On Sunday morning Blaine and I woke up pretty early and started packing up. We were able to get everything done pretty quickly so we said our goodbyes to everyone and headed out on an adventure. Not sure exactly where we were going, we just decided to drive over to Pismo Beach which was about half an hour away. My family loves Pismo Beach and we usually go there at least once a year.
Once we got there, I of course found a yard sale sign and we stopped by that quickly where I picked up some brand new red fleece and a pretty vintage green and white tablecloth (I think) that I think would make a cute throw for our new house or even a picnic blanket. The day seemed overcast, but we found a place to park and started walking around. There were lines out the door at the Cinnamon Roll place and the Splash Cafe, famous for their clam chowder. It took a lot of will power not go go to Splash and get some clam chowder! We walked for an hour or so, down to the pier and around the different shops.
Reminding Blaine that he needed sunglasses due to losing his in the lake on Saturday, we browsed at a surf shop for a bit and he found a few pairs of sunglasses he liked. We’re both pretty frugal (more him than I) so it was tough for him to to consider paying over $100 for sunglasses. He considered getting a cheap $30 pair, but I reminded him that he had his last pair for over 6 years. Plus, he does a lot of driving so it was definitely good to invest in a quality pair. He eventually gave in and he’s pretty much in love with them at this point and you’ll see him wearing them in all the photos below. He’s pretty cute.
After than we decided to head over to the Cinnamon Roll place (I can not for the life of me remember the name of it) and grab a cinnamon roll. So yummy! Once in a while we’ll share one from Cinnabon, but those make me feel sick after a few bites. The one we got at this place we so yummy and had cream cheese frosting. Our last stop before leaving Pismo was to a shop to buy a small bag of salt water taffy, a few postcards and a shot glass. Blaine has been collecting shot glasses for years and we decided a while ago to buy postcards at all the places we visit and write a brief summary of our time there so we could collect those memories.
Our next stop was Hearst Castle which we had both visited before. I just love it there and getting to tour that house with all the amazing historic pieces is so much fun. It’s basically like a museum in the form of a house, a giant house. On the way there my favorite part, aside from riding along the ocean, is seeing the Zebra on the side of the road in the fields with the cows. Hearst Castle used to have it’s own little zoo before running into some financial trouble and donating all the animals to zoos and there are still some Zebra escapees left over from that. Now they graze among the cows who are part of the Hearst family cattle ranch. Free range, grass-fed cows. If I were to ever stop being vegetarian, that is what I would look for in meat.
After purchasing our tickets, we watched a little video about Hearst castle and all the famous and influential people who used to visit. When that was over we boarded the bus to go up the hill 5 miles to the castle. Our tour was amazing as usual, though I had seen most of it before. All the old furniture, tapestries and architecture is overwhelming. Things like 16 and 17th century walls and ceilings brought in from all over the world that the castle was completely built around.
I seriously took a photo of this table as inspiration on what I want the wood on our dining table to look like. It’s perfect. This table is about twice as long as what would fit in our house, though!
The ceiling below is in the middle of a 10 year, $1 million restoration. Amazing.
When our tour was over, Blaine and I walked around the gardens which were so lush and beautiful. I wish I could take it all home with me and create a garden like that.
The walls of the indoor pool are made out of a mosaic. Seriously, how long did that take?
Diving board. Amazing.
I seriously want my garden to look like this. A shaded walkway with fruit trees on each side with just tiny bits of light shining through.
Guest House. The colors of the door frames and the tiles above were so pretty.
Enclosures for the animals that used to be at the Hearst Castle zoo.
The pergola there was over a mile long and was made for people to walk or ride horses through. I can only imagine how pretty it would have been to take a stroll through there.
After we left Hearst Castle, we visited the Elephant Seal real quick. I love them. They are so silly. They just sit there all day randomly throwing sand onto their backs and making funny noises.
We stopped at a way too expensive and way too cute gas station on this adorable little street in Cambria where all the shops and restaurants looked like this.
I loved their welcome sign.
My camera is terrible at picking up color, especially when there isn’t much light but the sky was an amazing rainbow on the way home.
And of course there was a random giant James Dean outside of an unfinished gas station.
We finally got home around 10pm, unloaded and passed out. It felt so good to take a shower this morning and now I get to catch up on all sorts of stuff around the house and online. It was totally worth it to get to spend the weekend with Blaine having fun adventures!
Oh what a great adventure. I’ve never been to pismo beach or hurst castle. this is definitely on the list of places I’d love to visit. It looks so relaxing. What a great getaway.
They’re both great places for a trip! I loooove pismo. When we go we usually rent a house or condo walking distance from the beach. So nice.