We pulled in to the Sea Otter Inn in Cambria on Tuesday night, just in time for a lovely sunset.
Moonstone Beach was right across the street, and offered superb opportunities for walks, with or without a camera.
On Wednesday, we explored Hearst Castle, the residence of William Randolph Hearst from 1919 to 1947, and now a National Historic Monument. Hearst called this place La Questa Encantada (The Enchanted Hill), and the photo below shows the view of the central California coast from his enchanted hilltop.
The main house, Casa Grande, occupies over 60,000 square feet and houses an extensive art collection. It is surrounded by 127 acres of gardens.
The middle set of pictures shows the billiards room and the main dining room. In the bottom set, you can see the two pools: the outdoor Neptune Pool and the indoor Roman Pool. The Neptune Pool features an ancient Roman temple front, brought from Europe and reconstructed at the site.
While we were
in Cambria, we noticed lots of strange looking creatures - the town was celebrating a "Scarecrow Festival" (see also the picture in the top left corner of this page). The lower right picture was taken beyond the borders of Cambria, where we could not resist stopping for a photo with an actual crow scarecrow.
