|
|
|
|
We drove up to Vanderburgh Air Force Base
to spend Saturday night with my cousin Joanna and her husband Zack.
They had a really friendly Alaskan malamute named Sheba that would
pretty much eat anything (except spinach). Here Amelie is feeding
him raw almonds. He is a sled dog, very low and powerful, and Amelie
had a lot of fun with him. |
|
|
|
Amelie's favorite part of Hearst Castle
was the bus ride to and from the hilltop estate. She generally
points out buses and big trucks as we drive around anyway, so
getting to ride on one was pretty exciting for her. |
|
|
|
Hearst Castle is the second largest estate
in the US. It was built over many years from 1919 to 1947 by William
Randolph Hearst. He was constantly tearing stuff down and
rebuilding, changing his plans and redoing the place. Hearst was a
pretty evil guy, and his parents were even more evil, so I had mixed
feelings going through this place. |
|
|
|
Once we got to the top, Amelie wanted to
get up here and check out the view, so I let her. There is a sheer
drop on the other side of this rail, though, it was pretty far down.
The tour guide came over and said this was making him nervous. I
told him it made me nervous, too. Here Amelie is pretending to jump,
which probably didn't help his nerves any. |
|
|
|
I've seen many marble statues, but I've
never seen any as clean as the ones at Hearst Castle. They're just
immaculate. |
|
|
|
This pool was torn out and rebuilt three
times. It's a 345,000 gallon outdoor pool. |
|
|
|
The pool is the coolest thing on the
estate. Most of the place is pretty ugly or gaudy, but the two pools
there are very nice. The problem is that he's incorporated all this
old artwork into the building, so there's no real cohesiveness to it
all. |
|
|
|
He has his own movie theater, it was
pretty cool with many of these wood statues lining the walls. |
|
|
|
This is the indoor pool. It took eight
tile setters over 3-1/2 years to finish the tile in here. It's just
amazing. It's a 205,000 gallon indoor pool that is ten feet deep. |
|
|
|
Of course, any trip to Hearst Castle has
to include the elephant seals. They were all over the beach, but
here's a baby elephant seal nursing with his mom. There's a big old
male one behind them. They were pretty cool, but they made sneezing
noises at you. I'm not sure what that means when they do that. |
|
|
|
After the Hearst Castle tour, we spent the
night at place called the Cambria Lodge. They had this cat there
that was amazing. It would let Amelie pet it and bug it as much as
she wanted. It must get this a lot. |
|
|
|
The Cambria Lodge had really cool gardens
where they grow organic fruits and vegetables for their restaurant.
It was a pretty cool place. |
|
|
|
The gazebo was a lot of fun to play on as
well. Naomi is about five months pregnant here, but she's still
looking slim. |
|
