Vacation Day 3

Still in San Simeon. Now it's time to go on the Hearst Castle tour. A huge incredibly intricate castle on top of a small mountain overlooking the beaches of San Simeon. This first picture is a small portion of the gorgeous outdoor pool. The next picture is of the ceiling tiles of the columns going along side the pool.

Their garden was maintained as this castle has been listed as a museum. I still can't believe the different range of flowers California has compared to Missouri.

Although it was hard to pick a favorite thing here. I enjoyed the large quantity of Statues the most. They were everywhere. On the terrace, balconies, in all rooms of the house & the gardens. They had a few very small replicas of these statues in the gift shop that ran for about $50.

Because this castle is now considered a museum they will not allow flashes, so I don't have any indoor pictures worth showing but you can imagine how it might have been by looking at the detail that went into the first bedroom in the guest house.

Outside shot of the Main house

This is my handsome husband admiring his dream home. As I'm sure many of you can relate too. My husband would rather have a home with rich hues & red velvet curtains & mahogany bookshelves for his library but he settles with all white shabby chic because it makes me happy. Someday I will decorate him his dream den & I can use these photos as inspiration.

Oh yes, & this is the indoor pool made of hundreds of thousands or is it millions? of 1 inch tiles. Some covered with 22k gold flakes. All of the tiles were hand laid by artists in a pattern consisting of mermaids and sea creatures. & of course more statues.

The pool is where our tour ended. They offer 4 or 5 tours altogether to see the all of the house. It was so much more tiring then I thought it would be so we only did one.

Next we stopped in the closest town Cambria for some Antique shopping. This is where the majority of the tourists go so I couldn't find anything worth the price tag but I did see some beautiful displays.

One of my favorite shots of the 630 pictures we took this vacation is this one of my husband going into the ocean after he wrote me this sweet note in the sand.

I happen to really love this picture because I can remember exactly how I was feeling. I felt like I had it made & there was no other place in the world to be. I couldn't have been happier. I am waving my husband to come meet me down on the bluffs because I couldn't leave this spot.

My camera took the liberty of capturing this color I've never seen it take before. What a beautiful place.

And finally the last picture of the night. Getting ready to make a fire and settle into our room for the night. This is the view from our balcony at the Cavalier Resort.