HEARST CASTLE PART TWO - UPSTAIRS SUITES TOUR

Morro Bay CA (Low 38 Partly Sunny High 60)

Continuing our tour of the Hearst Castle that began with the Grand Rooms Tour. The Upstairs Suites Tour of the Hearst Castle includes areas that guests never saw but we got to see. Every area inside and outside is picturesque, here we are waiting for the tour to begin.

We begin with the Doge's Suite, to stay in this suite amongst all the other lodging meant that you had arrived according to one guest. The suite was broken up into three main areas; men's bedroom, sitting area, women's bedroom. Here is the men's bedroom, note both the ceiling and the Madonna above the fireplace, continuing those themes throughout the house.

Here is the sitting area.

The women's bedroom.

There were also guest bedrooms, here is one of the many guest bedrooms.

Great views as you walk along the upper level.

As you walk to the library in the hallway the paneling is choir chairs with the chairs removed.

The library is impressive.

Then it is off to the third floor, the private residence of William Randolph Hearst that no guests ever saw. Here is his closet.

His bedroom.

A Madonna in his bedroom.

His significant other was the actress Marion Davis. Here is her closet.

Her bedroom.

Then it was off to his study, where he conducted business while there. This was his spot, not even Marion intruded here.

We end with a very interesting story. Throughout the construction the design of the Castle changed. When Hearst decided he needed more guest bedrooms the architect Julia Morgan created these two story bedrooms with a bathroom and a bedroom loft above the sitting area out of what originally was open light wells. Here is the bedroom.

Taken from the sitting area back to the loft bedroom.

The bathroom in the duplex bedroom. Hearst had two major requirements when building and designing the house; electricity and indoor plumbing. The bathrooms were all modern even though built in 1919.

This concludes your Upper Suites Tour. Next entry will be our self guided tour of the Neptune Pool, the grounds, the Roman Pool, etc.

Till next time,

Bob and Jo

HEARST CASTLE PART ONE - GRAND ROOMS TOUR

Morro Bay CA (Low 48 Clouds and Rain High 62)

We toured the famous Hearst Castle and we have to say it is amazing. Neither words or pictures do justice to the magnificence that is Hearst Castle. The story behind the Castle is just as compelling. William Randolph Hearst, grandfather of Patty Hearst, built "La Cuesta Encantada" or Enchanted Hill better known as Hearst Castle on the old Camp Hill site. Camp Hill is where the Hearst family when William was a boy used to camp. William's father George bought the land after a very interesting journey to become a rich man.

George Hearst left Missouri in 1850 to seek his fortune in the California gold rush. For almost 10 years he was a decent prospector but not the very rich one he would become. Then he heard about the mining near Virginia City Nevada. He bought into what would eventually become the Comstock Lode, a huge amount of silver. George figures into the story because the silver was in the ore and not readily discernible as silver. The Indians had a name for George, roughly one who the land speaks to, and George said the rocks were speaking to him. So he loaded 38 tons of ore on mules and headed almost 300 miles to San Francisco over the Sierras in winter to have it smelted. Turns out it was very rich in silver and he made a small fortune on that trip alone. This started the silver rush in the area.

George used the money he made from mining to buy a lot of land along the central California coast. It was near the small town of San Simeon that they would trek up to the hill and camp, thereby the name Camp Hill. It was near this spot that his son William Randolph built his Castle. Here is Hearst Castle from the Visitor's Center.

There is so much to see we decided to break our visit into a few blog entries. This one deals with the Grand Rooms Tour, or La Casa Grande, the Big House. Here we are outside waiting for the tour to begin at the front door.

A number of themes will be prevalent throughout the tour, the first one deals with Mary the Mother of God and Jesus her child, aka Madonna and Child. Since this was a Mediterranean style house and since Madonna artwork was huge at that time she is everywhere. Here is a carving above the front door.

Not a bad view waiting for the tour to begin is it?

We didn't enter through the front door because this tile floor is extremely old.

Here is the Assembly Room where guests would mingle prior to the evening dinner.

Another theme throughout the house is the incredible ceilings. Here is the ceiling in the Assembly Room.

Yet another theme is the use of choir chairs from old churches used as paneling. Here are the choir chairs in the Assembly Room.

William only joined the group in the Assembly Room when it was time for dining. He would leave his office area on an upper floor and take the elevator to the ground floor and enter the Assembly Room via a secret door surprising his guests. From the Assembly Room he would lead them in to the Dining Room, or what they called the Refectory.

A closeup of the table and the tapestry on the wall.

Choir chairs were also used as paneling in the Refectory.

The Refectory ceiling.

A Madonna in the Refectory.

Then it was off to the Morning Room.

Then to the Billiards Room.

Note the ceiling and the tile. These ceilings have darkened over time and some are being restored as we write this. With a cotton ball and a cleaning solution a conservationist has a full time job in just one of the rooms for the next few years.

Then it was off to the largest room in Hearst Castle, surprisingly it was the movie theater.

We hope you enjoyed the tour as much as we did. If you ever get the chance to visit Hearst Castle we highly recommend it.

Next we will detail he Upstairs Suites Tour taking you to places that guests of William Randolph Hearst never saw.

Till next time,

Bob and Jo

VEISHA

Morro Bay CA (Low 49 Sunny High 62)

We went to the Hearst Castle yesterday but won't have a blog entry on that today as Bob has almost 200 photos to go through but stay tuned. To tease you here is a photo of Morro Rock that we can see from our campsite

and here is a photo of Hearst Castle from the Visitors Center.

These events took place while we were in a dead zone but we still wanted to comment on them. This is a departure from our usual blogging only about travel and food and full-time rv'ng, we hope that is OK. If not you can close this blog entry and wait for our next exciting entry.

Bob graduated from Iowa State University in 1979 with a BS in Mechanical Engineering. VEISHA is an annual celebration, the largest student run festival in the nation. The name of the festival is an acronym for the colleges of the university that existed when the festival was founded in 1922: Veterinary Medicine, Engineering, Industrial Science, Home Economics, Agriculture.

The celebration features an annual parade and many open-house demonstrations of the university facilities and departments. Campus organizations exhibit products, technologies, and hold fund raisers for various charity groups. In addition, VEISHEA brings speakers, lecturers, and entertainers to Iowa State, and throughout its over eight decade history it has hosted such distinguished guests as Bob Hope, John Wayne, Presidents Harry Truman, Ronald Reagan, and Lyndon Johnson, and performers Diana Ross, Billy Joel, Sonny and Cher, the Goo Goo Dolls and The Black Eyed Peas.

The annual celebration was rocked once again earlier this year with riots and also once again its very existence is being threatened. There were also riots in previous years, so bad in 2004 that for the first time ever VEISHA was not held in 2005. There was a lot of drinking during VEISHA during Bob's day, in fact Bob cannot remember an entire VEISHA from Friday afternoon to Monday morning when he woke up, but never the riots.

Bob learned personal responsibility at Iowa State, he has to admit he got there kicking and screaming though. Like others he drank a lot during college, and a lot is an understatement. He was a drunk, an obnoxious drunk, a very mean drunk. But this also taught another lesson, that responsibility extends not only to yourself and your friends but also everyone. Bob had friends that stuck with him even though he was a drunken jerk and made sure he or others did not start the drunken riots that have happened since we left. We learned how to place a drunk on his side so he wouldn't drown in his own puke and checked on him regularly. There was always calmer heads in the drunken confrontations. We never had a riot during our time. Somehow what was passed on to us as frosh and we passed on later has been lost.

We know personal responsibility is not "in" these days but it should be. Also extending that personal responsibility to your friends and neighbors should also be in. Bob is alive today because he was turned on his side a time or two and removed from volatile situations by his friends who until now he doesn't think that he has adequately thanked. So thanks Boog, Stretch, Glocko, Turk, Mike, Dave, Doug, Marty, Scott, Garrie, Tony, Mark, Gary, Wayne, Jody, Linda and all the others that literally saved his life and taught him a lesson he did not realize until later. Hopefully the kids at Iowa State will use this riot and the peril to VEISHA as a similar learning moment.

Bob quit drinking in 1981 because he didn't like who he became when he drank, both those events he could remember and those he can't, but mostly because he got tired of waking up driving 65 mph down the road :-)

Till next time,

Bob and Jo

ON THE ROAD AGAIN - TO MORRO BAY CALIFORNIA (AND INTERNET YEAH!)

Morro Bay CA (Low 48 Mostly Sunny High 62)

We left Simi Valley California yesterday and drove approximately 185 miles to Morro Bay. Here is the route we took.



The route was scenic starting out near the coast

Then into wine and farm country

And then along the coast again for awhile. We were very pleased to find a nice park wifi and a strong 4g service here so we will be catching up on our blog entries so stay tuned. In addition to blogging and catching up on our internet surfing we plan to visit Hearst Castle while in the area and eat some great seafood. We already had some great oyster chowder last night and some pretty good clam chowder.

Till next time,

Bob and Jo

ANOTHER DEADZONE

Made it safe to Simi Valley area but are in another deadzone.

See you in a week.

Till next time,

Bob & Jo

SAW OUR FIRST BLOOMING SAGUAROS

Desert Hot Springs CA (Low 52 Partly Sunny Currently 65)
Simi Valley CA (Partly Sunny High 74)

Took us being in Desert Hot Springs for us to see our first blooming saguaros.

Today we head off to Simi Valley California.

Till next time,

Bob and Jo

COLLEGE OF THE DESERT STREET FAIR

Desert Hot Springs CA (Low 55 Partly Sunny High 83)

We knew that the College of the Desert Street Fair held every Saturday and Sunday was a big deal, we just did not know how big of a deal it was. When any event has a shuttle service you know it is big.

Here it is from a distance.

Here we are smack dab in the middle of it.

There were all kinds of vendors, Jo just about bought a pair of Birkenstocks, and we did get a pair of reading sunglasses. We mainly came for the farmers market and we are glad that we did. We got some of the best fresh strawberries we have had in a while. Add to that fresh asparagus, some date treats, and homemade bread.

Luckily it had cooled off a little from the day before when Desert HOT Springs was more appropriate.

Till next time,

Bob and Jo

FINALLY ADDED ANOTHER STATE TO OUR VISITED MAP - CALIFORNIA

Desert Hot Springs CA (Low 53 Partly Sunny High 84)

We drove recently from the dead zone, aka Castle Rock Shores RV Resort near Parker Arizona to Desert Hot Springs California, adding that state to our visited map. It has been almost 2 years since we added a state,

Here is the route we took from Goodyear to Parker and then into Desert Hot Springs.



Observations about the dead zone (will talk more about the park later and what we did while there) it was like we were camping :-)

It was not as bad as we originally thought, we adapted well, there were a couple of spaces we could walk to and sometimes get cell coverage, park had free wifi at the clubhouse so we hit that once a day. After the dead zone we then dealt with some computer issues here in Desert Hot Springs that was preventing us to access some, but not all, websites. Blogger of course was one of the sites we couldn't get to. That just got resolved so hopefully we are back in business; back traveling and back blogging.

The Desert Hot Springs area (near Palm Springs) is gorgeous. Here is a picture of the park from our back window with JJ admiring the view.

It was good to add another state, continuing our full-time adventures.

Till next time,

Bob and Jo

IN A DEAD ZONE

Made it safely to Parker Arizona but park has virtually no cell or internet service and no park wifi. This is too much like camping :-)

We will be here a week so will catch up on this beautiful area later.

Till next time,

Bob and Jo

WHOLE LOT OF REORGANIZING GOING ON

Goodyear AZ (Low 46 Sunny Currently 50)
Parker AZ (Currently 56 Sunny High 76)

We do this every time we stay some place for an extended period of time, and vow to not do it the next time, yet we do it again. What you say, what we do is get a lot disorganized. When you are moving every few days you keep stuff put up but when not moving you get lazy. Plus we have a bad habit of storing stuff like groceries on the top of the slideouts. Not good when you have to bring the slideouts in for a trip :-)

A trip is what we plan to do today, we are "planning" on heading to Castle Rock Shores near Parker Arizona right on the Colorado River.

The hitch in the giddy-up is a low inside dual tire that Bob is going to go check out in a few minutes once Discount Tires is open.

We'll keep you posted, and yes we did vow to be more organized our next long stay at a place. Only time will tell :-)

Till next time,

Bob and Jo

THE SOUND OF FREEDOM

Goodyear AZ (Low 48 Sunny High 82)

As we sit here in Goodyear Arizona awaiting our repairs and making our final preparations for departure the jets of Luke Air Force Base are flying overhead in the bright blue skies. Unlike others we do not mind the noise and call it the sound of freedom.

Luke has a history dating back to World War II. Constructed in 1941 and named after the first airman to win the Medal of Honor Luke's mission was training fighter pilots and more than 12,000 graduated before the end of the war. Over the years the jets have changed, from F-16s in the 1990s to Luke's newest mission, training pilots on the new F-35 Lightning II. 

Luke is attractive for training in part to clear skies year round and its close proximity to the desolate Barry Goldwater Range where the pilots fly training missions.

We also look forward to 2 things upon our arrival to the southwest; our first saguaro sighting and the sound of freedom.

Till next time,

Bob and Jo

A LITTLE BIT - ABOUT A LOT OF THINGS

Goodyear AZ (Low 49 Sunny High 80) 

Blogging funk :-( We've been doing more than we blogged about but it seems like the blogging has not flowed like it usually does. Let's hope that a change in scenery will help.
 

Where did the time go? We cannot believe how fast the last couple of weeks have gone, we swear we had another week to prepare for our departure. 

More mechanical issues :-( But just when we thought we were leaving we noticed a leak on our hydraulic automatic levelers and then our awning quit working. We will get these things looked at fixed as fast as possible and then head out, hopefully towards the end of next week.

NCAA Tourney! Here is an update on the NCAA tourney and Bob's bracket.

As mentioned before he went 13-3 on the first day and then 11-5 on the second, feeling pretty good about his bracket. When the Round of 32 finished he picked 10 of the 16 winners correctly. His Final 4 is still intact so we shall see how it goes in the Sweet 16. Speaking of the Sweet 16 Iowa State overcame an injury to one of their best players at the end of the first game and beat North Carolina on Sunday in one of the best games of the tourney so far to advance to the Sweet 16 against UConn. That game is later today. It has been a great tourney with a lot of exciting games.

Till next time,

Bob and Jo

WELL THERE GOES A BILLION BUCKS

Goodyear AZ (Low 47 Partly Sunny High 82)

Bob was so close to a billion dollars he could taste it :-)

For those that don't know Warren Buffett and Quicken Loans are sponsoring a NCAA Tournament bracket challenge, if you pick all 63 games right you win a billion dollars. 

Bob entered his bracket and for awhile it was looking good, in fact he picked the first 9 games correctly. Sorry Weavers he picked Dayton over Ohio State. But then Bob was eliminated from the contest when he picked St. Joseph's over UConn. He ended the day 13-3 though so his bracket is still looking pretty good. Like the Cubs fans say there is always next year for the billion dollars.

The tourney continues today with 16 more games including Iowa State's first game. It will be tough to top yesterday's games as a new record was set with 4 overtime games which extended Bob's watching time to almost 14 hours.

Till next time,

Bob and Jo

NCAA MARCH MADNESS BEGINS

Goodyear AZ (Low 46 Sunny High 82)

It's that time of year again, March Madness, NCAA Men's and Women's Basketball Tourneys. For the Men's March Madness Bob will be camped out in the recliner beginning today. All games are live but Thursday and Friday are the best days because there can sometimes be 4 games on at a time. The tourneys mean a little bit more this year as both the Iowa State Men (#3 Seed) and the Women (#7 Seed) are playing.

The nice thing about being in the valley of the sun is that we are not on daylight savings time so our time matches Pacific Daylight time. What that means is that the games start earlier (TruTV Tipoff Show at 8a and games begin 9a) and thusly end earlier.

Bob will do it all today, 16 men's games, and then again tomorrow with another 16 games! Jo will be using the Genie mini client and watching her shows, reading books, visiting friends, etc. She is a trooper to put up with Bob at this time of year, heck all of the year :-)

With 13-14 hours of basketball each day we will fall a little further behind in our blog reading and commenting :-)

Till next time,

Bob

YOU JUST HAVE TO BE FLEXIBLE

Goodyear AZ (Low 46 Sunny High 82)

We "planned" to go to the Desert Botanical Garden in Phoenix with some friends recently on the free admission day. We wanted to see the Chiluhy Glass exhibit.

Glass sculptures like the above displayed throughout the park. Plus it was the beginning of wildflower season. The key words above were "planned" and "free". Seniors just love their free days, plus we didn't realize that it was also the week of spring break for some students in the area. Words cannot describe how busy it was, so busy in fact that there was a sign on the entrance and a guard there saying that it was temporarily closed.

So now what to do? The four of us had talked about visiting the IKEA store in Tempe since none of us had ever visited so we headed there.

This was quite an experience, two floors, 355,000 sq. ft. on 21 acres. You follow a serpentine path on both floors through a lot of exhibits. Plus at the end there is a grocery area. We enjoyed the tour and bought a couple of things and then it was time for lunch. Close to IKEA is Rudy's Country Store and BBQ.

Rudy's has very good Texas BBQ brisket, some of the moistest and tender brisket we have ever had and we are from the Kansas City area. What follows lunch is sometimes dessert. We had heard good things about pie at the Pecan Grove Restaurant & Pie Co. in Chandler. We had pecan, strawberry rhubarb ie, lemon cream, and german chocolate slices. We bonused because as we were sitting there the clock turned to 3p and on 3p on Tuesday it is 1/2 price whole pie. We went home with a peach pie for our friends and a strawberry rhubarb pie for us. We both agree it is very good pie.

Proves that when you are flexible there sometimes might be a reward.

Till next time,

Bob and Jo

OUR TIME IS WINDING DOWN

Goodyear AZ (Low 47 Sunny and HOT High 86)

Our time here in the valley of the sun is winding down. One telltale sign is that we just had the last grapefruit from the tree next to our site.

With a couple of weeks to go we are making plans to eat at our favorite places one last time, saying our goodbyes to people already leaving, making plans to meet on the road somewhere, last minute doctor appointments, etc. Once we leave here it will be one week at each place so want to get a lot of stuff done here before we leave.

Till next time,

Bob and Jo

FROZEN

Goodyear AZ (Low 48 Sunny High 82)

No we don't mean how frozen a lot of the country was this winter :-) We are done gloating about our nice winter here in Arizona.

We mean that we recently saw the Oscar winning best animated film, Frozen.

We have to admit we are suckers for animated films but have not like some of the recent ones so we were a little reluctant to see this one. Jo wanted to because she heard the music and singing was very good. When it won not only best animated picture and best song for "Let it Go" we decided to give it a try.

We are so glad that we did, this is a good old fashioned Disney animated film. Good story, based on the "Snow Queen" by Hans Christian Anderson, incredible music and singing. "Let it Go" was our favorite of all the Oscar songs so we were kind of surprised when it won. Here is "Let it Go" from youtube.




A very good film, give it a try.

Till next time,

Bob and Jo

SUMMER TRIP FROM NEWPORT TO DENVER

Goodyear AZ (Low 47 Partly Sunny High 79)

When last we left our intrepid travelers Bob and Jo they were in Newport OR. Here is what Bob has laid out from there to Denver.


View Larger Map


NOTE: Had some trouble getting the map to display. If you click "View Larger Map" just below the map and use the zoom + or - buttons on the upper left of the map the route should appear. Sorry for this, maybe just another Google issue.

We will be checking off a few more bucket list items; Mt. Saint Helens, Mt. Rainier, Glacier National Park, etc.

Let us know what you think,

Bob and Jo

WE WON'T BE CHANGING OUR CLOCKS FOR AWHILE

Goodyear AZ (Low 48 Sunny High 82)

We won't be changing our clocks for awhile.

We are currently in Arizona which does not follow Daylight Savings Time. We remain in Mountain Standard Time (UTC-8 currently) and when we leave here we move into Pacific Daylight Time which will be the same time. We will remain at the same time until August when we cross into Mountain Daylight Time.

This may be the longest stretch we have had at the same time since we began full-timing in September 2009. A side note is that the clock that we had on our blog to show our current time is no longer supported by blogger so we are looking for a new one which we hope to have shortly.

Till next time,

Bob and Jo

UPDATE ON OUR SUMMER PLANS

Goodyear AZ (Low 48 Sunny High 82)

Bob has completed planning the first part of the trip and we have reservations up to July 4th at the Port of Newport RV Park in Newport Oregon. Here is what the trip looks like with the markers being the parks we are staying at.


View Larger Map

Now Bob is working on the next leg, from Newport OR to Denver.

Till next time,

Bob and Jo