely roam the complex grounds.

Hearst was an art collector. He collected, well, everything.

Impressive. But I think I would have been more impressed if this was my first time seeing it. I saw the Heart Castle with my dad probably about 15 years ago. I still remember bits and pieces from that trip. The Hearst Castle made such a strong impression on me that I still remember much of that trip concerning the castle.

Time to head inside.

To be continued at Cali Coast Day 3 Part 2.