Central Coast Meanderings

After an unbeatable Halloween, we spent Friday riding around Monterey on the Schwinns, before heading south on Saturday.

Friday, Saturday, and Sunday were about as pleasant as the Central Coast gets.  The twins pose near Lovers Point, Monterey.

Riding out to see the Monarch Butterflies in Pacific Grove, we passed by this large scale yard art.

We tried out the big nest at the Pacific Grove Natural History Museum - tres bon!!!

Saturday, we drove down the Highway 1 coast, making numerous stops at pullouts, an art gallery, and a couple inns.  No wind, temperature in the 80's!

We arrived at The Cypress Tree Motel in the little beach town of Cayucos.  The motel was definitely not your usual chain motel.  The motif was Route 66, and there just happened to be an annual car show of old hot rods going on just a block down the street which added great ambiance.  Our room was full of little antique signs such as the one above the toilet that read, "Don't Flush While the Train is in the Station!"

The Schwinns in front of a custom Caddy in our motel parking lot.

I had a '31 Ford coupe when I was 14, and planned to make it a hot rod, but ended up just getting it running well after a lot of work.  This '31 body has been highly modified (chopped and channeled as we used to say).

Most of the cars were works of art and finely detailed. "Hi, Felix!"

The main street of Cayucos was closed to car traffic.

 



Looking the other direction.

This shop had some real "bad boys"!

Another "bad" one, an early '50's Chevy.

Later in the afternoon, we headed up to the Hearst Castle where we would take an evening tour.  Yes, that is a herd of zebras grazing in the foreground!  That is the Hearst Castle on the ridge.

We had a wonderful guide, Marty, who led our group of 18 on a two hour tour of most of the castle's main features.  This is the one and only Neptune Pool.

The evening tour features real people playing the role of guests.  W.R. Hearst had a constant stream of guests come and stay for days at a time, ranging from political leaders to movie stars.

One of the sitting rooms, with Leonard Bernstein playing the piano.

The Roman pool was where guests could get to know each other a little better, late at night, after the movie was over.  Hearst Castle is a California State Park.  It is amazing how the visitor center, the documentary movie, and the museum there paint a completely honorable picture of William Randolph Hearst.  They never mentioned that he lived with his 20 something mistress for years at the castle while still married, that he legitimized Hitler by interviewing him, that he raped the world of antiquities, took yellow journalism to new heights, practically started the Spanish American War through phony news articles,  and had staff commit crimes to make news.  We did some reading on Hearst after the tour, and watched Citizen Kane, Orson Welles' masterpiece that was based on W.R. Hearst. 

The next morning, our motel parking lot looked like a scene from American Graffiti. 

Back home in Carlsbad, and a walk on the beach Monday evening.