World-renowned architectural historian, Lord John Julius Norwich, was moved to say that "Hearst Castle is a palace in every sense of the word"
It can be a fine line sometimes balancing our housesitting responsibilities with our desire to get out and explore the area that we are temporarily living in. First and foremost we are there to loo…
I am here, I promise I will blog again. I actually have quite a bit to blog about but I am having issues with my pictures...trying to fix. So I have put this off long enough and still have no pics. We went on a little jaunt to California a couple of weeks ago. Great time was had by all. I just need to get it down before I start forgetting what's what. I will edit and add pics as I get them. Friday - Left DFW about 9:45 pm, Ed cried the first half hour and then settled. Lily and Alex both did well. The plane was fairly empty so we were able to spread out. in 3 different rows. We rented a car at LAX and got to CW's parents home about 1am LA time. Saturday - Lots of family arriving throughout the day. Becky and I went to the mall. Got a great necklace for Sunday. We had a late lunch at Chili's with the women/girls there for the wedding. Alex spent the day with his friend Joe Joe, he had so much fun. They have been friends since they were about 8 months old. They even lived with us for a time before Joe's mom started working and was able to find a place for them. I was able to leave Ed with Elizabeth's parents a little before 8pm, he went right to bed. Picked up Alex and went to see Wizard of Oz, Shirley (MIL) and Becky's (SIL) most recent production, costuming was fab of course. I was a little worried Lily would be bored. She and Alex were mezmerized. They used a live chihuahua as Toto. Lily's favorite part was the poppies, she wanted a costume like that. Shirley gave her a copy of Wizard of Oz as a present. Sunday - Got up and went to church. I was amazed at how quite the service was and a little mortified when Ed started screaching, there were only 2 other children of comparable age there. It seems that a lot of the young families there were once there have moved on. Of course we do not have to wonder why given the cost of living. This is our old ward so we were greeted warmly by many of the members. I as so happy to spend time and chat with CW's MIL Marion, who was injured in a terrible accident in South Africa last summer. Her leg is badly mangled but we worried she wouldn't keep it and that she would never walk again but she has kept it and she is walking. When I asked if she was coming to the wedding, she said she had nothing to wear and meant it. She has gained weight these month waiting to heal, nothing bad in my opionon but enough that her clothes don't fit. We managed to convince her we didn't care what she wore, we just wanted to spend time with her. The Wedding I had to get Lily to the wedding venue early so she could have pictures taken with the wedding party. She looked so cute in her flower girl dress, made by grandma of course. Her dress was light green silk shantung with a huge skirt and little puff sleeves, her cousin Alyssa had a matching dress but minus the sleeves. After leaving her in the care of grandma I ran back home and got everyone ready. I was glad I showered before church because there was not time to really do much before we had to be there. I changed my clothes and touched up make up but did not have time to do what I wanted with my hair, plus I forgot all about my new cute necklace. Bummer. We sat in the front row and waited for Lily to come down the isle. She got stage fright and did not want to throw "her" flowers on the ground so Alyssa sort of pulled her along telling her trying to get her to do what she was supposed to. As she got to the front she froze we were finally able to coax her to come and sit. The Bride's dress was very nice and looked like this but with sleeves, a little jacket thingy you wear under the dress. The dress was cut in such a way that it actually hid that she was 6 months pregnant. My BIL matched in a cream suit, I was a little worried about this choice but he pulled it off fabulously. After the ceremony we went inside and had dinner. My FIL's band played the first dance and the family was asked to join on the 2nd. This is the only time we were dance, at weddings, it feels awkward to slow dance with CW and well we won't comment on anything that required more than just a shuffle of feet. <> I loved to dance growing up, I don't know what happened. We had a great time, Alex and Alyssa danced up a storm and Lily and Connor has such fun together. They were really the only children there, save Ed and Chase and a daughter belonging to couple of the attendant's (Maid of Honor and Groomsman, who just happen to live here in TX close to us). CW and I table hopped and chatted with friends and family that we hadn't seen in a while. Alex apparently table hopped too, but only steal the camera's on each table. About 10, Ed had had enough and I drove as many as I could fit in our car home, I put Ed and Lily to bed and turned around to go back for Alex and my MIL. Of course when we got there my MIL was not ready to leave yet but didn't have a way to get home unless she stayed and waited for my FIL to dismantle and load his drums. So we hung and listened to the music and chatted with the hangers on. BIL got up and played to bongos and then they tossed the garder and bouquet. So MIL and I got Alex and left. I guess the photographer had gone home and download some of the photos and came back with a slide show for the people left at the reception. Kinda sorry we missed that. Ok so that's it for the wedding, if you made it there far you are to be commended. If you want to hear what we did the rest of the time keep going. Monday - We were invited to an after the wedding luncheon, were we ate all the left overs from the wedding and then watched as the happy couple opened their gifts. They got some great stuff. Including an antique rocking chair, a professional meat slicer (most coveted by CW) and a KitchenAid Mixer (most coveted by me). In the end we commissioned a quilt to be made by my SIL for them as a gift. Unique and speaks of family...what more could you ask for, well we just hope she likes it, you never know. That night we had a family dinner at Cheesecake Factory which turned into a debacle of inordinate proportions. My SIL was not happy with her order and stormed off and refused to eat!!! CW does not like Cheesecake Factory anyway and this just reinforced his already festering dislike. Tuesday - I got up early and took Aunt Debbie and her daughter to the airport in Burbank (much closer than LAX) on the way home I stopped off at the cemetery to visit our daughter Rose's grave. It is such a pretty little place all green with lots of trees. In Arizona where my family has plots there is no grass or trees because there is no water. It's just dirt and sometimes rocks and a lot of times tumbleweeds. So it's nice that she is buried in such a beautiful place, plus CW owns a joint plot there with his first wife (really weird to see his name on a headstone already). I always tell him I am going to bury him there, he worries that his children won't know were to find him if we aren't together. I don't think it matters in then end we will find each other no matter where we end up (of course for me it may be someplace in the afore mentioned desert). The Anniversary Let me preface this by saying our 10th Anniversary was back in January, but we have put off doing something till we could leave the kids. OK,Tuesday cont... We left in the afternoon for Santa Barbara, we took the long way going through Somis and Santa Paula before hitting the ocean in Ventura we drove up the 101 to Santa Barbara were we got a room at the Cheshire Cat Inn (we stayed here for our 4th Anniversary). Not a great pic I know...Anyway we got there kinda late in the afternoon so we had some cheese and cider and then chilled in our room (aptly named the Cheshire Cat Suite) then went out to find some dinner. We ended up at a great little Indian place called The Taj Cafe, it was so yummy. The owner came and chatted with us and asked were we were from and was interested in what Texas was like. We expressed how much we enjoyed our dinner there and how great we though the atmosphere was. Anyway after dinner we went for a walk on the pier. WednesdayThe We went out and drove to the Santa Barbara Mission. As we were driving I looked over and saw a really beautiful mission style church. It turns out it is one of ours. You don't see many anymore that go away from the prescribed archetecture that the church uses now but this one was so nice and missiony from the outside. The mission itself was beautiful and set on a hill overlooking the ocean. We then went back down to State Street and went to the Santa Barbara Museum of Art. It was really nice smaller museum with some great works. This was the only place where someone visited with us when they weren't actually selling us (ie a hotel room, food, movie ticket) something. It was in front of a collage style piece of art that detailed the assasination for President Kennedy. This man was likely in his 60's told us about what he was doing that day that the President was shot. We mentioned that we lived in DFW so this subject held great interest for us. Anyway it was nice and made us realize how much we have come to love our home here in Texas because someone speaking to you without provocation is a rarity in California but it is so common for strangers to chat with you when you are out an about, there is much to be said for southern hospitality. After the Museum of Art we headed up to San Luis Obispo. We decided to stay a night at the Madonna Inn. If you haven't heard of it, well I will just say its very interesting. Lots and lots or pink and very gaudy. Every room is different in this place. Once we got ours (see the sweepstakes) we peeked in the windows of rooms along the corridor, it was very educational. We went that evening and had dinner in town, which by the way is home to Cal Poly so all the college students were out, and saw Borne Ultimatum. The movie was great very action full. Thursday -- Got up Thursday morning, I could tell that the week was catching up with me because I didn't make it out of bed until after 10am. We grabbed a quick bite at McD's, which did you know that there are no drive thrus in SLO, who knew? We headed south 101 and then realized I had sent us in the wrong direction we went back to SLO and headed north to the 1 through Morro Bay and on to San Simeon, where we headed up to Hearst Castle. Not to be confused with Hurst Castle in England. It was over cast even at 12:30 we got on the bus to head up to the castle which is 5 miles up the hill from the visitors center. We took the beginners tour of course they make it sound really arduous when they say its 170-400 stairs long, it wasn't bad. The castle itself was beautiful with a lot of the pieces both interior and exterior being imported from Europe, the ceilings were magnificent and the pools (there were 2 huge ones) were well WOW. It was fun, by the time we were coming down the hill it was clearing. I chatted with the newlyweds on the way back to SLO and we decided to meet up for a late lunch at the Apple Farm. We got to sit and chat for a few minutes without a lot of hoopla and hubbub going on around them. Which was nice. The told us that Alex had taken pictures on virtually every camera at the reception and most of them were self portraits with him making funny faces, they said they were going to make a collage of him. I felt bad but not too bad. They also rented a room at the Madonna Inn only the first room they got the decided they didn't like as it had a HUGE cherub directly over the bed, my new SIL felt like it was watching her. When they called up to ask to change rooms the clerk assured them that this was not an uncommon occurance, a lot of people are freak the the cherub checkin' em out. Coming Home Thursday cont... we headed back to the kids after our nice little hiatus, we ended our evening over at Ben and Elizabeth's for a BBQ. Kids weren't that excited to see us (except maybe Ed) as Aunt Becky had really out done herself and taken them yon and hither swimming and playing all the live long day. Friday -- Marion and Serena were anxious to see us before we left. Turns out a couple of Marion's sisters were there. CW is well acquainted with Cindy the youngest sister as he stayed with her quite a bit after Chris' death. We visited for a couple of hours and then came home to pack up our stuff. We wanted to leave fairly early for the airport as you never know what the traffic will be like on the 405, we left at 3:00 for our 7:35 flight. The flight itself was the bumpiest I have ever been on. Luckily Ed slept, Lily cried though only as we were coming down as the pressure was hard on her ears. We got home at 2 am but the upstairs was 95 degrees so we had the kids lay down in the family room while CW and I sat around watching TV waiting for it to cool off. Well that's it...all blogged out, at least I can go on with my life now..
A walk from Milford-on-Sea to Lymington via Hurst Castle.
Martín Munkácsi, [Gardens, Hearst Ranch, San Simeon, California], 1933 Martín Munkácsi, [William Randolph Hearst in his study, Hearst Ranch, San Simeon, California], 1933 Martín Munkácsi, [Tennis c…
On the coast of California, Hearst Mansion is home to a zoo, gardens, and a large collection of Spanish and Italian antiques. Learn how to visit now.
The views from the leisurely ferry ride to Hurst Castle is a highlight for many of our visitors as you meander down the Keyhaven River, home to much wildlife.
Hearst Castle
A circular walk to Hurst Castle, Milford-on-Sea, Hampshire, starting on Hurst Spit, returning on the passenger ferry and crabbing at Keyhaven
A circular walk to Hurst Castle, Milford-on-Sea, Hampshire, starting on Hurst Spit, returning on the passenger ferry and crabbing at Keyhaven
Hurst Castle is a fortress situated on the end of a shingle spit off the English coast, less than a mile from the Isle of Wight. The 16th Century castle has a long and interesting history plus spec…
Explore CraigCopley's 312 photos on Flickr!
Castle Inn is a throwback destination ideal for families or friends looking for simple accommodation adjacent to a beautiful stretch of California coastline. Built in the 1950’s, Castle Inn offers a perfect location to enjoy the nightly sunsets and fun activities poolside or seaside. Memories are sure to be made while staying at this fun
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A circular walk to Hurst Castle, Milford-on-Sea, Hampshire, starting on Hurst Spit, returning on the passenger ferry and crabbing at Keyhaven
The New Forest is an area of southern England that includes one of the largest tracts of unenclosed pasture and forest in otherwise heavily populated south eastern England.
Taken from imagery whilst watching the Round the Island Race from Hurst Castle, Isle of Wight... John Scott Martin's linocuts are individually inked, and printed on handmade paper collages. Each one is therefore a unique monoprint. Original linocut, signed, mounted.Image size: 20cm x 20cm Mount size: 38cm x 38cm.Frame size: approx 42cm x 42cm
A circular walk to Hurst Castle, Milford-on-Sea, Hampshire, starting on Hurst Spit, returning on the passenger ferry and crabbing at Keyhaven
Hollywood royalty and the political elite of the 1920s and 1930s would arrive at Hearst Castle via the estate’s airstrip, or aboard the private Hearst-owned railcar that regularly made the...
Castle Hurst, al sur de Inglaterra, es un ejemplo de la necesidad de abordar el impacto del cambio climático en el patrimonio costero.
Plan a day trip to Hearst Castle, a historic castle in California, and explore the opulent estate of William Randolph Hearst while visiting San Simeon.
The lighthouse at the end of Hurst Spit in Hampshire, I was laying on the ground about 8 feet from the lighthouse.
