Day 3 - Hearst Castle

The reason we are staying in San Simeon - Hearst Castle! Though its strictly not a castle, but a large mansion on the hilltop of the Santa Lucia Mountains. Its name is Casa Grande and is full of Spanish and Italian antiques and art. Its a 5-mile bus ride up to the top and has some really great views over the Pacific Ocean. Though we booked for 10am, we got an earlier tour at 8:45am and even that group was only half the usual amount! We got a tour that showed some of the rooms and the main gardens, but apparently there are also night tours which show a bit more of the house. It was freezing nonetheless. I think its warmer in England right now...!

After the castle we still had most of the day to kill so we headed into Cambria, a small town down the road from San Simeon. We decide on the spur of the moment to get pedicures, but the one place in town was closed due to a family emergency. Slightly put down, we then decide to purchase nail stuff and colour our hair. In both drug stores, we find only four hair colourants and its a permanent dye. But we do find funky nail polish!

We stop for lunch and I have the largest Caesar salad known to mankind. It came in a mixing bowl! And Jenny had equally large onion rings with her lunch, so big they looked as if they had been made around a drinking mug!

We head back to the motel to do our nails. Half a bottle of cheap wine and an episode of Prison Break later, I have a full set of green toenails out of a bottle called Kermit. Yep, Kermit green toes. Nice! It was very thin polish though and took three coats before it was noticeable. I couldn't be bothered with any more coats of polish and just lay there, chilled out.

Late evening we felt peckish and stopped at a seafood restuarant, the Mantra Ray, where I had the nicest piece of salmon ever! We tried to watch the sunset but it was way too cold and we killed the rest of the evening by starting a comic strip of our 'adventures' for Melissa. Jenny has the job of inking them and scanning them to the travel blog!