Suprise Destination!

We woke up early this morning in Big Sur, and David had a 1/2 day of hiking planned for us before we headed to San Simeon. The original plan was to hike up to the Pfeiffer Falls, but due to the forest fires recently, that trail was closed due to fire damage. We did get a chance to hike up a trail called Valley View, which was very beautiful. After that, we stopped at McWay Falls, which was right on the coastline, and my favorite spot of the day (see pic of David and I).

Then, we coasted right into San Simeon off of Highway 1, and stayed at my favorite hotel of ALL time, SeaBreeze Inn (of course, when I say fav hotel, I am being extremely sarcastic). ;) Let's just say the SeaBreeze Inn does not compare to my surprise destination, but I am surviving. ;)

Once checked in, we traveled to Cambria, CA, a couple of miles down the road for lunch. It is such a cute and quaint little beach town, and the food there is very good as well. Then, we headed off to my surprise destination. Wanna know where it was??

We went to Hearst Castle, which is the castle built by William Randolph Hearst, a famous newspaper publisher back in the day. I did not know much about the castle, but it was so fantastic. It was elaborate and excessive, and I loved every minute of the tour. ;) The picture I posted is of Neptune's Pool on the property. The tour guide said that guests of the castle included Cary Grant, Charlie Chaplin, and Charles Lindbergh. Amazing!

After our castle tour, we took one of the bottles of wine we bought in the wine country (V.Sattui Family Red), and went down to the beach (which was in walking distance of our hotel). The great thing about this beach is that it is secluded and quiet, so we found a spot all to ourselves and had some wine. We got to see dolphins jumping and playing off the coast line, and saw a sea otter as well. David is posing with the wine bottle in front of the coast.

We drove into Cambria again for dinner, and had some great Italian food at Lombardi's Restaurant. Now we're tired, and looking to catch up on some sleep before heading out early again tomorrow. Good night!