San Simeon, CA Heart Castle

We spent a foggy day in August visiting William Hearst's gaudy castle in the middle of the Californian coastline. His father's metals wealth combined with his own media wealth had clearly given him free reign to purchase any and every thing he saw in Europe--never knowing where he'd put it or how it would fit in to his castle on the hill. Clearly his architect did the best she could given the inordinate amount of collectibles he had (most still sitting in storage in LA). The tour was very insightful and gave you a glimpse of what the wealthy Hollywood types did when given the chance to get out of town: head to Hearst Castle. His girlfriend, Marion Davies, was well taken care of with a huge mansion on a small slice of property right on the Santa Monica sands (see more). What's left of the hundreds of acres is a property that overlooks 50 mile of Pacific coastline between San Francisco and Los Angeles. It's beautiful country...filled with decendents of zoo animals Hearst once collected. On our way out we spotted 3 zebra enjoying the ocean breeze. What a unique place. Not to be missed if you're in the mood to drive the PCH. We look forward to visiting again during the Christmas holiday when it's beautifully decorated.