Hearst Castle

Last weekend, Cheryl and I decided to take advantage of the free Monday, so we decided to take a tour up to Hearst Castle. It was one of a few lavish residences for the newspaper mogul William Randolf Hearst.
If you don't know what that is, its some flamboyant billionaire's house that he built/had built over a 28 year period, and he was still only half way done according to my reports. The architect working for him ONLY worked on his house, and did one or two other things for his family. Funnier yet, he started this little thing when he was 52, after his mother died. So after the 28 years he blew pretty much all his money, but lucky for him, his dad had given him a few newspapers, so he ran them.
So we get up super early and start the 3 1/2 hour drive up to where it was. The internet said we could buy tickets online, and we were considering it, but held out until even earlier that morning, when we checked the availability, which was diminishing, we decided to buy then. Which made us be even more punctual for our arrival. We get there with a half hour to spare, and the tour ahead of ours had two open spots so we also jumped ahead there as well.
There were a lot of weird people there with us. many deformities. Cheryl leaned over to me and smelled my armpits and asked "Is that You?" a few times. (It never was me, for the record!) And a bunch of Asians who never did shut up.
Being Memorial Day, there sure were a lot of hawaiian shirts, sandals, and those super old baseball caps that are spongy polyester in front, and that white nylon mesh in back, with the snaps always at the max. I wanted to ask a few people to NOT tuck their to-tight polo shirts into their to-tight, to-high shorts from the 80's. But I decided not to, because that would involve engaging them in conversation, and it would just confuse them even more. You can always spot the die hard tourists because they wear close that maybe used to be comfortable 30 pounds ago, and dangle their camera around their necks with the zoom all the way extended, no matter how big or small the camera actually is. I really enjoyed seeing the families on outings. You could spot them all because they were all wearing the same outfit! Same tacky patterns, same girly high-water pants/or Bermuda-shorts, whatever you want to call them, but what I liked most was the Family reunion t-shirts with their entire family tree printed on the back. I was tempted to go up and ask how Aunt Margret was doing, but didn't because that would just confuse them even more. And then there was the Asian contingency. Ahhh yes, our friends from the orient. They do know how to be tourists, but when it comes to eating in public, that's where I need to comment. I do have photographic proof of this too, but as Cheryl and I decided to eat in the back corner of this eating hall, there was an asian couple who sat at the table next to us and pulled their lunch out of their backpacks. I don't think their bags were insulated or self powered, but they pulled out a steamy container of 4 boiled eggs. Steamy as in 'its been sitting and fermenting in their bags all day so far. I could hardly believe my eyes, so I went in for a closer look, and then took a picture. It was hard boiled eggs, strips of what looked like beef, and then some sort of bean sprout. It made me not want to eat anymore, that's for sure.
After lunch we went on another tour. Each tour was about 105 minutes. It started with a bus tour from the visitors center/ gift shop, all the way to the top, a 15 minute crazy school bus ride. I think the bus drivers were reading books, as well as trying to drive up this narrow hill side path, and playing with the radio. We winded our way to the top of this large hill/ small mountain at the base of the main house estate. The estate itself has been donated to the state of Califonria, but the surrounding 200,000 acres is still owned by the family. Although William was an only child, his 16 shareholding descendants are all millionaires or billionaires.
Its ridiculous to think of what you or I would do with 1 million dollars, we live in completely different worlds than people like this. He owns original pieces of art that the Louvre only has replicas of. In his bedroom he has a fireplace from the 12th Century. My entire apartment building could fit in his living room. Two of my parents houses could fit in One of his guest houses. What would I do with a few million bucks (in 1910)? I sure wouldn't purchase the ceiling from a 16th Century church, or the throne from one of the ancient Popes, or buy priceless pieces of art. Like I said, its a completely different lifestyle that I don't think I'll ever understand.
So we luckily got an early bus/tour up the second time too, so we in turn got back and started home early too. We stopped somewhere for gas, and I had Cheryl drive cause I was super tired. It was a LONG drive home. When we finally did get home I crashed. I think we were both super exhausted. But it was fun. If you're ever in the area, you should go there too, just make sure to get your tickets early, online.