Just Add Water: Day 3: PCH (Pacific Coast Highway) and Carmel

So today consisted of driving up the PCH..Pacific Coast Highway...a drive I have always wanted to do.

First stop was Hearst Castle...which is the residence built by William Randolf Hearst, the newspaper baron. The tour was expensive...$72 for all of us, and I was hoping it would be worth it! It was :) The home/castle and the grounds were amazing!! It sits perched on top of the hills overlooking the ocean. Once you arrive at the gift shop you take a 10 minute bus ride up to the house on switch back narrow roads...I can see why they don't let people drive it themselves!!
The tour is guided, and so you learn a bunch about Hearst along the way. There are guest houses, manicured grounds, a tiled pool with columns imported from Greece...and views that are insane! The castle itself is breathtaking...complete with in indoor pool that looks like how I would picture roman bath houses.
What I came away thinking is what a heck of a lot of money to spend on oneself, and now it just sits there for others to gawk at. Hmmmmm.....

Then we continued up the PCH to Big Sur....David drove; which was a double edged sword...I did get to look around and take photos, but I had no steering wheel to hold on to around all the hairpin curves. A couple hours of very winding road and I was ready to be done. The views, as promised, were to die for....absolutley breathtaking!! We stopped at a fabulous restaurant for lunch: Nepenthe. It had an outdoor patio seating that overlooked the ocean. There was a “cheaper” area that served brunch...and we chose that....still expensive..haha!! Paying for the views!

Got into Carmel that evening, and took a walk down to the beach and around the cute downtown and art galleries. We also drove around and looked at all the interesting houses with names :) I love this area, so quaint! The kids had fun playing on the beach, the weather was perfect and the sand is awesome. Last time David and I were there, about 6 years ago, there were painters everywhere set up outside...I was hoping for the girls to see them, but they were nowhere to be found this time.