vacation time {hearst castle // HWY 1 // madonna inn}

im always amazed when people show off their vacation pictures and im like aw man, i wish i could do that too! and then im like duh, les. you have a blog. 

i just get lazy. 

and editing pictures on a phone is a drag. 

but thats what i get for not having a computer at home or any editing skills. so here we are. 

aaaanyway!, over the long weekend, Evelyn (my bf's brother's gf) booked us all a room (moms included...family trip) at i forgot where next to Firestone Brewery so the guys could have some drinks (we all drank) and then next day we drove up to Hearst Castle. 

we left on Sunday and hit up Solvang (all of the heart eyes), walked around a bit and had breakfast. 

everyone was hangry so we didnt do much but i am DEFINITELY going back during xmas with my mom because they light it all up and i mean come on!!!!

after that, we hit up the hotel. had a couple of glasses of wine because YUM! then went to dinner just to come back down (just the 4 of us) have a couple of more drinks and have just about the best laugh i have ever had in my life. 

ill leave you with some pictures. 

went straight to the bar and ordered samples of every beer they had. not bad. 

neptune pool currently under construction. they say it might be ready sometime 2017 but i doubt it. she sounded very hesitant about the answer she gave me. 

the front (?) entrance

they had about 100 different statues all over the place. some were cool looking. 

others were kinda creepy looking without the eyes painted. it honestly felt like they were looking in to your soul. spooky!

the inside pool. 

looks pretty cool but it honestly creeped me out a bit. 

afterwards, we drove down the 1 and made several stops. 

on the way up to hearts castle, we saw a couple of zebras but we were thinking there was no way. 

long story short, once Hearst had the castle done-ish, he had all sorts of animals taken to his property and zebras happened to be one of the many. 

unfortunately when he went bankrupt a lot of the animals were sent to zoo's. those that stayed are great great great whatever of the original animals he used to have. 

they have A LOT of land so these were waaaaay out. miles upon miles away from the castle. 

a short 45 minute drive from there, i FINALLY hit up the Madonna Inn. 

i have been wanting to go for foever!!!! and almost 2 years ago when i went to big sur, i wanted to stop by but i decided to skip it. 

this time we got off, had lunch and looked everywhere!!!!!

the bathrooms are the cutest things ever!!!!! (the guys one was pretty cool too. and yes, i along with like 10 other women were seen coming out of there.) 

i definitely want to come back and stay in a room eventually just to get the feel of the hotel. 

(all of this is in the front building. the rooms are in another way in the back.) 

(also, just FYI, the pretty pink dinning room isnt open until 5 so just a heads up.) 

overall it was a fun, quick getaway. 

the castle was pretty interesting to see. 

we had a pretty informative guide and she answered all of our questions. 

all i would say is just make sure what you want to see in the castle cause the tours only take you so far. 

i had no problem with it at all but it wasnt until we made it into the inside pool (the roman pool?) that i got a little creeped out. 

uhm...i dont know. i LOVE swimming but the idea of swimming in there kinda gave me the hibbie jibbies. 

i felt like if i was in the deep end, something would pull me by the leg and keep me down there. 

then B told me that apparently the workers get to go swimming in it about 2 times a year and that for some odd reason made me a little bit more ahhh! about it. (here's a video of a dude jumping into the pool. eeek!) 

then, were almost home and my mom tells me that she felt like she felt a presence in there. not like a ghost or whatever but pretty stuffy and i dont know. but i kinda agreed with her. 

which all the more creeped me out when they said they host a night showing of the castle and i was told were going back. eeek. thanks but no thanks. 

anyway, happy Wednesday!