Monterey Trip: Day 4

I had an agonizing choice to make this morning. Go and try to see the aquarium or to Hearst Castle. In the end, because I had never been, I ended up going to Hearst Castle. Mostly because I had never been there before.

Owned by Claifornia Parks Association, the Castle sits atop a cliff overlooking a vast panoramic view of the Central California Coast, all of which Hearst OWNED at one point or another. To this day, his corporation owns 90,000 of those acres, down from 270,000 bought by his father. It is a spectacular exercise in excess. Anything from the marble statuary to the one of a kind artwork. It is estimated that in 1920’s dollars he paid 9 million dollar for his abode. The most interesting part of it though is that he never thought of Hearst Castle as a castle. He had a castle in Wales. He called Hearst Castle, his ranch and thus conducted affairs there informally going so far as to have guest go into the kitchen to get their own breakfasts.

A RANCH! Imagine! A ranch with an indoor pool tiled in Venetian glass impregnated with gold. Alas I didn’t take any pictures there because they do not allow flash photography and my camera does not do well in low light. However I did pick up a couple of books.

I did however make a couple of small stops, the last of which lead to an incredible close encounter of the elephant seal kind. In the end I was glad that we ended up going to Hearst Castle. Even though the stop was on the way home, it still took us until 10:00 to get back.



I love the way the light played over the ocean. It reminds me very much of the hair of a mermaid caught in a stiff current, the sunlight dancing through it. It is in fact just sea weed but the effect is so very pretty.



Another one of my favorite pictures and another one that was a complete accident. I caught the seagull in mid flight.



This was the beginning of the encounter with the elephant seal. A female I think. During the entire time I watched her this is as much as she moved. Just enough to flip me off. The flipper stayed like that for about a minute then slowly deflated, leaving a fleshy, seal shaped torpedo on the sand.



Walking further along the beach, I discovered this male Elephant seal and a pup. I love the way the photo shows his battle scars. It was a neat thing to watch.



The middle one is a seal, surrounded by sea lion pups. CUTE. I managed to get to within 10 feet of this trio. Though I was careful to stay way above them and quiet enough not to disturb them, not that they seemed to mind. Like the rest of the animals on this beach they refused to make any movements what so ever. They would occasionally make some rude noises and the baby closest to the camera at one point cried for its mother but other than that, remained motionless.



Walking back, this was the view of along the beach. Note the long length of motionless bodies. Apparently the smooth California beaches are much beloved both for basking and for calving. There was a ton of people watching them so I assume that this gets stop gets closed around April for their protection. Though these seemed to have started early.

All in all this was a most satisfying trip. Not as relaxing as the big bear trips have been but definitely satisfying. I am only sorry that I did not get to take a trip up the coast with Kelly. She would have enjoyed the views though the journey would have been hard on her. She got car sick and the small twisty roasts would have made her miserable.

Interestingly enough, the trip kinda ended how it began, with rainbows. Big ones. Full half bows, doubles. There were two of them that followed us for approximately 50 miles. They were bright and intense and so clear over the endless fields of the California coast line. Rainbows never cease to amaze me. Even though I know why they are and how they are, it doesn't take away any of the magic. I just can't help staring at them, a child mesmerized.

I don’t think I will be repeating the trip again next year…so I guess that leaves me with a year or so to plan the next trip. Maybe I will go back to Europe.