Day 4: Carmel by the Sea, Big Sur, San Simeon

After the amazing day we had in Monterey, I thought for sure we would be hard pressed to find views as amazing as Point Lobos. I was wrong. Enter: Carmel by the Sea and Julia Pfeiffer State Park. But first, I had to teach Naomi to drive. 

While our upgraded car was awesome, it was an automatic transmission. This was great news for me; not so great news for Naomi. Her car in Belgium is a manual, and she had never driven in the States before. Cue driving lesson in the parking lot of our hotel. Either I'm an excellent teacher or Naomi is a super fast learner, because everything went smoothly and obviously we're both still alive. I was glad to have Naomi driving because now I could stare out the window at the beautiful scenery along the coast without accidentally driving off a cliff. Really, these views are incredible.

At the suggestion of a friend we made a quick stop at Carmel by the Sea. Carmel is a super cute and charming town right on the coast, and it was only about a 10 minute drive from our hotel. White sand beaches, crystal clear water, adorable shops and the most beautiful homes you've ever seen. Clint Eastwood and his family have a home here and I definitely understand why. Even the street signs were full of charm.

Ponder away, dude. Ponder away.

After a short while in Carmel, we headed back to the PCH and started the trip to Big Sur. Between the trip from Monterey to Big Sur (roughly an hour), and Big Sur to San Simeon (a little over 2 hours), this leg of the trip would end up being one of the longer rides we took. Regardless, we made it to Julia Pfeiffer Park and enjoyed our lunch on the beautiful beach. (Note: there are two entrances to the park. If you are traveling southbound, the first entrance, the park [featuring campsites and trails] is on your left. A few more miles down and the entrance to the beach [where we were] is on your right. The roads are narrow, drive slowly and carefully).

Captured that wave crashing like a pro

After lunch we enjoyed the sun for a bit, as it was the warmest day we had seen so far, and then began exploring. The water was still quite cold so we didn't get very far.

Not very far at all.

There are a ton of rocks to climb and even a few caves to explore. But the waves were so high that day that we didn't want to risk getting injured/drowning/getting swept out to sea. After a few more photos we packed up and headed back to the car to make our way to San Simeon.

New house has a very open concept.

San Simeon is host to one of the most lavish homes in the entire world, The Hearst Castle. Basically this super rich guy used to camp on this big mountain, and one day he got tired of walking up the whole thing. So he said "Hey, I'm rich! I'll just build a house!" So he did. And then he built a really big house. And then he named it after himself and had parties and built a zoo and made it famous. Or something.

The main house. Not shown: 3 guest homes bigger than the state of Rhode Island. Each. Maybe.

So the main house features 167 rooms (including 42 bathrooms, because you know, problems) on 127 acres of land. We saw four rooms. Four. That's what's included in the Grand Rooms tour ($25). In addition to the four rooms, you get to wander the ground freely and see the 3 guest homes, 2 pools (1 indoor, 1 outdoor), gardens and the incredible view as seen below.

What a terrible place to build a home. I mean, really. Just awful.

After realizing we would never be rich enough to even rent a bathroom in this castle, we took the bus back to the visitor center and headed to find food. Fortunately for us, our hotel was very close to the castle. Unfortunately, food options were limited. We did find one place that looked great, but as we pulled in we found that they are closed on Monday's. Must be nice. So we headed back towards our hotel (and spotted Zebras along the way. Seriously, Hearst Castle used to house a zoo, some of the animals still roam free. Including, you guessed it, Zebras. Actually, who would ever guess that? It's weird. But cool. Zebras on the PCH. Who knew?) and decided to eat at the Sunset Grill. Despite being located practically inside a Motel 6, the food was kinda awesome. I had the California burger which was surprisingly one of the best burgers I've had in a long time. Maybe it was the bacon and avocado (a flawless combination) or maybe it was really that good. It was cheap and service was friendly and fast. I'd definitely go back, especially right now because I'm currently on a bus and hungry.

After dinner we headed next door to our hotel, The Courtesy Inn. Definitely one of my least favorite hotels of the trip. It was severely outdated, the lobby smelled like an indoor pool, the TV had about 5 channels that worked half the time, and there was no free breakfast. So far we had gotten lucky with great deals on good hotels, so we were bound to hit a bump in the road at some point. We showered, watched too many episodes of "My Strange Addiction" and "Sex Sent me to the ER" and finally went to bed.

Next: Santa Barbara.

XO,

Casey

Activities mentioned in this post:

Carmel by the Sea: parking: free

Julia Pfeiffer State Park: parking: $5

Hearst Castle: Grand Rooms Tour: $25 (other options available); parking: free, shuttle provided from museum to castle