We left our incredibly clean apartment on Saturday morning and headed for San Simeon State Park along Hwy 1 where we had a camping reservation for the night. The drive along the coast was beautiful! I loved seeing all the incredible houses that sit right on the cliffs overlooking the ocean!
Near San Simeon is a beach where hundreds of elephant seals live. These things are HUGE! I wish you could see them in real life! Most of them are at least 10-15 feet long and they must weigh a TON! They make really gross sounds and flip sand up over them with their flippers. Somehow you could probably sit and watch them for hours :)
We camped that night and went to the Hurst Castle the next day. All I can think of when I hear the name Hurst is the Newsies and I immediately start singing the song... "Pulitzer and Hurst they think they got us, do they got us NO!" hehe Well after Hurst made his millions back in NYC he came back to his home state and build a fabulous house overlooking the Pacific Ocean. The house took 27 years to build and it is spectacular, but not as grand as the landscaping around the house.
My favorite part of the house! Isn't this amazing! Its better in real life. Seriously, why can't I have something like this?? I was SO tempted to jump in :)
Pretty much I wanted to stay there forever, or go back in time and be a guest of Mr. Hurst's.
We made our way over to LA going through Santa Barbara (I had to see the famous town where Shawn and Gus solve all crime :)) and then over to Santa Monica. We went to Mesquite and hung out with Morgan's parents for a week. I had a great time going to water aerobics and swimming my heart out all week!
And now for the highlight of the trip...Celine Dion concert in Vegas!!!
Some of my earliest memories are of listening to Celine while dancing in the family room or driving in the car. I have loved her my whole life and I finally made it to her concert (my first ever concert!!).
My parents came down because its was my Dad who instilled in me the love of Celine. We had fun taking in all the amazing buildings, the fountains at the Belagio and all the shopping!
This is at the new hotel, Aria. It was nice and cool here :)
My amazing parents!! So glad they could come down.
After Vegas we drove 14 hours and made it to Amarillo, TX and then finally onto Dallas where Morgan will be working for the summer. More adventures to come...
What a fun castle. I definitely have some Celine Dion memories of my own. We were playing Cranium with my younger siblings a couple of years back and trying to get them to guess Celine Dion. Noel and I sang like three entire songs and they just gave us blank stares. It was a sad day (and made me feel slightly old).
ReplyDeleteWhat a fun post Katie! I'm so glad you enjoyed Hearst Castle, I LOVED it too! We really miss you guys and although we are having a fun time here in UT, we are already counting down the days until we get to go "home" to Stanford!
ReplyDeleteIf you are ever bored or interested in a trip down south, the girls and I would love to meet you for an afternoon in Salt Lake sometime? I've been wanting to take them to "This is the Place", would you be interested in joining us? I'll be in touch!
Your trip sounds awesome! I am very jealous you got to see Celine in concert. Good luck with the rest of your journeys this Summer! Can't wait to hear about them :)
ReplyDeleteI've been there, to the elephant seals when we lived in Cali....they are super huge....you guys always have such fun adventures...love it!!!
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