As we made our way north from Santa Monica on Highway 101 (and Highway 1) it was obvious that our recent rains have turned the landscape a beautiful green. The photo below commemorates our first bug casualty (there would be many more).

Aged California oaks cloak the hillsides in this region.

North of Santa Barbara we pass the turn off for Vandenberg Air Force Base, the site of various missile tests.

The required wrist shot while en-route. I couldn't get my girlfriend, Sue, to steer while I did the "gray correction" so this macro shot is blue blue blue.

We made a brief stop at the famous "Madonna Inn" in San Luis Obispo. This former roadhouse and now hotel and restaurant is renowned for its unique "theme" guest rooms. I attempted to take a photo of its unique mens room but its users were reluctant to be immortalized so...

At the San Luis Obispo Mission we paused in its rear courtyard for a picnic lunch.

Here is the Mission's church interior.

The Mission's main entrance. The date is 1774. As some of you may know, California's missions were built along the El Camino Real with each mission being about a day's ride apart.

In the front courtyard there was a carnival of some sort going on and, strangely enough, belly-dancers entertaining the crowd.

Here is a photo of the front wing of the Mission.

Next door to the Mission is the old "Free Library," now a museum.

Behind the "Free Library" I saw this crumbling wall and had to photograph it, even though I have no idea what it used to be. Chances are very good that is all that remains of a stone building that collapsed during an earthquake many years ago.

Leaving San Luis Obispo, we follow Highway 1, the Pacific Coast Highway, to the northwest, heading for Morro Bay.

Here is a shot of the front garden of our motel in Cambria on Moonstone Beach Road.

That's the Pacific Ocean just across the street.

After being cooped up in the car for a few hours, we decided to take a walk along the wooden boardwalk constructed to protect the flora and fauna of the shoreline. This shot is looking northwest.

Another shot looking to the northwest.

Here is Sue, having responded to my request that she look around to be photographed. This view is to the southeast, with part of Cambria in the background. Oh, and of course, she was wearing her SEIKO Bell-Matic (below).

We decided to take a stroll along the beach and clambered over the rocks where we discovered these two starfish waiting for high tide to return.

The erosion patterns on these rocks is really something to see.

Shooting toward the setting sun was a challenge but, if you look closely, you can see the round gray forms of California seals resting on the rocks.

After a good meal and a good night's rest, we journeyed through historic Cambria before heading to San Simeon and Hearst Castle. Cambria is a very charming tourist trap and well worth visiting. I only wish we'd had a little time to explore.

There was no way I could resist this photo of Canozzi's Old Saloon in East Cambria.

At the west end of Cambria the main road is lined with shops and restaurants. Apparently it is quite popular with antique hunters.

There was no way I could pass this shop with taking a photo!

We then drove up to San Simeon and made a stop at "old" San Simeon, the hamlet where William Randolph Hearst had a dock built. He needed that dock for when his yacht visited and also for the cargo ships carrying some of the goodies that would wind up in his castle on the hill.

Just to the side of Sebastian Store was this small building. I'm not sure if it is/was a church or a school.

This is the visitors' center below Hearst Castle. Approximately 50,000 of the 250,000 acres owned by Hearst were donated at his death to the state of California, including his castle. This huge ranch was assembled out of several Spanish land grants by William Randolph Hearst's father, George Hearst (who made millions from the Comstock Lode in Nevada and other mining ventures).

George Hearst	William Randolph Hearst

We got there early and parked right up front.

In order to reach the castle you take a shuttle bus that winds its way up the hill, leaving the fog of the coast behind. The top vista is looking northwest toward Monterey, the bottom is a view to the southwest.

At the first staging area where the docents tell you the rules (no flash photos, no gum, no food, no drink, stay with the group) we saw the first of the many fruit trees on the grounds.

Here is a view of the steps leading up to one of the three large guest bungalows built around the main house.

The above three photos are of the famous outdoor pool. You can see for yourself that Hearst's guests enjoyed quite a view while they gamboled in the heated pool waters. Can you say "Xanadu?"

Now we go up the steps to the first guest bungalow.

At the time of this trip (January 2005), there were several different tours at Hearst Castle and we took the "introductory" one. The above four photos are the interior of the front guest bungalow, a large structure with four separate bedrooms. Because of the no-flash policy, some of these interior photos are, sadly, a bit blurred as I tried to pause for a no-flash shot while the docents hustled us along. The furnishings, in general, are all antiques. Many of them are hundreds of years old and brought to the castle from Europe and the Mediterranean.

Here is the garden behind the front guest bungalow. Statues are everywhere. Considering that W.R. Hearst was a well-known prude, it's interesting how many nudes there are!

Here are some Egyptian statues just below the main house, which is known as Casa Grande.

Working with the brilliant architect/engineer, Julia Morgan, Hearst attempted to recreate what he visualized as a Spanish village, with the guest bunglows clustered around a plaza dominated by Casa Grande, which was designed to look like a village church. Above is another shot toward the northwest as the fog is beginning to clear from the coast.

This gold statue looks down on the coastline. In her hands she holds a frog. Lucky frog.

Casa Grande is too large to frame in one shot, so here it is in two parts. The balcony you see is off the master bedroom, known as the "gothic" bedroom. Hearst, apparently, preferred to use one of the guest bungalows when he visited.

Here is the fireplace in Casa Grande's enormous main sitting room where guests gathered prior to meals. As the docent enjoyed pointing out, everything here is an antique. I am always fascinated by the fact that collectors like Hearst would have rooms and buildings literally disassembled and shipped in pieces to America, where they were then pieced back together like a puzzle. Orson Welles and Herman J. Mankiewicz must have had this room in mind for the famous scene in "Citizen Kane" where "Susan Alexander" pieces together a giant jigsaw puzzle in front of an enormous fireplace. Contrary to myth, the fictional "Susan" bore little or no resemblance to Hearst's mistress and loyal companion, the under-appreciated silent-screen and talkies comedienne, Marian Davies.

This is Casa Grande's front entrance, looking out on the plaza. We, however, came in through a side entrance probably reserved for servants and staff.

These two photos above are of the dining room. The second photo is the ceiling, assembled from a 500 year old ceiling Hearst bought in Europe and had brought in pieces to San Simeon.

I had asked the docent about the kitchens and was told "that's the second tour." However, my girlfriend, Sue, happened to mention to the second docent, who was behind the tour herding us forward, that she happened to know a couple who had once been docents. When names were exchanged it turned out the second docent knew them quite well. So, he slipped us away from the herd and gave us a brief look-see at a pretty darn impressive kitchen. Note the reinforced concrete construction so necessary in this earthquake-prone region. The entire castle is built of reinforced concrete, with facings and brickwork applied over the concrete.

This is a 500+ year old tapestry in the billiard room. The natural dyes used in the past, combined with the conservation efforts of today, remain incredibly vivid.

As our 70 minute tour comes to a close we go outside to see the tennis courts where guests like Cary Grant, Clark Gable, Joan Crawford, Charles Lindbergh, Katharine Hepburn, and Louis B. Meyer (to name a few) could exercise their racket. After their workout, they could then adjourn to the pleasant waters of the indoor pool constructed beneath the courts.

This indoor pool is in an enormous room and really brings to mind the beauty (and excess) of imperial Rome in the days of the Caesars. Gold-leaf is everywhere and the pool itself is tiled, with no tile being larger than one inch. In the first photo, that "balcony" is actually a diving platform. The pool is ten feet deep, with no shallow end. Just below the diving platform you can see a side pool that Hearst referred to as the "Ladies' Pool."

Here is W.R. Hearst's private fire truck. Note his initials on the engine hood. It is parked in the lobby of the IMAX-style theatre that shows a documentary about Hearst and the remarkable castle he built high above the Pacific.

Finally, after winding our way back down the hill, we returned to the visitor center. Hopefully, this photo gives you some idea of how far (and how high) the castle is from the coast.

On the road again, just like Willie Nelson.

We make a stop in Morro Bay to enjoy the view and have some fish and chips. That rock mountain that appears to erupt from the Pacific Ocean is one of California's most recognized natural landmarks.

I couldn't pass this Morro Bay establishment without getting a photo.

Sunday afternoon traffic was light and we're less than 200 miles from L.A. Could this be a miracle return?

No. Suddenly, just north of Santa Barbara, we are stuck in bumper-to-bumper 10MPH traffic. WHY?! Because everyone had to slow down to get a look at where the hillside gave way in La Conchita and tragically took several lives.

Once we reached Santa Barbara, heavy traffic on the 101 (along with major construction) precluded taking any more photos, so we will end our excursion here and thank you for taking the time to view this brief travelogue.