San Simeon, CA

The weather was predicted to be cloudy with a chance of rain so decided to plan a sort of inside day. We jumped in the car and started the drive north on the 1 . . . SO beautiful! I wasn't able to drift off too much as it was a two lane road but such a nice drive. Our first stop was Hearst Castle which was the home of William Randolph Hearst. If you go be sure to watch the movie in the IMAX theater before you go on the tour . . . it really does give a great history before you go on the tour. The castle is above and this was taken from PCH 1 and the entrance . . .

A view of the guest house rooms . . .

A view of his castle . . .
My favorites . . . outside pool and inside pool . . . just amazing and the inside pool was so romantic too.

Colin was growing tired of tours so we drove 4 miles down the road to the Piedras Blancas elephant seal rookery. By the time we arrived it was SO windy and cold but I was determined to check these critters out!

They are called elephant seals because they have a trunk like an elephant . . . hard to see since they were all sleeping but if you look closely you can see the enlarged nose. It is the time of year where the mother seals leave their young behind. It was now up to the young to learn to swim and fend for themselves . . . they sure don't look like they are in any hurry to learn.
After a busy day of site seeing we were very hungry so headed to the Cracked Crab in Pismo Beach for some very fresh crab and shrimp . . .
Colin loved the fact they just dumped all the food in the middle of the table and you got busy . . .

I really loved the Dungeness Crab!