San Francisco: March 31

March 31

Busy, busy day—we are both exhausted!

This morning we took a bus tour of San Francisco. We have explored San Francisco several times on our own, but thought it would be fun to take an official tour. Since Tom always drives, he never gets to see as much as I do while he is navigating the crazy California traffic. This gave Tom a chance to sit back, relax, and enjoy the sights.

We got into the city way earlier than we planned, as it was a state holiday (Caesar Chavez Day) which we had not realized. There was virtually no traffic on the way in during what should have been morning rush hour. We found a Starbucks, which is never difficult to do in California, and people watched for a bit until tour time. We were near a cable car terminal, and watched them turn the cars around, which they do manually.

Walking to the bus station, we saw a tall ship (formerly known as the Star of Alaska) in the bay, in front of Alcatraz Island.

I think we covered every neighborhood and district in the city on the bus tour. We certainly saw some areas we had never seen before. Our travels included Pacific Heights, Sea View, Twin Peaks, Haight Ashbury, North Point, Chinatown, the Italian section (the name escapes me), the Presidio, Golden Gate Park, and more that I am forgetting. The bus driver had a wicked sense of humor and was fun as well as informative. Tom did feed him a line or two that he then took off and expanded.

Golden Gate Bridge as seen from the Twin Peaks observation site.

Besides the standard tour places, we did see a couple of celebrity places, which is always fun. We saw the house where the Grateful Dead lived and where Jimmy Hendricks stayed when Haight Ashbury was the place to be. Also saw the block long house in Pacific Heights (a not too shabby address) that Danielle Steele lives in at present. I can’t begin to imagine what a place that huge and beautiful must cost in San Francisco. Robin William’s house was nearby, but on a street tour buses are forbidden to travel.

The tour was a delight in spite of a know-it-all woman who sat directly behind the driver and attempted to give her own tour patter. I think the entire bus could have gladly strangled her. The drive did nicely quiet her down.

I think Tom took a million pictures. I’m sure he will be posting them soon.

After a lunch from a hot dog vendor on the street (it was available and safe), we set out for Pier 33 and the Alcatraz tour. The island is about one mile offshore and is accessed by multi-decked ferries. Of course we had to ride on the top level so Tom could shoot pictures all the way there. We about froze to death and Tom almost lost his hat, but it was fun.

Ruins of warden's house on Alcatraz Island and barracks that date back to Civil War period when the Island was a military defense site and prisoner of war camp.

The tour is interesting, but very sobering. They have scripted a marvelous tour you listen to on ear phones with individual control units (several languages are available—we chose English). There are descriptions of life in the prison, and interviews with actual former prisoners, guards, and people who lived on the island as children. (Guards’ families lived in a small town community right on the island, with their own store, school, and recreational facilities.). The parts that were done by actors were well cast.

The narrations and stories were complete with sound effects. I saw more than one person look around startled at the sound of a slamming cell door or an alarm going off in their headset. It seemed all too real. As you listened, you walked the cell blocks and other areas of the prison, looking at the actual places where it happened. Many of the cells were “furnished” exactly as they had been when occupied. I cannot imagine living that way. Several of the prisoners’ stories were of what they did to keep from going insane.

Some of the cells are open so that you can go inside. It is not a nice feeling, even though you know you can walk back out at will.

The cells are incredibly small and sparse.

Yes, they did have the cells of the three who escaped through the vents and made the rafts out of rain coats, as per the movie. The cots were made up with the fake heads, and the vent covers removed so you could see how they enlarged them—with spoon handles no less. It is estimated it took a year to accomplish. No one is sure whether they survived or not, but there is no proof that they did, so it doesn’t count as a bona fide escape. However, the prisoners who were there at the time swear they made it to South America. They had been studying Spanish.(Prisoners could, with good behavior, earn the right to take correspondence courses. There was also a large library that was used by many of them, with philosophy being one of the most popular topics.)

I did not realize that only “incorrigibles” were sent to Alcatraz. Prisoners who could not be controlled anywhere else were sent there. Years of proper (i.e. following the rules to a “T“) could get them a transfer out. There was one interview with a bank robber who said that his four years there changed his life and turned him around—but he was the only person to speak positively about the experience of living on the rock.

Apparently when Al Capone was there, he was known as still being a nasty street fighter, but due to tertiary syphilis, he had very little mind left. They considered him insane, and he probably was. He did die from the disease.

One interesting thing for me was that the prisoners invented a form of Bridge, played by individuals without partners, using domino tiles instead of cards. It became an obsession with many prisoners and they would sit outside in the recreation yard on all kinds of weather and play for three hours at a time.

View of San Francisco from Alcatraz Island. This is the the view the prisoners saw of a world that they no longer had any part of, but could still hear faint sounds from when the wind blew in from the city.

It was interesting, but I was more than ready to board the ferry for the trip back.

Hearst Castle and "The One": March 29

March 29

We spent the night in Paso de Robles, about the closest place to our destination today. It seems that the Hearst family wanted seclusion as well as splendor. Our approximately 45 minute drive to the visitor center was a bit eerie. The fog had come in with a vengeance, as it often does on the CA coast. It looked like we were driving up into the clouds. Shortly our limited visibility became almost no visibility.

Casa Grande (the "big house") known as the Castle:

The Hearst Castle is part of a multi-building estate built by William Randolph Hearst (of the newspaper conglomeration and movie making fame) in the early 1900’s, completed (sort of—one wing was never totally finished) in 1925.

It was never a full time residence, but was meant only for summer stays and lavish entertaining, particularly of his Hollywood contacts.

In addition to the main house, known familiarly as the Hearst Castle, there are three bungalows that were the original buildings at the site. They are guest houses (the small one is 3600 square feet)—with bedrooms and living areas. Cooking was done in huge tents nearby.

The service wing of the castle, with kitchen pantries and staff quarters, was not added until five years after it was completed. The service wing has only poured concrete walls The stone facing used on the other buildings was never added. Apparently money was tight in the late 1920’s even for the Hearsts.

The tour was interesting, even if we could not see the ocean or any of the views from the outside terraces. The fog did add its own charm though. Hearst collected art work and items of décor for decades before he even started the house and rooms were designed around his collection. It is incredibly beautiful, but ostentatious does immediately come to mind.

Egyptian carvings over 3500 years old:

We saw Egyptian statues over 3500 years old (King Tut’s dynasty, but not from his tomb), sarcophagi, Roman columns, 14th century tapestries, seats and a wooden ceiling scavenged from monasteries and convents in Europe, paintings hundreds of years old, hand crafted silver, and a host of other collectibles. There is so much gathered and displayed so closely together that you at times lose the sense of beauty of each piece. That much money and power is hard to absorb, the mind boggles.

In addition to the many sculptures, there are fabulous stone and marble carvings that were integral to the design of the Castle. My favorites were marble cherubs that were carved to appear to be supporting the roof of the building--a bit of whimsy in all that serious art.

14th century tapestry in "gathering room" (where before dinner drinks were served):

The dining room was fascinating. (See picture on Tom's posting for this date.) The walls were hung with tapestries from the middle ages and flags from Italy . The dining table is very long and narrow, but then everything was served by servants (or buffet style at lunch), so they did not need to worry about serving dishes on the table like we ordinary folks.

The china was a blue willow pattern, but not the kind we grew up with. This was obviously bone china of the finest quality, rimmed with a gold edge. For some reason, they always used paper napkins—an oddity I found interesting. Mr. Hearst ate at the center of the long table, his mistress of many years opposite him (he and his wife had an arrangement after several years of marriage and five sons—she lived on the East Coast, well provided for, and he lived on the West Coast).

Guests took their seats assigned by place cards. A new guest would start out next to Mr. Hearst, then move farther and farther down the table as their stay became longer, unless, of course they were extremely interesting and Mr. Hearst enjoyed their company and conversation.

Guests were served no more than two cocktails—house rules. Mr. Hearst did not like anyone to overindulge.

Neptune (ourdoor) Pool:

Guests were expected to be outside and active during the day, playing tennis, riding horseback, taking walks, swimming in either the indoor or outdoor pools, or viewing the animals in the private zoo. Most of the animals were given to zoos in the 1930’s except for some antelope and a herd of zebra that now numbers about 40. We had hoped to see them, but they were apparently elsewhere on the 2000 acres remaining of the formerly 309 square mile ranch.

I love the Biltmore Estate in Ashville, NC, which is about the same vintage as the Hearst Castle. But if a house that large can be called such, the Biltmore seems more like a home that was lived in, granted on a much larger and more lavish scale than you and I, but still livable looking. The Hearst Castle is impressive, but is more of a show place. I can imagine how valuable an invitation to spend a weekend there must have been. There are home movies of several movie stars staying at the Castle. Even they seem out of place and acting a part in these surroundings.

After our return to where normal people live, we started out along The One. For non-Californians, California State Route 1 is always called “The One” in conversation or directions. For most of its length, unless detouring around a military base or a couple of towns that are directly on the ocean, it runs along the base of the mountains or slightly up on ridges so that it winds along the coast with hills on one side the ocean on the other.

In places, the ocean is trying very hard to claim the land the highway runs on and there are cave in and washouts. The roadway has been reinforced in many areas, often more than once. The cost of maintaining this highway must be astronomical.

Most of the time if the coast line goes into a canyon or valley, so does the road, creating a corkscrew effect with many long looping turns. Once in a great while, a bridge spans one of the curves.

At times the one is very steep and has switchback curves. Of course the hillsides also would like to reclaim the land, and there are frequent slides and rock falls. Why would anyone want to drive this? It is the most beautiful place imaginable.

The fog had burned off the coast by the time we started, but still hung over the hilltops. The ocean was deep, deep blue, with bands of different shades of blue that would have looked faked in a painting, they were so bright and intense. There was enough surf to make it interesting, and send the waves crashing over shore-side rocks. We had a great deal of trouble by-passing even one of the pull outs along the way. We might have missed a great view or picture opportunity if we didn’t keep stopping. Needless to say, it did make the trip a bit longer.

We drove through the ocean side park in Pacific Grove. It is one of our favorite stretches of shore line, and we wanted to see it once more. Most of the storm damage we saw on the last visit had been repaired. Then we decided to drive the 17 mile drive in Pebble Beach. Seventeen Mile Drive is a commercial toll road that has stops along the way to view the ocean and other sights. There are also several famous golf courses for those who are into that sort of thing.

One of the stops along the way was open for the last two days this season. It closes from April 1st to the end of June because harbor seals use that area to raise their new pups. Fortunately for us a couple of the mother seals did not read the calendar correctly, so we got to see some babies. I could have stayed there for hours watching them.

In addition to the little ones, there were a couple of older juveniles who acted much like human teenagers. As everyone else was settling down for naps, they sere antsy and kept changing places, then deciding to go for a swim, then returning to annoy their elders. The annoyed adults rolled on a side and waved a flipper at them in a “go away” kind of motion.

I think we were on sensory overload by the time we arrived at our hotel in San Jose.

More Pictures along the way - March 29 - Driving up the coast

Here is a series of pictures along the California coast in the area of Big Sur. It is really beautiful.
These next pictures were taken along the 17 mile drive in Pebble Beach. The beach and surf are awesome. There are 3 championship golf courses where greens fees are $450+. My brother Jim always wanted to see this and really wanted to play at least one of these courses. Unfortunately, he never had the opportunity.


A nice lady asked us if we wanted a picture taken together. After she took it, she asked if I would take one of her and her significant other (husband, boyfriend, ?)
This is the lone cypress that is ofte used in ads and promotions to show the 17 mile drive. It is about 250 years old.

Pictures along the way - March 29th - Hearst Castle

Saturday, the 29th was visit Hearst Castle and drive up the coast to San Jose.

It was foggy during our tour of the castle as you will see in the pictures. I am sure Diane will give you details of the tour in her blog entries, I will just share some of my favorite pictures.

This is the outside pool at the Castle. the pillars on the left were imported from Europe and are hundreds of years old.

One of the many terraces looking up at one of three bungalows. It appears that bungalow was a place to sleep with no kitchen. Cooking was done by servants in the big house.
Here is another view of the bungalow (Casa del Mar) that we got to tour.
Diane in front of one of the many sculptures.
This is the entrance to the big house. The lower part of the door came from a convent, the upper arch part was custom made to go with the door and fit in the opening.

This is the dining room in the big house. William Randolph Hearst sat in the middle on the left side with his guests around him.
This is the indoor pool. It has real gold inlaid in the designs in the bottom of the pool, the walls and walkway around the pool. The main pool is 10 ft. deep. the small elevated area to the left is a diving platform. The little room below and behind the the diving platform is for non-swimmers and is only 3 feet deep.

Diane and the Hollywood Sign

After driving around Hollywood streets trying to get a view of the famous HOLLYWOOD sign, we finally drove up a residential street and just stopped along the side of the road. This is the proof that we really were in Hollywood. At least Diane was.

More Pictures - Hollywood - March 27

I couldn't resist taking lots of pictures at Grauman's Chinese. I was facinated by all the handprints and footprints.

Jimmy Stewart

George Burns

Sophia Loren

Gene Autry and Champ

More pictures along the way - March 26-27

Here are Diane and I at the Flower Fields in Carlsbad, CA. I think Diane has included pictures of the actual flower fields but some nice lady asked us if we would like to have a picture of us both with the flowers in the background.
The La Brea Tar Pits are amazing.






Here is Diane staring up at the tusks of one of the Mastadons that they have dug up in the tar pits. The tusks must have been 7 or 8 feet long. When you think about the fact that all the bones and pieces were dug up separately, cleaned, catalogued and then put together, someone there must love to work on puzzles.


Here is a skelton of a Dire Wolf. They are now extinct but on the wall opposite this skelton, they have a display that must hold at least a thousand skulls of these creatures.




Here is a block of the asphalt and stuff with the bones embedded. This is what they have to dig through to get at the bones and artifacts. Doesn't look like fun to me but I guess or a Paleontologist, that is how they get their jollys.






At the right is a picture of the lake in front of the Page Museum at the tar pits. You can see the ooze on the top of the water. The dark bands on either side of the picture are part of the fence that surrounds the lake. Not sure if they are trying to keep us out or the ooze and creatures under the water in.

We ended our day watching the sunset from Redondo Beach, about 3 miles west of our hotel.

Central Coast: March 28

March 28

Today was primarily a driving day.

We stopped in Venice because I always wanted to see it. The canals that used to run all over the city have now shrunk in number to only six. We did see one, but could not find parking to walk along it.

We checked out the walkway along the beach.

Because we got there so early in the day, the street performers were not yet out—I’m sure most of them had only been in bed a couple of hours. But we did see the funky little shops where you can buy anything you can imagine, and a few things you probably hadn’t thought of.

There was an open air fitness club with every piece of workout equipment imaginable. It was the ultimate “show off” place. Every paddle tennis court was in use. That looked really interesting.

this sport could be tailor made for baby boomers who no longer can run so well and would appreciate the smaller court.

The hand ball courts were also fully occupied, including one at which two men were playing a unique game involving lacrosse sticks. The bicycle path along the beach was busy, and we learned quickly that walking on it is not appreciated.

We had to leave the highway to drive through Santa Monica, just because. It actually reminded me a lot of Boulder, CO—much the same look and atmosphere. The pier has a Ferris wheel and “mouse” roller coaster and other amusements. It resembled an upscale Santa Cruz pier. I would have loved to have seen it at night with all the lights reflecting in the waves.

Malibu announces at city edge that it is 27 miles of scenic beauty. I wouldn’t disagree. Incredible homes squeeze in between the beach and the highway in places and cling to the hillsides on the other side of the roadway. On top of the hills are sprawling estates the size of small towns. Every type of architecture you can think of is represented.

My favorite part of the drive was with the ocean on one side and the Santa Monica Mountains (well actually they are more like foothills) on the other. I practically got whiplash trying to see both sides of the car at once and not miss anything. In places there were canyons stretching back into the hills that looked like they needed exploring.

We drove through the central coast wine region (which I didn’t know existed). The vineyards come down right to the highway. The vintners have thoughtfully posted signs on many of the rows of vines explaining what type of wine will be made from those grapes. Tom had not heard of any of the wineries that had signs posted, so we will have to watch for those brands to try them someday. I still think the Finger Lakes region is the most beautiful wine country I have ever seen.

Near Oxnard were acres and acres of strawberries ripening in the sun. It reminded me somewhat of Watsonville. Tomorrow we plan on stopping at an organic farm stand and getting fresh berries since we will be in the same room more than one night and will have a chance to finish them. Tom wanted to know if I planned on dipping any in chocolate. I think not.

There were also huge sod farms in the same area. I always am a little amazed at the idea of growing lawn grass to cut it into sections and sell it. The whole idea seems odd to me.

Along one stretch of the highway in the area there was an approximately two mile stretch of shoulder parked solid with RV’s and campers. They were packed in so tightly, head to toe, that only a very thin person could step between them. Fifth wheel units were unconnected and set up. There were awnings and lawn furniture and all they needed to vacation. They were literarily on the edge of the roadway, and had only about three feet of space between the trailers and the large rocks that protect the beach. Kind of a bizarre “camp ground”.

We did stop at one Mission, Mission Santa Barbara. We could have done most of the Mission Trail on this trip, but I find it difficult to stop at them anymore. Having done some research on Fr. Junipero Serra, I shudder at that part of our history. He founded 21 missions, with Mission Santa Barbara being the last one. In an attempt to “civilize” the natives, he rounded them up into communal barracks at the missions and forced them to raise cattle and crops as slave labor. Thousands died from ill treatment and the European illnesses for which they had no immunity. But the military posts by each mission thrived and in time became the basis for the first permanent settlements in California.

Anyway, Mission Santa Barbara is a beautiful building. It was destroyed once by earthquake and once by fire and has been completely restored. In addition to the usual adobe style building, there are colorful Moorish touches—very pretty.

The Church is still in use as a Franciscan-led parish. There is a lovely old fountain out in front which the tourists use as a wishing well and some handsome men pose in front of.

Chalk drawings on the sidewalk by the Mission

There are also nice clean restrooms, which we appreciated as much as the beauty of the setting. Most of these snobby little coastal towns and cites do not allow fast food places, which makes “necessary” stops a challenge.

We are spending the night in El Paso De Robles. If someone who speaks Spanish could tell me what that means I would appreciate it! Tomorrow the Hearst castle is on the agenda before we head into familiar territory where we have visited many times.