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Last night we stayed at a charming embassy suites. We met a business friend of my father’s there for dinner and afterwards went over to his place of business. He and his wife and son had just adopeted two cute, adorable, pug dogs. One of them was named snuffles. I got to hold, pet, play with, snuggle, etc. them. I also got to ride in a completely electric car. It was really neat too.

This morning we set out for Hearst Castle amongst the lovely California mountians. We arrived there in time for the very first tour that morning. After a eight minute bus ride to Hearst Castle, on extremely narrow and winding roads with sharp drop offs(I was sincerely hoping the bus drivers knew what they were doing…) We arrived at the castle. Actually, castle, is kind of misleading. I would call it castles as there are three large guest houses. However the large main building is indeed impressive. Apparently Mr. Hearst was fond of new inventions as his home had some of the first showers in that part of the country. Mr. Hearst was also a shop-a-holic. If he saw it and liked it he would buy it. Being on of the richest men around he was able to do it too. He liked to collect three to six hundred year old ceilings, fire places, paintings, and he even collected some Roman Ruins for around his huge pool! I do recommend visiting Hearst Castle, especially tour two which shows two rooms that I would really like. Or at least a sort of cross between the two different rooms with sever changes in the furniture… I let you guess which two rooms but I’ll give you a hint, one is golden and celestial and the other room has a rose peach bathroom and has a spiral stair case.

We took three tours while at Hearst castle. First we did tour one. Then we did tour three. The third tour we went on was tour two. After that we watched the forty minute long movie. We were there for over seven hours. It was fun:)

After Hearst Castle we drove down highway 1 for a short while then came upon a colony of Elephant Seals. These fascinating creatures are fond of laying around in the sun and scratching while making loud noises. If you should ever get a chance to see some Elephant Seals be sure to watch for a bit and see if they scratch. It is completely hilarious!!! Also they throw the warm sand on their backs. They also make loud noises and “sneeze” when sand gets in the way of their breathing.

After the elephant seals we drove through the mountians. Tall, majestic, beautiful mountains that after sitting and looking at for a short while, I slept through… Waking up at six, spending hours walking all over Hearst Castle does make one tired. There is one thing I will say about majestic mountain roads, make certain that you use the facilities ever opportunity you get because there can be very, very, very long stretches of road between breaks and if you really, really, really need to do something and the pressure is mounting… Well, there aren’t even a lot of bushes nearby as the ground goes sharply up and down right beside the road and the road itself is not wide and there is almost no where to pull over. Just so you know that way some one can profit by my experience. Not that I attempted to use a bush or anything like that, instead we stopped at a fast food restaurant were important business was taken care of.

That brings us to this evening. We were going to go to my Uncle and Aunt’s house but… Mom was tired so we checked into an Embassy Suites. After that, since we were in Monterey California, we went out to the bay area and ate a sea food restaurant overlooking the bay. We could here the seals, not elephant seals, making their barking noises while we ate. It was a delicious dinner. Currently I am in the hotel room and I have been writing this post for some time. I think I’ll start doing something else now.