Our first time.....

.....well, our first time visiting Hearst's Castle together. Hubby and I recently took a trip there to celebrate our 15th wedding anniversary. It had been a long running joke between us, I always wanted to visit Hearst's Castle, but he refused to take me. It all started over ten years ago when we were living in Los Angeles and making the drive to Northern California several time a year to visit our family. Every time that we would drive by the signs for Hearst Castle I would whine, beg and plead to go there. He, however, remembered being dragged through those opulent halls, as a kid, and he refused to be bored that way again. What seemed like a fun little side trip to me, wasn't anything of the sort to him.
I have to say that I had a great time on the tour and really enjoyed looking at the over-the-top splendor of it all. And how did Hubby like it? Much to his surprise he really enjoyed it. It appears that he might actually be a grown up and enjoy doing "boring things." Now for the pictures.
Here is the outdoor swimming pool, which is just huge (as you can tell from those people how rudely got in to my picture in the upper left-hand corner).
Here is the view of the "ranch." I would dearly love to have a few acres of that Central California Coastland to call my own.

One of the THREE guest houses.

The inside of the one of the guest rooms.
Yes, those two statues really are from Ancient Egypt and yes, they really are outside.
The front of the main house.

Another main house view.

Inside the main house were some really wonderful tapistries, but they were hard to get photos of because no flash was allowed. That didn't stop me from trying.

This if the fabric that he had designed from a tapistry to cover all the couches and chairs in the great room. I would love to get my hands on some of that fabric.
This is the diving platform in the indoor pool.
Those gold tile really are gold


and a marble pool ladder to top if all off.


After our tour we found our way to a lovely winery/ B and B called Summerwood Inn in Paso Robles. This is the view from our room. It was an anniversary celebration to remember.