Trip to San Simeon

Dec 31, 2007 - Jan 1, 2008

It had been a while since Aparna and I had been on a romantic outing. I reserved a motel right across the pacific ocean in San Simeon about 5 minutes from the Hearst Castle. We had driven on PCH en route to other places several times but never treated it as a destination in itself. We started late in the afternoon after lunch and made it to San Simeon by 8:00 after a lot of stopping and sightseeing along the way. We even caught the sunset after crossing BigSur.

On the way we stopped to see the night sky. We were in the middle of nowhere with no polluting lights around. The night sky was moonless and cloudless and absolutely wonderful. It looked like a black slate sprinkled with white powder. The Milkyway was clearly visible across the sky and we saw a lot of stars. It was an amazing sight. I wish I could have captured it in a photo but even with a 15 second exposure on 400 speed film didn't work - anyway I tried. One day we will probably go there with our telescope and spend the night stargazing.

We woke up early the next morning. The air was fresh and invigorating. I caught the beautiful lavender sunrise sky on the beach right across from our motel. The beach was full of colorful pebbles and Aparna brought some pebbles home. I picked one too, to impress her with my strength.

The water was a bit cold but not enough to discourage us from getting into it.

We then drove to Hearst Castle and got tickets for 1:00 P.M. We had an hour and were hungry. There were a couple of places to eat near our motel by the sea and we chose "El Chorlitos" - a mexican place. This Mexican place is perhaps one of the best non-Indian places we have eaten at so far. I ate Mushroom-Spinach Quesedilla - it was simply brilliant!

We visited Hearst Castle. I have seen quite a few castles in the past in Europe and in India and was a bit sceptical about a castle that was built in the 20th century. Hearst castle is definitely worth at least one visit just to see what people can do if they end up with a lot of money and do not know what to do with it. The man did a good job. He definitely had some taste.

I was a bit surprised to see the ceiling entirely made of gold and the exquisite bathrooms. The swimming pools were the absolutely fabulous. I would love to take a dip in it. The outdoor pool had Greek and Roman sculptures around it. Even the indoor pool was wonderful with gilded blue tiles.

There are 4 guided tours here and each of them lasts an hour and takes you to different parts of the castle and costs $20. We took tour 3.
After the castle tour we drove down to Cambrilla. It is a quaint little town worth a nice romantic walk. While Aparna had some coffee, I had some hot chocolate and we drove up PCH back to San Simeon to catch the setting sun. We found a beach with some benches at the edge and sat there watching the most beautiful painting in the world unfold before us.

We had dinner at an Italian restaurant called Puezzullos. It was nice restaurant - more so because of the chef who had a really nice sense of humor. The food was quite good.









The next morning we drove North to catch some elephant seals up close early in the morning when the seals start arriving and before the crowds pour in. The elephant seals were just starting to waddle onto the beach from the sea. We also caught some fighting elephant seals up close.






We had some breakfast at the Ragged Point Inn and spent the rest of the afternoon walking around the beaches. We drove back after lunch at the Ragged Point Inn and caught the last sunset of the year.

We reached home at around 8:00 P.M after a wonderful trip to remember.

Happy New Year!