21June06 Wednesday
Today we left San Luis Obispo and headed further up the coast. About 40 miles north of San Luis is San Simeon and we stopped at the Hearst Castle welcome center. We thought about going to see the castle but decided instead to see the National Geographic movie they have about the Hearst family and the eventual building of the castle. The original Hearst came to California during the gold rush hoping to find gold. Long story short is that he found silver instead and made a fortune. With his money he began buying land and I think that in the end had about 85,000 acres along the coast. He also got into publishing and became quite successful with that. Eventually his son built the castle and lived a pretty lavish life there.
North of San Simeon it becomes pretty desolate as you drive along the Santa Lucia Mountains. The Big Sur area is beautiful and very rugged. In this area was a place where elephant seals have taken up home. There must have been about fifty or more laying side by side on the beach soaking up the sun. North of there you come to Monterey and home of the Pebble Beach Country Club. There is a 17 mile drive along the Monterey peninsula which has a $8.50 charge. The drive is beautiful with fantastic homes and three or four major golf courses. We stopped at Pebble Beach and walked out to the 18th hole and shot a few pictures. Very high class stuff here.
From Monterey we drove to Santa Cruz and stayed there for the night.
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