We are celebrating my 65th birthday with a 65 day vacation adventure. I know, it’s not a coincidence with the matching numbers. We’re both retired now and since I planned the details for this trip, then why not travel for 65 days? Exploring Hearst Castle and the beautiful Paso Robles vineyards will kick off our trip. I’ll share more details later about the rest of our plans. Our neighbors Tom, Cary and Angie joined us for the California portion of our adventure.
Santa Barbara, California
Leaving LAX, Tom drove along the beautiful PCH 1 to San Simeon, a small community near the castle on the Pacific coast. Beautiful hills and vineyards surrounded us as we made a quick pit stop for lunch in Santa Barbara.
San Simeon, California
Arriving early evening at our hotel on the beach, gave us the time to sit by the fire and enjoy some wine while watching the sunset.
Exploring Hearst Castle
A chilly and foggy morning greeted us as we approached Hearst Castle. It is now a museum showcasing the massive collection of art and antiques procured by the castle’s owner William Randolph Hearst, a very wealthy American newspaper publisher and politician. He developed the nation’s largest newspaper chain and media company, Hearst Communications. However, I believe the fascinating part of this story lies with the architect, builder and interior designer Julia Morgan (1872-1957).
Julia was an American architect and engineer who designed more than 700 buildings in California during a long and prolific career. Julia’s work on Hearst Castle (1919-1947) is what made her famous. She completed two amazing accomplishments early in her life. She became the first woman admitted to the architecture program at École de Beaux-Arts in Paris in 1898. In 1904, she also became the first woman architect licensed in California. At this time, women were not granted the same rights and privileges as men. However, she demonstrated her brilliance and ingenuity through her life’s work. To me, she is the epitome of a trailblazing pioneer woman.
Through their collaboration, Hearst and Morgan built the castle and its surrounding guest houses, pools and gardens. A few interesting facts about the property is that it once spanned approximately 250,000 acres and contains a total of 58 bedrooms, 60 bathrooms and 80,000+ square feet of living space, including two swimming pools. There is an outdoor Greek pool holding 345,000 gallons of water and an indoor Roman pool holding 205,000 gallons.
Here are a few photos from the grounds and inside the main house from our visit. I believe it’s a “must see” if you are in the area.
Beautiful Paso Robles Vineyards
After Hearst castle, we visited a few Paso Robles vineyards. Paso Robles is halfway between Los Angeles and San Francisco. It is famous for its vineyards, distilleries and olive oil. There are over 200 tasting rooms to keep us busy, but with only two days we’ll just have to do our best!
Day 1 we visited Austin Hope, Hubba and Castoro Cellars. Austin Hope is one of our favorite wines at home and we love that our local restaurants and wine bars offer the one liter bottles. It’s been quite some time since we’ve been wine tasting in California. When we first started coming here, many tastings were free. Now, most range from $20-35 per person. But it’s a great way to try new wines and discover others not available back home.
Day 2 we hired a car and driver from 10-6 to take us to Opolo, Halter Ranch, Parrish, Booker and Tooth and Nail wineries. We had quite the day of tastings and I, not surprisingly, can’t recall how many extra bottles we managed to consume. Thank you Cory for keeping us safe while you chauffeured us around.
Guess who might have been over-served?
You’ll notice in the first photo below, the beautiful floor to ceiling glass sliders opening out to the patio. There is also a matching plate glass front door at the entrance. As we were leaving Booker winery, Danny was ahead of us to exit first. The next thing we heard was a very loud THUMP as we all felt the glass door shake and rattle. Apparently, the glass was just cleaned before closing. Danny assumed the door was open like the glass sliders on the patio and walked right into it. Thankfully, Danny had no injuries (nor had the door😉). Although his pride was as shattered as the screen protector on his cell phone. That beautifully clean door now proudly wears Danny’s face print and elbow marks. Lesson learned… or was it?
At the final stop of the day, Danny wandered around (or I could add here “staggered” around) to find the staircase to the rooftop patio. We went to join him when we noticed what at first appeared to be bloodstains. Yep, we decided he went this way alright. Thankfully, the trail of drops are spilled wine and not blood. Who knew that climbing stairs after drinking wine all day might not be the safest of plans?
View from the rooftop of Tooth and Nail
Cory dropped us off at our hotel after a pizza run, where we enjoyed more bottles of wine on the beach. A few people from France joined us. They were surprised we spoke French. Well, I spoke French at least. I’m not sure what language Danny was trying to speak, because the mumblings that came out of his mouth was neither French nor English. We all enjoyed quite the laugh, but at this point Danny had been clearly over-served so I guided him back to the room.
The next morning, he told me he wanted to go back to France for another 3 months so he could remember how to speak French. I told him I thought if he just waited 3 days and not have any more wine, he would remember just fine. It seems that a side effect of too much wine causes tongue paralysis. 🤪 Who knew?
Our time with everyone quickly came to an end. We drove to San Francisco with a stop for lunch in Carmel-by-the-Sea and the scenic route along 17-mile drive through Pebble Beach. We enjoyed an appetizer of caviar and champagne along with a great meal. The Lone Cypress tree is more than 250 years old and overlooks the Pacific Ocean. It is also the logo for the Pebble Beach Resorts.
The next chapter…
Tom, Cary and Angie flew back to Houston while Danny and I enjoyed a couple of days in San Francisco. We stayed in Chinatown, ate great food, saw a few sites and celebrated on my actual birthday. Dessert and wine are always an excellent pairing.
I mentioned earlier that this portion of our trip is just the beginning. Stay tuned for the next part of our vacation which will cover the remainder of our 65 day trip. We board the Crown Princess in San Francisco for a 31-day Hawaii, Tahiti and South Pacific crossing to New Zealand and Australia. We’ll end our trip in Sydney where we’ll travel around a few more weeks before flying home from Melbourne. Stay tuned for more fun adventures.
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