Thursday, October 21, 2010

From Morrow Bay to the Hearst Castle is just a 30 minute drive on Hwy 1.  We bought tickets for the 10:00 A.M. tour and arrived early enough to watch the movie about the building of the castle and some of the early guests that visited the castle.

The castle was built by William Randolph Hearst.  The family fortune was made in the newspaper and magazine business.  Mr. Hearst started construction on the castle in 1919 and construction continued until 1947.  Much of the castle was completed in the 20’s and many Hollywood celebrities came to the castle on the weekends.  The castle has 56 bedrooms and there is over 90,000 sq. ft. of space, in addition to 127 acres of gardens.  In 1957, the Hearst family donated the castle to the State of California and it has been open to the public since.  In 1976, the castle was named as a United States Historical Landmark.

The weather for our visit to the castle was very cloudy and a slight mist fell most of the time.

 

Above are some of the photos of the castle.  You can see how cloudy it was from the top photos.  The entry hall and dining room are pictured.  The indoor pool was unbelievable!  The blue color of the water and the (real) gold accents were beautiful.  The picture of the castle in the clouds is a photo of a photo.

On our return from the castle we stopped at Robin’s in Cambria for lunch – a really nice restaurant.