Tue 1 Aug 2006
Early Saturday morning were our tours at Hearst Castle. The weekend was in the 60s, overcast, misty, foggy. It made the tours very comfortable and it was a nice escape from the recent heat wave, but it didn’t do much for our photos. The indoor shots also didn’t come out, as we weren’t allowed to use flash. Here are a few salvageable photos; you can read the captions by resting the mouse pointer on the photos. Hearst Castle in the mist…
The Buildings on the Property (I’d identify them, but I wasn’t listening to the tour guide. Again. Some villa, a main house, I guess.):
Statues were scattered in abundance around the property:
Fruit trees and lush vegetation can also be found on the property:
And of course, the famed outdoor Neptune Pool:
In case that’s not enough water for swimmers, there’s the 22 karat gold plated indoor Roman Pool:
i think tour 2 showed one of the guest houses that i haven’t seen before. i love hearst castle. i think it’s an amazing piece of architecture, designed by julia morgan, who boasts the honor of being the first female to graduate from cal. not to mention the $10 million (back in the 20s) spent by mr. hearst on this house. although i remember being really sick the last time i was there – with you. i had shingles or something ridiculous like that.
THAT’s what it was, shingles? I remember you saying that your leg was hurting and you felt nerve twitches. Shingles is adult chicken pox brought on by stress, isn’t it?
it’s the same virus, that’s dormant in one’s body until adulthood. i had never heard of it before. but it was really painful, but luckily i didn’t break out w chicken pox like symptoms.
but yeah, i deserve a trip back there. i think the photos look great, with the heavy fog in the background. make the entire place look more mysterious.
I love the indoor pool! Did you know if you work at Hearst Castle you would get an opportunity to swim in the indoor pool once a year during some annual event? Not sure if it’s true, but our guide told us. I hope to go up there in the nest two months.
I have had shingles before and they itch like crazy, plus I had a funky rash. The doctor gave me a steroid cream and it made all the skin around the rash a light blue color for a couple of months. Stress definitely brings them on, but I did not know they were adult chicken pox.
I remember walking in and the first thing I saw was the naked statue of David. Of course, I took a picture by it. What? I’m not perverted, I just appreciate art! 🙂
Oh, our guide told us right by the Neptune Pool (outdoors pool), “We get to swim in it, just to brag.” So I guess they have access to both pools!
chicken pox is also same/similar to the herpes virus.