BEE HAPPY: July 2013

Monday, July 15, 2013

Celebrating 39 years on the Pacific Coast

On May 17th Tim and I celebrated our 39 Wedding Anniversary. We usually like to take a road trip to celebrate it. So we headed West to visit our family in LA . . . It has been several months since we have seen our darling Ellie and we needed a definite FIX . . .

It was so fun to give her HUGS and KISSES . .. she is so ADORABLE.

I have been waiting to be able to sew for a little girl . . so I got a little out of control. Ellie received a few gifts from Grandma B.

Staying in LA for 3 days, we were thrilled to be with the "Little Bug". She has gotten so big and it was so fun to play with her.

Then we decided to go SHOPPING .. . go out and get some fresh air and sunshine.

We worked up an appetite . . so we took a break to have a nice dinner.

It was time to say so-long and on Monday we took off towards Monterey . . .

stopping at the Hearst Castle first

We had to check out Santa Barbara, one of our favorite places.

Then there it was . . .

looking to the top of the mountain, there it stood - Hearst Castle.

The estate is of historic architectural styles that William Hearst admired in his travels

around Europe.

Hearst was a prolific buyer who did not so much purchase art and antiques to furnish his home as he did build his home to get his bulging collection out of warehouses.

This led to incongruous elements such as the private cinema whose walls were lined with shelves of rare books.

The floor plan of the Main Building is chaotic due to his habit of buying centuries-old ceilings, which dictated the proportions and decor of various rooms.

Hearst Castle featured 56 bedrooms, 61 bathrooms, 19 sitting rooms, 127 acres of gardens, indoor and outdoor swimming pools, tennis courts, a movie theater, and airfield and the world's largest private zoo. Zebras and other exotic animals still roam the grounds.

One highlight of the estate is the outdoor Neptune Pool, located near the edge of the hilltop, which has a beautiful few of the mountains, ocean and the main house. The Neptune Pool patio features an ancient Roman Temple front, transported wholesale from Europe and reconstructed at the site.

Invitations to Hearst Castle were highly coveted during its heyday in the 1920s and '30s. The Hollywood and political elite often visited, usually flying into the estate's airfield or taking a private Hearst-owned train car from Los Angeles. Charlie Chaplin, Cary Grant, the Marx Brothers, Charles Lindbergh, Joan Crawford, Clark Gable, James Stewart, Bob Hope Calvin Coolidge, Franklin Roosevelt and Winston Churchill were among Hearst's A-list guests. While guests were expected to attend the formal dinners each evening, they were normally left to their own devices during the day while Hearst directed his business affairs. Since "the Ranch" had so many facilities, guests were rarely at a loss for things to do. The estate's theater usually screened films from Hearst's own movie studio, Cosmopolitan Productions.