Friday, January 8, 2010

Putting the Seal on a Great Day

On Thursday Luke and I snuck away for a day on the coast. We decided that a Hearst Castle adventure would be a good break from the Fresno Fog. It was a beautiful day! We could see the beach from the hilltop estate. The cool thing about Mr. Hearsts' place is that Europe is tied in all throughout the property, and architecture. This balcony was inspired by the Doge's Palace in Venice.
This is the Neptune pool. Can't you just imagine yourself basking in the pool?

She seems to have found herself to be quite at home.
I thought it was funny to see men in State Park Uniforms cleaning the pool!
This fun dress was in one of the guest bathrooms. It made me think of you Neola! Orange and Cheery!
Can you imagine cleaning gold leafed grout? No Comet on those guys!
We were there in time to hear the bells in the tower chime!

Talk about a dinner party! You could have the whole neighborhood over with this table!
For Mark, I spotted this catchup. If W.R. Hearst can have catchup on his table, so can you!
In the pool under the tennis courts I realise just how many potential quilts are in the tile! (And yes, more gold leaf!)
Pinwheels!
Luke was especially fond of this pool. Check out the diving platform behind him!
After the the castle we went to the beach where we spotted LOTS of elephant seals sunbathing! You could see the steam rising off of them! These guys are HUGE! Well except for the babies. Below you can see one of the babies (bottom middle)by his Mom and Dad's heads.
Luke and I met a Marine Biologist and her husband who were observing the different beaches with binoculars. They gave us a LOT of really interesting information. We think this elephant seal is the one they saw being born Wednesday before we got there.
For Grandma G, I think maybe your cows should come vacation with Mr. Hearsts cows. (I know its a small cluster but the big groups of cows were located in inconvenient places to stop and take pictures.)
Check out their view!
On our way home we stopped on one of the touristy streets to grab some fish and chips to eat! They were yummy! AND I saw this beauty walking back to the car. Isn't it DARLING!

4 comments:

Grandma G said...

Gee, you really did post about the beach! Did you have the hot chocolate, too? :)

Maybe catchup on the table is a Minnesota thing???

I'm not about to show that pic to our cows! They'd be outta here in a heartbeat! ;)

JHNickodemus said...

I had hot chocolate back in Fresno...but I got the wrong kind...the kind that requires heating up milk, not putting water in the kettle, letting it boil, and pouring it over the powder. Heating up milk means no blogging in between because milk burns...I tried making it with water and it wasnt good!

Hearst was from CA though....maybe this was before salsa got big out here in the West!

The Luedtke Family said...

Do I have a great recipe for you! I mix my own hot cocoa and it is creamy and yummy, plus makes a ton! One batch gave us 3 quart jars to give to preschool teachers plus about 1/2 quart left for us. That's gone already so I mixed up more! I'll share if you wish!

Oh, and it takes boiling water as there is plenty of powdered milk in the mix!!!

Neola said...

What a fun day! It is so "warm looking" and beautiful. Maybe I should get a dress like that for the wedding. lol