Life on the edge! Santa Barbara to San Francisco

This was a day of beautiful things in our trip. We reluctantly left Santa Barbara early this morning and headed to San Simeon. We were arriving a bit early for our tour, so Scott stopped and let the kids get out and have a look at the beach. It was so windy you could hardly walk and WAY cold!! Grace, Mandy and I got back in the car while the guys played around on the big boulders for awhile.

After that we drive over to the Hearst Castle visitor center to catch our bus up the hill to the house. The castle is 5 miles inland from the coast and takes 15 minutes to drive to. William Randolph Hearst never called this place a castle, his name for it was the Enchanted Hill and when you see the view from the house, you know why!

It is impossible to tour the 38 bedroom 43 bath house, 3 guest houses, gardens and grounds all in one day. In fact they break it up into four tours. We took the one for first timers. It was AWESOME. I want to come back just to do the other 3 tours!!

We left Hearst castle about 2:15. We had been told to take the 101 from San Simeon to San Francisco because it is one of the prettiest views you'll ever see. So we did. Breathtaking......but we were not prepared with how the highway is LITERALLY right on the coast. The highway curves to fit the shoreline and in places is a sheer drop off down to the ocean. It is very narrow, very windy, and it goes on like that for about 77 miles. By the end of it Scott said his hands hurt from gripping the steering wheel so hard.

There are several scenic turnouts along the way and at one that we felt was safe enough we let the kids get out. There were a whole pack of squirrels there and I gave Grace a Wheat Thin not knowing how fearless they were. I think if we'd let her it would have taken it from her hand!We even saw vinyard's on our drive today!

Thomas's Top Five for June 8,2007
1. "Stopping at the cliff and seeing all the squirrels."
2. "Going to the beach and climbing the boulders."
3. "Seeing the Hearst Castle."
4. "Seeing all the cool swimming pools."
5. "The castle's movie theater."

Grace's Top Five for June 8, 2007
1. "Going to Hearst Castle."
2. "Seeing the swimming pools."
3. "Riding on Daddy's shoulders back to the car."
4. "Feeding the squirrels." Grace is like the Pied Piper where animals are concerned! these were some very fat, squirrels that were very used to people.
5. " Playing with our wooden snakes in the hotel." They've each bought those wooden snakes that slither when you hold them by the tail. Just let me say that left in the floor of a hotel room they can give someone whose up on a potty run a serious fright!

Tomorrow morning at 10 am we are headed out on the ferry to see Alcatraz!

Blessings,
Leslie