Weekend Getaway!

This weekend my parents watched Trei & Desiree so Duane & I could have a couples getaway up in Paso Robles. It was a fun time, we attended a squadron dinner and spent the day touring Hearst Castle. I have heard alot about it but didn't know the history about it and didn't imagine how beautiful it is! It was a gorgeous weekend in the 70's so it made it all the better!
A bit of the history on it for those who may not know about it. The Estate is one of America's best known historic house museums, its part of an original 250,000 acre estate. It was built between 1919 and 1947 by an art collector and publisher William Randolph Hearst and a architect Julia Morgan. It has 165 rooms, and 127 acres of gardens, terraces, pools and walkways and even had a zoo for animals such as polar bears, zebras, lions and more. What inspired the creation of it was a trip he took as a young child with his Mother to Europe where he saw many Paintings, castles, churches and architect unlike what we have here. When he grew up he moved to the Central Coast of California and began building his dream home/castle on a mountain top. Apparently many architects said it was impossible but Julia Morgan made it happen even though it took many years. But the results are amazing. The main house/castle looks very similar to cathedrals I have seen in Russia and what you see in Europe and Italy, but the most amazing thing to me was the views, landscaping & pools I could have stared at them all day. It must have been amazing to have been there in its prime and to stay there. I took way tooo many pics but I hope you enjoy them...

Coastal pics taken from our drive up to Hearst Castle.

On the drive up....

Guest Quarters

The best part about the whole place, the gorgeous pool. I have never seen anything like it, its a pity we can't take a swim in it.

Guest room and House.

This was the main entrance to his house, and as you can see it was designed after churches he saw on his trip to Europe.

Us in front of Hearst Castle (the main house).

Dining room.

The indoor pool, it was 10 feet deep and check out that ledge they used as a diving board, everything gold colored is real gold. Yep this man spared no expense.