Saturday, September 17, 2011

Labor Day Weekend on the beach

We had a fabulous Labor Day Weekend in California. We met Michael, Mallory and Madie at a campground near Hearst Castle (San Simeon, Cambria) and camped near the beach for 3 nights. It was so much fun. See how close we were to the ocean? We could hear the waves crashing in the distance as we were falling asleep. And the waves were very large that weekend.
Here are Michael, Mallory and Madie at our campground. We're just boiling some water for hot chocolate. I love the cool, foggy mornings - I miss that so much about California.
Here's the real star of the show! 
Time for a new tent. This is our tent and our queen air mattress fit in there, but that's all. Now that we will be doing some more camping, we invested in a larger, taller tent that we can stand up in. I can't wait to use it! 
Lovin' my Madie! 
Saturday morning we went to Hearst Castle and went on a tour. I've been there 2 other times, but I took a different tour this time and it was very interesting to see the bedrooms.
My handsome hubby.
You can see the fog down in the valley. Hearst Castle is up on a hill, so it isn't usually foggy up there, but it's cool to look at it hovering below. 
The gardens at the castle were gorgeous. Great pictures, Bryan! 


Here's the Neptune Pool - so big and so beautiful. 
Madie and Papa riding the bus up to Hearst Castle
Madie and Michael inside one of the bedrooms at Hearst Castle 
You have to remember when you see this picture that I was camping. Just look at Madie, not me.
And here is the Roman Pool, which I think is absolutely amazing. 
Cute pose, Madie! I'm loving the pig tails.
We spent some time in Morro Bay. We actually went to church there on Sunday. We were able to find some showers at the campground, so we could get the campfire smell out of our hair before church! 
Madie loved playing in this pool of ocean water and water from a stream combined together.
I absolutely love these pictures of Madie!

I'm doing my favorite thing on the beach - sitting, watching the waves and doing Sudokus. 
Back at the campgroud.....enjoying our campfire and smores. 
And what's camping without a couple of games of yhatzee? 
In Cambria, they were having a little town festival on Labor Day. Michael and Mallory put Madie on this little car ride and you can see that she was doing okay the first couple times around..... 
.........but then....total meltdown! They had to stop the ride so they could get her off the ride!
We drove up the coast a little to see the elephant seals that were resting on the beach. On our way, we saw some zebras grazing with the cattle. Hearst let a lot of his animals go from his private zoo and they have increased in number and stayed around the hills by Hearst Castle.
 Papa, Madie and I right before they left for home and we left for Solvang.
And here we all are before we departed. It was such a fun weekend and we loved being with these guys! 
Here are the elephant seals. They flicked sand on themselves every now and then - otherwise, they looked like they were dead. 
After we left San Simeon, Bryan and I headed to Solvang to spend the night at Marriott. The shower felt so good and it was nice to be clean again. We actually went and walked around Solvang on Sunday with M,M & M because Mal had never been there. We knew we were going back on Monday night though. I love this city and if I'm ever anywhere close to it, have to stop in.
We left Tuesday at about noon for home, but we stopped at a few beaches along the way. Oh how I love the ocean and the beach. I got my ocean-fix and should be good for another few months until we go back to California. I need to see the ocean at least a couple times a year. 


No comments:

Post a Comment