Hearst Castle, Elephant Seals and a Beachfire


I am sharing the pictures from Saturday where we did some trips within the area since we had long-awaited vistors staying with us. 


Larry and Jane from Austin were visiting us, our relatives from Norwegian side of the family. 


We wanted to do Hearst Castle while here since Jane and Larry also had it on the list so we decided to go there together. Our last visit was 6 years ago, below a picture from back then. 


Should you do Hearst Castle when you are in California or is it the biggest tourist trap on Highway 1? It is definitely not a tourist trap, but an interesting piece of American History. Less the castle, but the man who built it. Do some background reading though (Wikipedia should do the job...) to understand how controversial this person was. 


There was fog in the morning, but it cleared up by the time our tour way done. 


The architect behind that castle, Julia Morgan is by the way by no means controversial, but an amazing woman being the first architect in California.


So the castle is worth a visit, pre-order if you can plan ahead and the upstairs tour is more private than the tour of the main halls. If you arrive without a reservation get on the first tour you can get. Do not miss the movie and the restaurant is actually not a bad deal serving burgers from grass-feed beef. 


Just a few minutes north of Hearst Castle on Highway 1 you will find the beach with the Elephant Seals. 


Almost exticnt a small population survived on an island close to Baja California. About 30 years ago a few showed up here and meanwhile the entire population is 15000.


This is Morro Bay with the first of the 9 "Morros" and the only one in the sea. 


This truck on the festival was kind of cool :-)


In the evening my collegue Steve had organized another Beach fire at Pismo Beach


at the Oceano Dunes State Park. 


You can actually drive on the beach (you may want to understand if the tide is comming in....)


Nice views towards Avila Beach



and also warm since the temperatures drop quickly



 once the sun sets. 


Hot dogs! 




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