Hearst Castle

This was something I've wanted to see for years & we finally got a chance. The castle has been donated by the Hearst family to the state of California, so it's a huge, expensive tourist attraction, but we paid our money, rode the bus up the 5 mile winding road & followed the informative (bossy) tour guide around. The thing I was most interested in seeing was the pool - I didn't know there were two pools, I had only ever seen pictures of the outdoor one. We had been told NOT TO TOUCH ANYTHING; so when I leaned against the pillar for the pool picture (really, I didn't mean any harm!) I got in a bit of trouble. Oh well, it was worth it.

Then the indoor pool - wow, talk about ostentatious! HUGE & completely mosaic (1 inch square tiles) & shimmering with gold. Ya, real gold! The whole thing is 10 feet deep - total opulence. All I wanted to do was jump in, but I thought I'd probably just get in trouble again.

The grounds were magnificent; the view, breathtaking. Have I mentioned lately how much I love palm trees? It was so nice to get my fix for a week or so. I think I look right at home sitting on that patio, don't you?

The whole experience was so interesting, but it was really hard to believe that people actually lived there. There was just nothing homey about it. Different time, different mentality, I guess. Anyhow, it was very cool, & we were glad we went!