Hearst Castle

One of the places we saw while "site seeing" in Cambria. It's called the "Hearst Castle" and was built by George Hearst in the 1920's. It is ENORMOUS (the main house is something like 60,000 sq ft, not to mention all the other buildings, servants quarters, pools, etc.) and full of exquisite art. It's seriously the closest thing to a Europe you'll get in California (and perhaps the closest I'll get to my European vacation). Take a look at the view up there, it is incredible!

Take a look at the pool below. It has Roman pillars and a pediment on the other side, shipped in from the real Roman ruins....WOW is all I can say.

The indoor pool is shown below. The picture does no justice. The tiles have actual gold in them and just sparkle in the sun. And the zebras pictured below are some of the last animals left from the personal zoo the guy had. He had polar bears, lions, tigers, you name it. Oh, and did I mention this was only one of seven houses that he owned...he was gracious enough to gift this to the state parks of California, who now make a killing off of it....$20/head for a tour, and they CRAM the people onto the tour bus....trust me, I should know :)