Viva La Hearst, Happiness, Ghost Towns and Bright Lights.

Craig Writes:

14/05/13.The next part of our journey took us down the magnificent Big Sur coast for a stop of at the majestic Hearst Castle in San Simeon before coming to rest at the sublime Petit Soleil in San Louis Obispo. 

Hearst Castle can best be described as one man's monument to what an iron will and a bucket full of money can achieve. Over a 28 year period from 1919 to 1947, Hearst tipped somewhere close to ten million dollars into his pet project. A very large bucket full of dollars back in those days.

Is this the worlds most expensive "weekender"?

No doubt the man had style

A massive 60,000 square foot "weekender" with 56 bedrooms, 61 bathrooms, a private zoo with polar bears, zebra, giraffe, lions etc, a Neptune pool that the Gods would be pleased to bathe in, Roman Baths that would be the envy of a Caesar, tennis courts and luxurious guest houses. These were to house the many A list Hollywood stars and political characters he liked to surround himself with.  Chaplin, Gable, Crawford, Granger, Bob Hope, Churchill, Roosevelt and Calvin Coolidge but to name  few. 

I doubt the pool at Mount Olympus was any better

The stunning indoor Roman Baths

He rarely stayed there but when he did he liked to entertain and built an airfield to fly his fortunate guests in. In some respects it was built more as place for him to store and display some of his incredible art collection. From 3500 year old Egyptian sculptures of the goddess Sekhmet to 3rd century Roman marble statues.  

One of many beautiful garden statues

Renaissance artworks adorned hallways and  five metre x eight metre Flemish Tapestries hung from the walls of the Grand Sitting Room with it's 400 year old French fireplace and carved 16th century Italian ceiling. Some 26,000 artefacts and works of art lie throughout the estate.

The Grand Sitting Room, guests would mingle and play here before dinner

The ketchup and mustard were always served up in their bright plastic bottles

But he never did get to finish it. He went away on one of his trips and told everyone there not to do anything till he got back. He never went back. Still, enough was completed to make this one of he most remarkable pieces of architecture of the modern era and a testament to the imagination and perseverance of Hearst and his remarkable architect Julia Morgan.

From here it was a little further down the coast to San Louis Obispo and a little touch of French charm at the delightful Petit Soleil Bed and Breakfast. My god, what a breathe of fresh air this place is.

Petit Soleil, if you get the chance, go.

An intimate B and B complete with cobblestone court yards and the rustic colourful charm of a Provence cottage. Our hosts Diane and John Connor were totally charming, efficient and absolutely delightful. The rooms are beautifully appointed but not over the top and the morning breakfast of a choice of fluffy buttermilk orange and pecan pancakes or a caramelized onion and red pepper strata was a hard decision to make.  Oh the first world problems we have to deal with on the road. A tasty nutty granola with quality yogurts, fruit, toast, juice and coffee or tea signed the deal. Good quality linens and towels and L' Occitane toiletries, damn I could live here too.

San Louis Obispo actually has quite an interesting reputation. According to author Dan Buettner it is the happiest place in America.  Dan says some of the reasons are they banned all public smoking in 1990 and all drive through fast food outlets have also been banned. Coincidentally they have very low rates of obesity and smoking.  They have an extensive net work of bike ways so most people bike to work and local councils have strived hard to encourage outdoor dining and socialising which is helped by the fact they have fantastic weather 306 days a year.They have a very healthy work to play ratio and 25% of the population are self employed. Oh, and they never swallow their gum. If your there make your way to Bubblegum Alley and you'll see what I mean. Since 1960 people having been coming from all over the world to chew their little hearts out to decorate the two 4.6 metres high x 21 metres long walls with the gum of their choice. It must be an inch or two thick by the look of it. In a few more years it will be that thick you'll have to walk down the alley sideways. And yes it is as disgusting as it sounds but it's like the site of a famous gruesome murder, you just have to see it.

Sad to say we contributed to this bastardised art work

 And yes I did stuck my own pink blob up there for future generations of Van Waardenburgs to go visit and be proud.

The Infamous "Wall of Soda", Bacon and Lime anyone??

Unfortunately we're only here for one night and then off for another one nighter in Pasadena. Not a lot to say here although it is a pretty town and they do have the Rose Bowl here. We got in fairly late after a long drive and tackling the LA traffic.

Ten lanes and it still ends up a carpark

We ate, slept, got up and drove on the next morning stopping at Calico Ghost Town.

At it's peak it had 1800 people and 22 pubs

If only those chests could talk

The town was founded in 1881 at the base of the Calico Mountains in the Mojave Desert when four prospectors discovered silver. It went on to become California's largest producer of silver. In 1890 The Silver Purchase Act was invoked and the price of silver began to drop. 

Down the mines we go

Someone forgot to tell these fellas the place has shut down

By 1896 the price had dropped by half and the towns population started to drift. By 1907 it was completely deserted. It has thankfully been restored with five of the original buildings still in use. Lil's Saloon is one of the originals and  a real step back in time. I felt I should sidel up to the bar, mindful of the watchful eye of the portraits of Billie The Kid, Pat Garrett, Jesse James, Wyatt Earp, the Younger Brothers and a posse of other Wild West legends staring down from the gallery. Slouchin heavily on the old oak bar rubbed shiny by countless elbows, shakin the dust of my Panama and sayin low and mean, "whiskey, bar keep". But time was gettin on, so I took a bit of footage, crept out the worn bat wing doors that had been swung a million times by dusty and ornary miners, cowboys and gun slingers and grabbed a water at the General Store. 

Sometimes even the bravest and the best looking ended up in a box

The drive down to Vegas across the Mojave was a real jaw dropper.  We travelled Route 15 and to the locals I can see how it might get a bit boring but for a first timer I found the expansive open desert and the distant Sierra Nevada mountain ranges hypnotic. What a contrast when you pull into town. Vegas is Disneyland on steroids with an R rating. It's all big and flashy and false as Danny La Rues knockers. 

This is probably the closest Johnny Depp will ever get to having a photo with me

The whole town is one big illusion

It's full of drunk businessmen trying to forget a bad week or celebrate a big deal. Drunk young guys in tight T's trying their best to not look their age and small cliches of girls in tighter shorts and low cut tops slouched on the side of fountains guarding their vodka mixers. Whether it's the bored loners making love to their slot machine or the pimped up broads on the arm of their buttoned up gangsta wanna be's it all reeks a little of desperation. We caught Tim Allen's show at our hotel The Venezia, and it  had a whiff of a guy who's been out of the limelight for a while and was desperate to get a laugh. I mean can you really run fart jokes for twenty minutes and think it's gonna be funny.  His young warm up act was 20 minutes of none stop belly laughs. Wish I could remember his name. He described himself as the free pickle you get but don't ask for when you order your sandwich. Very funny dude.

No complaints about the hotel, big and comfortable and right on the strip. We walked up and down a bit but we're only there for two nights and there's so much to see in your own hotel. We had a reproduction of St Marks Square complete with Truman Show fake sky and a canal snaking through and around the hotel which offered Gondola rides. Unbelievable. 

This, is just the lobby entrance

Fake canal, fake gondola,even the sky is fake.

While they'll ply you with cheap to free drinks if your playing the machines or the tables, outside of that the place is not cheap. Especially if you want to see a half decent show. We wanted to see David Copperfield but at $500 for the four of us we had to say no thanks. Chris Angel was next on our list but likewise over $400. 

Anyway, enough Vegas bashing. It's got it's purpose and I really don't mind it but it's not really a place to go with kids. You need to go with your party hat on, go hard for a bit then go home.

Down in Monterey

Craig Writes;

12/05/13. It was highly recommended that we stop into the Santa Cruz Boardwalk and check out the seaside fair ground which has the third oldest wooden roller-coaster in America.  Did someone say roller-coaster.  We're there. The boardwalk opened in 1907 and the Giant Dipper has been going since 1924. It's got charm but it's certainly not built for comfort. 

Built for speed not comfort

For one minute and 57 seconds, and six dollars, you can get the thrill of being thrown around inside a small wooden box like a sack of last weeks spuds. If you think you had back problems before you got on you'd sure as hell know by the time you got off. The Looff Carousel is the standout. It still has it's original 342 pipe organ built in 1894 and a brass ring dispenser. It is only one of five Looff Carousels operating in America and each horse is a carved work of art.

All individual designs, they're like the Terracotta Warriors of the carousel world

Stunning

The Boardwalk is not a place to go if your looking for a nourishing feed but as a place to go and while a way a couple of lazy hours and maybe grab a swim down the beach, absolutely.

Here we are, down in Monterey. A cosy little city of around 28,000 people  inhabited for many centuries by the Rumsen Ohlone Indians before the Spanish " discovered" it, claimed the land and its people for Spain and built the first town here in 1770.  It's a small town but it's got a big reputation. The Internationally acclaimed Monterey Jazz festival has been playing here third last weekend in September since 1958.  

It's all about the jazz baby

It's had a Who's Who of jazz from Billie Holiday and Louie Armstrong to Dave Brubeck and Woody Herman to Chick Corea and Diana Krall. And then there's  "the" Monterey Pop Festival of 1967 with The Who, Hendricks, Joplin, Otis Redding and many many others. It's said that it was this Festival that heralded in the 60's "Summer Of Love" and two years later spawned the biggest musical festival of em all, Woodstock. Pulitzer Prize winning author John Steinbeck made the place his home and  immortalized the town in such classics as East of Eden, The Grapes of Wrath and Of Mice and Men. 

It's a great place to walk around. Just the boys and me walked down to Fisherman's wharf while Christina stayed back to try and shake off a nasty chest cough she's picked up.

A quiet day on the wharf

What's a wharf without barrels of candy to hide behind

We were surprised to see they had their own little version of Pier 39 going on. A bunch of Sea Lions have taken over a small barge next to the main pier, barking and slapping each other like a herd of Three Stooges. There must have been about forty of them on a barge built for twenty.  One minute they're piled on top of each other, wriggling around like big brown rowdy sardines next minute they're flying and leaping around like crazies.  They looked like the happiest creatures in the world.

Larry, Moe, Curly and the gang

We headed back around one to see if the girl was up to venturing out. It was a little chilly but the sky was blue and the Pier is a real charmer so it would be a shame to miss it.  Fortunately she was feeling better so we headed back and we were rewarded with a lunch of The Fish Hoppers award winning Clam Chowder. Voted best Chowder in Monterey County EVERY year since 2004.  And it was gooodd!! Sour dough rolls, toasted garlic bread and a Sea Otter doing tricks for us as we sat at the end of the pier. He disappeared for a little then suddenly popped back up with his own lunch.

The best shows in town are usually free

A big fat squid which he proceeded to tear apart and chew up as he floated on his back only metres from where we sat. Priceless.

From here we took the 15 minute drive down to Carmel. We were expecting an upmarket picture postcard town of wealthy idle well dressed locals promenading the streets and sitting in cafes casually sipping lattes. And sure there was a Rolex and a Tiffanys et al and the place was impeccable but it still radiated a charm that we  loved. 

The town's population is only around the 4000 mark which is not a lot of growth since the Spanish began strolling the beaches and building missions way back in 1770.  Carmel became a part of the United States in 1848 when the Mexicans relinquished California to the US during the Mexican-American war of 1846 - 1848. It's a wealthy little town with a rich history in the arts owing to the establishment of the Carmel Arts and Crafts Club in 1905. Many great writers, authors and actors have called Carmel home. Poet George Stirling, authors Mary Austin and Robert Louis Stevenson, actors Doris Day, Phyllis Diller and Clint Eastwood who was Mayor of Carmel from 1986 to 1988. One of the platforms he campaigned on was to abolish the law that said no ice cream was to be sold or eaten in public streets. I suppose nothing's more dangerous to the public that a kid high on a hot fudge sundae wielding a double cone of rocky road with extras nuts. Scary stuff. If nothing else Clint will be remember for  the repealing of this thought provoking law.

We took a lovely tree lined walk to the beach past some Country English old world charmers with Shake roofs, Stucco exteriors and beautiful gardens. 

I'd buy this place just for the chook

Don't ya just love it

The beach is all clean white sands and rolling waves. Painted onto the surrounding rolling slopes of the nearby hillsides are the famed lush fairways and greens of Pebble Beach.

That little sliver of green on the hill is Pebble Beach golf course

We wandered, window shopped, coffeed and quietly slipped out of town and back to Monterey  before we hit the road tomorrow. 

Highway One and The Big Sur, spanish for The Grande South. It's a small town of only 1000 but the 100 mile stretch of rugged and beautiful coastline that stretches from Carmel to San Simeon has made it famous. It was really the building of California State Route One in 1937 and the building of the Bixby Bridge in 1938 that opened it up to the rest of the world. It's unique natural beauty and isolation have attracted artists and writers for many years. Henry Miller, Jack Kerouac, Henry S Thompson, among others, have at some time called Big Sur home. Orson Welles and his wife Rita Hayworth bought a log cabin there which is now the well known restaurant, Nepenthe. 

While you could wax lyrical for pages about the stunning beauty of the area I think in this instance we'll let the pictures do the talking.

Bixby Bridge in the background

We are truly living life on the edge

San Francisco.

Craig Writes:

7/05/13 The drive to San Francisco was about five hours with another stop off at the Priest Station Cafe for a follow up lunch of bratwurst, sauerkraut, red cabbage and coffee to fuel us for the long drive. The windows were down for most of this leg.  It was a mostly uneventful drive made easy by a comfortable set of wheels and the prospect of new terrain and sites around every corner. Speaking of. About an hour out of San Francisco on the pot holed and patchy excuse of a road called highway 580, we turned a corner to see a couple of those huge wind turbines sitting high up on a hill. We've got a few of them back home in Australia so we were familiar with them. "Oh look, there's a couple more over there." They're a bit of a blight on the landscape but not as ugly as the gargantuan spindle legged power poles and their thick black looping webs of cable dipping their way across the countryside. Suddenly, there were more then more again then as we drove around a bend and over a hill there were hundreds and then thousands of them. We're like, "what the?".  It looked like some alien invasion, these things were scattered for miles. Imposing landlocked giants straining to break their bonds and fly way.

Silly us, we weren't to know we were looking at the largest wind turbine farm in the world.  The Altamont Pass Wind farm has approx 5000 wind turbines and pumps out nearly 600 megawatts of energy per year. Good to see alternative energy practices in play.

Good effort on the sustainability front California

We pulled into the drive of our new home for the next few days, The Nob Hill Motor Inn around 5.30pm. Some of the streets here are crazy steep and a bit hairy. It was getting late when we pulled up and a stiff wind was blowing off the Bay.

8/05/13 Today was definitely "be a tourist day", day. We walked to Fisherman's Wharf going down the "Crookedest  Street in the World", had Clam Chowder out of a sour dough roll at Boudins, took photos of the sea lions at Pier 39, took the ferry out to Alcatraz then stopped for a seafood pasta and crab cakes at Sabella & La Torre. 

Makes you wonder if a bunch of, noisy smelly homeless people decide to camp here what would happen

I know, it looks like a camel sneezed into a bun but it does taste better.

Alcatraz, holiday home for the seriously naughty.

Imagine having these guys as neighbours

You would have to seriously like your own company

One of the finds of the day was Musee Mecanique at Pier 45.  It's a big warehouse housing Ed Zelinsky's lifetime collection of mechanical musical instruments and antique arcade games. Anyone remember playing Pong.  The stuff in here would have been a walk down my Grandads memory lane. And unlike the rip off in todays arcades that hit you for two bucks and upwards, 25 cents a game is all you pay. Five dollars has never lasted so long.  It was a good day.

Awesome place

Anyone remember PONG?

I swear this guy kept lifting his elbow

8/05/13 We took a walk to Chinatown today for Dim Sum at the Four Seas Chinese Restaurant. 

Tasty Tasty Dim Sum at The Four Seas, Chinatown

The place was packed with Chinese. Chinese butchers and grocers and chinese jewellery shops. Chinese fruit venders talking to chinese customers. Colourful chinese lanterns hanging and swaying and chinese dragons looking fiercely at you at every turn. But somehow it just didn't seem chinese to me. Maybe because we've been through a fair bit of Asia, including China, and can compare but it seemed to me like a Hollywood China. Maybe the smell wasn't right or the the old chinese ladies handing out pamphlets on the side walk seemed out of place.  I can't really put my finger on it.  Having said that, the Dim Sum was top notch and really tasty.

Chinatown, had the look but not the feel

To work off too many servings off shrimp and pork dumplings we walked to Coit Tower. A 64 metre lookout tower in the Telegraph Hill area paid for and dedicated to the late Lillian Coit. A cigar smoking, gambling socialite of the 1900's with a taste for mens clothes and a penchant for chasing fires. Her dedication to all things pyro saw her adopted as the official mascot of the Knickerbocker Engine Company NO.5. 

It was one last stop to Fisherman's Wharf, back to the Musee Mecanique to throw another fiver at the machines and then onto Ghiradelli Square for obscene sundaes. Ladles of oozing dark chocolate fudge over boulders of choc chip espresso ice cream topped in a Himalayan peak of whipped cream. Too too much. 

When too much whipped cream is barely enough

Afterwards we move slowly towards the court yard not wanting to antagonise the gurgling contents of our stomachs. I found a bench seat in the court yard and sat to listen to a woman playing some cool flute jazz tunes.The shards off sunlight slipping through the clouds were helping ward off a chilly Bay breeze. We eventually made it back to Nob Hill and believe it or not, an hour later headed around the corner to Escape From New York Pizza for a few slices. I honestly don't know where we put it all. It must be all the walking.

11/05/13. We took the car over the Golden Gate Bridge and out past Sausalito to Stinson Beach. This bridge is so damn big it has it's own weather pattern. 

Apparently once a year the cloud lifts and you can actually get a picture

All around was blue skies but the bridge was shrouded in clouds. I know it's high at 227 metres but that's not exactly in the heavens. Why the mysterious mystery clouds? I think it's just trying to be special. Stinson is a lovely little town. Laid back beachy feel to it. A lot like our own Dunsborough in West Aussies south west region. 

Stinson Beach, great township, beautiful beach, even had a shark warning to make me feel at home

We then stopped off at Alamo Park for a look at the Painted Ladies. You remember The Alamo. The Painted Ladies are seven remarkable Victorian houses standing side by side and overlooking the city. They have been featured in the sit com Full House and an estimated 70 movies and commercials. 

The much filmed and photographed "Painted Ladies"

Plenty of beautiful buildings to look at

Some post modernism perhaps

Some very nice looking buildings but if you look around the other streets surrounding The Alamo you'll see some much grander and prettier buildings just not with the same outlook. 

12/05/13 Mother's Day and it's off to La Boulange for a tasty breakkie before  a casual stroll up to Grace Cathedral to walk the inside Labyrinth. 

Mothers Day at La Boulange

The inspiring Grace Cathedral

The pattern is the same design as the one in France's Chartres Cathedral which we have also walked in 2010. Not quite the same feel but Chartres is a thousand years older and there is something to be said for experience. Time to pack up and say goodbye to San Francisco. I feel like I've left something there but I'm not sure what. 

Callum Writes: 

As we walked into Think Out of the Box, a small, modern wooden puzzle shop, we were asked if we wanted to try some puzzles by a nice guy who worked there. I eagerly said "Yes please" and he ushered us to a small round table with intricate wooden puzzles laid upon it. I recognised a few puzzles as Magic Boxes where you need to open a secret draw and other ones on the shelves lined with puzzles ranging in difficultly. He showed us the first puzzle on the table, the easiest, and Mum, Charlie and myself, Dad was still in the Alcatraz gift shop, started on the first puzzle.

Think Out of the Box. Not the Spice & Tea Exchange. 

It was one of Magic Box puzzles and I managed take out the drawer that was well placed so you had to pull on two almost opposite sides to take it out. I waited until Mum opened it, then Charlie, to continue with the next challenge the Shop Assistant had for us. It was two wooden pieces that you needed to place together to make a triangular based pyramid. The problem was, each identical piece had a square on it, so you had to place them in such a way both square sides were hidden. I think I managed it without realising, then took it apart, so Mum ended up finishing this one first. I might of peeked at her finished product to then finish mine soon after. By that time Dad had wandered over to the puzzle shop where we watched him finish the first one, by then Charlie was shown by the Shop Assistant how to do the second puzzle, and Dad did what I did, made the pyramid without realising. Mum kindly pointed out to him that he had done it. The last puzzle on the wooden table was challenging. You were given two more of the pieces that you use to make the pyramid, and had to place them all in a small wooden box that had a lid with a square on it to make it more challenging. 

In the end when none of us could finish it he told us he didn't really like this puzzle because it was more of a gimmick than a puzzle. He  revealed that you had to loosely hold the wooden blocks, then drop them in the box and give it a bit of a shake so they fall into place. He saw we were enjoying the puzzles so he brought out another. It was two wooden, overlapping blocks that he said could be separated by just pulling one off the other after unlocking them. He also told us it can be done with one hand, and with it remaining on the table. I pulled it, twisted it, shook it and even pushed them together for some reason. Eventually I accidentally did it, I must have spun it at one point, because it was the spinning motion that made the wooden sticks that locked the pieces together separate so you can pull the blocks apart. As we walked further into the store, as we had only been at the display counter, I saw wire puzzles where you had to separate the two, three or sometimes four metal pieces. There were classic Rubix Cubes, simple two across Rubix cubes, more challenging four across cubes and even mind boggling five across cubes! And if you were planning on getting put in solitary confinement for a few years, almost impossible six across Rubix Cubes. At the back of the shop was something interesting. For three dollars a turn, or five bucks for three turns, you can play Mindball, a game where you have to strap headbands to your forehead that had small, metal sensors that measured your brainwave activity. You place a special ball in the center of a table, hit a button and think of nothing. The more calm your brain is, the further the ball rolls to your opponents side. I thought it was slightly rigged because whoever sat on the left hand side almost, always won. Mum was the best at it, and she thought that was pretty cool considering her mind was always busy remembering things for us. Her words, not mine. I reckon if it was the opposite, making your mind as active as possible I would be pretty good at it. After a bit more browsing at the many puzzles that lined the shelves we continued onwards to explore other exciting things. Mum had seen a mirror maze just a short walk down from the puzzle shop. We followed Mum  and when we reached the entrance and paid, we were handed gloves to go in. We all wondered why we needed them, but when we got the answer, "Fingerprints" I felt a bit silly for asking. 

When you enter the maze, it is a wow moment. Infinite, almost invisible, glass portals, stretching out every direction you look.  

A bit dark, but you get the idea.

The strobing lights don't help either. The only way to get around was trial and error. There were other people in the mirror maze so when I go to a point where my reflection was right in front of me, my brain left the building, I said "Excuse me" and tried to walk around my reflection. Not my finest moment. I then found a good way to get around was to not bump into anyone. Mostly myself. That seemed to work for not hitting mirrors, but I still couldn't find my way out. I saw an exit finally, and Mum, Dad and Charlie were there too! I walked as fast as I dared to in a mirror maze, the man at the front told us of stories of kids coming out its chipped teeth and black eyes. When I did find them, they didn't look proud I finally came out, because it was the start again. I asked them to help me through again, and Charlie raced in again, which didn't really help me but he liked it because it meant he got to go through again. Dad went after him to make sure he didn't hurt himself, so it was up to Mum and I to get through it. I think we got up to the same bit I had previously stuck at, and Mum started to use the keep left trick. She put her hand on the mirror, and we both managed to get through before Dad and Charlie. I must have just not seen the pathway that Mum discovered by keeping her hand on the mirrors. Which probably is not hard to do when your sense of perspective is left behind at the start and strobing lights are bouncing off mirrors into your face. It was all fun and next we were  off in search of another place to explore.