COAST ADVENTURE PRESIDENTS WEEKEND

Our Little Quick Weekend trip. We love our little VACAY trips because, they're 1.  inexpensive and 2. we get to have a day or two at home to recoup... This trip was something that both of us have wanted to do for a long time. So, we said, LET'S GO!

Thursday Night we drove from our house to San Jose. We got to the Hotel about 12:30am. So really not too bad. We, of course, stopped for dinner on the way out of town...

CHICK-FIL-A baby!!!!

The next day we woke up and had our Traditional Breakfast in Bed for Valentines Day...

And we were on our way to WINCHESTER HOUSE in San Jose. If anyone gets a chance to go through the house, do so!!! So cool and interesting. AND, if you are adventurous and are going on Friday the 13th, you can tour the house with only Flashlights!!! OOOOHHHH creepy and FUN!!!

The beginning of our tour. You can't take pictures inside the house. But, you walk a mile on the tour. All inside the house. After the tour they have a Winchester Museum. Guns. So, yes, we went!

And, the museum was really interesting!!! I wasn't sure about it, but I had fun!! HA HA!
Then they have a replica of the Headstone that's in Connecticut....
After the Winchester House experience, we were off to the next part...

Our drive down the coast!!! Are we having fun?!?!?!? I think so!!!
Next Stop
Monterey

Yes, only Two pictures of Monterey. Our Lunch view and some weird something, outside a store.

Such a perfect day for the drive. At one point, we saw WHALES!!!! So awesome!!!
We stopped at a really cool place on the way down..
Nepenthe

We also found a Cigar box 3 string guitar that Pat played. You can see the little video on FB or Instagram.
Then we arrived in San Simeon...by Sunset...So Clear and So gorgeous...

Stayed the night and were on our way early the next morning.

On the Bus to the Castle..So excited..We've always wanted to do this...the bus ride up the mountain, you see the left overs from the Private Zoo. Some kind of Goat, Zebra, and a lot of cows...The cows aren't from the zoo, but they all hang out together. You can see some "ruins" of a horse trail and the Polar Bear enclosure. When you arrive at the castle, it's Shock and AWE!!!

The front door alone...amazing. Almost everything was imported from Europe. Some things were made in the US. It was all about the Visual for Hearst. Take for instance the door. The bottom is from a Convent in Europe, but the Top was made here in the US.

We took the Grand Rooms tour. So we went INSIDE!!! Through the Back door.

The Meeting room had a Huge Fireplace, Choir Seats, and Tapestries!! Basically, he built a museum.

The dining room was huge!! The Table was narrow so you could have a conversation. The ceiling is spectacular, and more Choir seats around the room. The Flags around the top of the room are from Sienna Italy, There's a race that runs there and the flags represents the racers. So, instead of having Stained Glass windows, he had clear windows for light and the view and the the flags for the color that the stained glass would bring.

Painted ceiling in the Billiard room. It took one man, 4 years to clean this ceiling. The paint is Egg based so he couldn't use hard cleaners. The most residue on the ceiling was, nicotine.

Recreation...Neptune Pool was huge, Roman pool wasn't as big but it's inside and below the Tennis Courts. Even the bottom of the Roman Pool is decorated.
We went back down the hill, saw the Hearst movie and noticed he had his own Fire Dept.

You can order Hearst Beef and Wine online.

We left Hearst about noon, grabbed something to eat, made it to LA at 4:30, in time to have dinner with my Mom and Step Dad, and got home about, midnight. We had 2 days off together to get some stuff done around the house...ya right..! All we are doing is laundry, cooking and cleaning the kitchen. And that's enough.
We absolutely loved our little trip and starting to think about our next one and when. Stay tuned. We would recommend to visit both of these Historical Sites. They both belong to the State of California and are Historical Landmarks and sites.

Remember, Life is not a destination but a Journey.

Enjoy the Ride!
P & S