A Tour of Hearst Castle in San Simeon California - Essay Example

DESCRIPTIVE ESSAY – THE PACIFIC COAST One day not too long ago, my girlfriend and I decided to take thescenic drive down the Pacific Coast highway through Malibu and Santa Barbara before going over to her parent’s house for dinner. We left in the morning and spent the whole day just enjoying the scenery and stopping when we felt we wanted to see more. As part of this trip, we ended up taking a tour of Hearst Castle in San Simeon California. On the way, we discovered that the drive includes much more than a simple whirlwind tour of famous peoples’ homes. Malibu, and by extension Santa Barbara, is recognized through most of the country as being the home of many of Hollywood’s major stars. Sean Penn, Ali MacGraw, Zsa Zsa Gabor, Dick Van Dyke and Tony Hopkins have all had homes here. The reason for this is the area’s incredible views of both the mountains and the ocean. As we drove along, it was awe-inspiring and a little dizzying to look up at the multi-colored mountains on one side of the road and then deep down the jagged cliffs to the white sand and ultramarine blue of the ocean down below. The difference between the two sides of the road made us feel as if we were traveling in alternate worlds, which, in a way, we were. The solid mountains look very dry, full of scrub brush and rocks and small, stunted trees that are bent and shaped by the wind. Although the ends of the grasses sway in the breeze and the trees bend slightly, this side of the road looks unchangeable. Nothing moves without good cause. It is very obvious looking at this side of the road why fires are such a danger here. In contrast, the ocean breakers send up white spray into the blue sky, emphasizing the constant motion and change occurring along the coastline. People are everywhere enjoying the beach, some tanning, some surfing, some just playing at the water’s edge. In contrast with the mountains, it seems as if nothing down there could ever remain the same. The houses along this drive are incredible, too. They don’t seem to belong to the real world of real people living real lives. Instead, they are mansions and palaces belonging to characters out of a fairy tale. The gigantic structures seem less like a place someone would live than like monuments to an idea. Each one has its own unique architectural style and lies in various degrees of hidden behind the heavily landscaped areas of their yards and gates. It is difficult to impossible to stop long enough to get a really good glimpse of how each house has been modeled. Another thing people don’t often mention about going to Santa Barbara is the variety of shops available and the unique experience they offer. Unlike the typical mall experience, shopping in Santa Barbara means walking around cheery fountains that help keep you cool just by looking at them. One of our favorites was the dolphin fountain that features two dolphins jumping clear out of the pool in a graceful double arc. There are also plenty of green growing things happening between the stores. The stores themselves offer all kinds of unique items from produce to art to pottery and other items. The shops here remind you that California was once a part of Mexico, with the Spanish style architecture and the old-fashioned cobbled streets. The old buildings bring in a sense of history that is completely lost when driving through the more modern homes of Malibu and the welcoming openness of the marketplaces are decidedly different from the guarded facades of the homes of the stars. There are lots of different tours available at Hearst Castle that let visitors look at all kinds of different things, but my girlfriend and I decided to take Tour 1, which is a general overview of the castle. The tour included a look at the gardens, the pools, the guest house and the main house. We also had a chance to watch a short movie that told all about the history of the castle. The gardens are full of all kinds of different flowering plants and sculptures. The way the pathways and garden art is placed provides lots of chances for people to sit and just enjoy the view. We were also able to see portions of the guest house, which we were told had 18 rooms altogether. The tour only included four of the bedrooms, associated bathrooms and one of the sitting rooms. However, the view of the coastline from this house was amazing and, like the big house, this house was decorated with only the finest in wall coverings and furnishings. Although we got a chance to see a big portion of the bottom floor of the main house, including the room where guests to the house would gather, the room where the family would eat, the morning room, the game room and the theater, we weren’t able to see anything upstairs. Each of the rooms is decorated in lavish style with fancy tapestries and expensive-looking antiques. A lot of the antiques in the home were Spanish, which we should have expected given the building style of the castle. This meant a lot of intricately carved dark woods that still managed to keep relatively clean lines and utilitarian usage. My favorite part of the tour was visiting the two pools on the grounds. The outdoor pool overlooks the coastline, making it seem even more spectacular than it is. It’s made to look like something Roman or Greek, complete with a large temple looking structure built on the edge of the pool and the many statues that surround the pool. There’s a covered walkway along one edge as well, supported by columns as they might have done in ancient days. The tour explained that this pool had been enlarged twice after it was built and the proportions had been expanded while it was being built. Black stripes criss-crossing the bottom only seems to make the pool bigger. As if having a fantastically large outdoor pool wasn’t enough, the castle also has an indoor pool that also features statues and fountains and incredible surroundings. Not able to take advantage of the coastline and mountain views, this pool is surrounded by walls completely covered with tiny tiles. The pattern these tiles make just takes your breath away when you enter the room. Our last stop for the day was at my girlfriend’s parent’s house, where we had planned to have dinner. The house was a comfortable little ranch-style house decorated with more modern furniture than what we’d seen at Hearst Castle. I was glad to be eating in a normal-sized room. As we ate a very tasty shrimp shish kabob, my girlfriend’s dad started telling me all about some of his adventures he experienced while he worked as a secret agent for the U.S. government. Although his stories weren’t quite up to the level of James Bond, they were exciting enough. They also made me think of the movie “Meet the Parents” enough to start wondering if dating the daughter of an ex-secret agent was such a good idea. Her dad was really funny and really friendly, though, so it wasn’t really a serious concern. Read More