Big 10 Football Tour

On the eighth day, the goal was to get from the Los Angeles area to the San Francisco bay area.  Unfortunately there are only about 9 hours of daylight at this time of year, so we were up at the crack of 5 AM to head up the coast.  As the sun began to appear, we drove through Malibu.  A beautiful town set on the coastline.  Here, you'll find the Getty Villa, a second "Getty Museum<"

After some additional time driving, we arrived at Pismo Beach, where I think the Pacific Coastal Highway really begins to show its scenery.  There are many places to pull over and see the jagged rock and powerful Pacific waves.

It is here however, that the views are still tame.  Guardrails prevent you from doing anything stupid and prevent you from getting to the real scenic spots. 

Then the coastal highway begins to tease you.  Once you are blown away by the views, they make you drive through a landlocked area in lieu of a military base.  Still, the magnificent hills provide some worthwhile scenery.  My main question however, once those cows climb these monsterously steep hills, how do they get back down?

Eventually you'll come across a town named San Simeon, just north of San Luis Obispo.  Here, the main attraction is the Hearst Castle.  This 5 mile "ranch" was owned by William Randolph Hearst from 1919 (completion date) to 1947.  It has sinced been donated to the state of California and is now a historical landmark with over one million visitors annually.

There are five 1-2 hour tours that you can take for approximately $25.00 each.  Probably well-worth the investment as you'll never see anything like it.  Due to the amount of daylight afforded to me, I immediately said "yes" to the first tour offered when I got there.  This turned out to be a tour of the pools and bedrooms among other things. 

The outdoor pool itself is just plain amazing.  You see all sorts of great pools in Vegas today, but this pool was developed prior to the 1920s?  That's just plain crazy!  Our tour guide told us that two people have jumped in during a tour.

Next up was a walk around the outside grounds.  Here, you begin to see where your admission fee is going as the restoration/upkeep of this place must be painstaking.  As incredible as it is, remember that it is over 80 years old!  Even as the structure appears to be dying, the produce trees seem to blooming year after year.

Unfortunately due to the age and light-sensitive nature of many of the things inside, no flash-photography was allowed.  The detail on the bedposts or door-frames was just plain mind-blowing.  Below, I show a few photos, but unfortunately didn't have the camera out too much as I was trying to absorb what I was seeing and listen to the tour guide.

The guests definitely did not have to worry about seeing the side of a building outside of their windows.  Nothing but rolling hills and the Pacific Ocean surrond this estate even today.   Hearst owned everything from zebras to deer to cows that were allowed to roam the property.  He also owned lions and bears for a period of time. 

Since the area sometimes got down into the 40-degree temperatures (scoff from a Milwaukee resident), the indoor pool was used.  The walls were mostly coverd in gold and all sorts of Roman statues guarded the pool area.  It was so quiet and cavernous, it was pretty creepy.  This was the area of the estate that seemed would need the most restoration.

As previously mentioned, Hearst owned a lot of not-so-everyday animals to roam his estate.  He would often see them during his horseback rides.  Most intersting were the bear cages, shown below.  Today's collection seems pretty tame, consisting of mostly cows.

When you leave the riches of the Hearst Castle, you quickly run into the "rich" of nature as you come across the elephant seal beach. 

At any given time during the year, you'll find literally hundreds of elephant seals roaming the beach.  They are particularly loud and particularly territorial.  Check out the 2 videos below to see how these creatures act.

Shortly after San Simeon, you see the "real" Pacific Coastal Highway.  It is here that one mis-step, one wrong turn, and you are falling off of a cliff to your death.  Very limited guardrails, many high cliffs, many sharp turns, no supervision.  You'll find some of the best views in America here, but if you get too cocky, you might find yourself in a whole lot of trouble.

The only safety precautions you'll find here come in the form of the sign shown to the side.  Otherwise no lifeguards, no patrolmen, etc.  The roads and vista points are literally at the edge of a mountain, but if you're daring enough, you'll get views that will last you a lifetime!

At 3:00 PM, we quickly realized that our daylight was limited to about 2 hours and we still had about 5 hours of driving to do.  As a result, we had to try to speed through the balance of the Pacific Coastal Highway, often getting enfuriated by the lengthy traffic stops as they try to install traffic lights at certain points of this "highway."  So below you'll find just a few of the sights we passed on the way to Big Sur.

Our final stop before heading into the mainland of the Bay Area was Big Sur.  The area has loads of campsites, but it is on the coast where the true beauty is (unfortunately they do not allow you to camp here).