2002-06-18 - 11:22 p.m.
Hello from San Simeon! (Sorry I haven't posted for a couple of days.... my computer decided it needed to crash for a while.... it seems to be well rested now, so hopefully I can get something up tonight.) Anyway, here we are in San Simeon....the home of Hearst Castle. Tomorrow we will be getting up early (I don't do early) to spend the day touring the Castle. (And to answer Gert's question: no I don't think this is the castle that is all done in black and white....they may have a room or a section like that, but I think most of the place is pretty gaudy....the guy collected tons and tons of stuff.) Originally....Hearst and his wealthy friends would just go out to their 250,000 acres to camp. Of course, they camped in style....with elaborate sleeping and dining tents. But, in 1919 he got tired of camping and asked his architect to "build a little something...." Well, by 1947, they had built an estate with 165 rooms and 127 acres of gardens. He even had his own movie theatre!
Meanwhile.....I'm camping at the Motel 6....and I wouldn't recommend it!! But, we are staying here because of our cat. Now I know I have readers out there who don't like cats (Gert?). So if you're one of those, just shut your eyes.....this part will be over soon. Anyway....I travel everywhere with my cat. She's been to Las Vegas....she's been to the Grand Canyon....everywhere. Usually, I try to find a place that takes pets, but when all else fails, I have a cat carrier that looks just like a suitcase.....and I a can sneak her in anywhere. But....on this trip...it was a bit different. I found a wonderful place that advertised that they took pets. It was on the ocean....it included a pastry basket delivered to the room each morning....it included an appetizer buffet each evening.....it was perfect. So we planned the whole trip based on the days they had rooms available. Then when I called back to reserve the room, the informed me that they only allow dogs....NOT CATS!!!!! Ugh!
So the only other place up here that takes pets and had rooms, was Motel 6. Now that I am here, though, I see that there are actually a lot of larger hotels that I could easily have got her into. But since we have to leave her in the room while we are at the castle, I really wanted a place that takes pets (usually she comes with me during the day, but I can't take her to the castle). But now to complicate things....this place doesn't have any of those "Do Not Disturb" signs! We told them at the front desk that we don't want the room serviced, but it still makes me nervous to leave the cat here without one of those signs. (some places I've stayed have "do not disturb, PET IN ROOM" signs....I guess I should get one of those and just carry it with me). Anyway...that's why we're at Motel 6....when it actually would have been much easier to just sneak her in to one of the more upscale places that has "do not disturb" signs. Oh well....too late now!
Tune in tomorrow....I'm sure there will be plenty plenty too much to tell. Goodnight for now!
comments??? (1 so far...) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~2002-06-16 - 12:42 a.m.
Yes, I know you are all waiting on baited breath for my stories about Hearst Castle....but we're not going there until Tuesday! So you'll just have to be happy with stories from home until then.
Today, we did Hollywood. And, although Hollywood is always fabulous, today it was even more fabulous because they were getting ready for the "red carpet" premier of the movie Lilo and Stitch.
Several blocks of Hollywood Blvd. were blocked off so they could set up for this event.
This in itself is amazing, because Hollywood Blvd. is one of the busiest streets in Los Angeles. They must have had to pay somewhere in the hundreds of thousands of dollars to shut it down for this event! Not only that, but they brought in dozens and dozens of palm trees and other tropical plants....tons of tiki decor....it was really quite fabulous! The magic of movies!
Anyway....as exciting as that was....it was not why we went up to Hollywood! (Although, it seems every time we go up there, something is happening.....a movie shoot, an opening, etc....to snarl traffic and make parking impossible!) This time, however we seemed to get lucky...we got a parking spot right away....and the several bars and restaurants we went to were quite empty.....which was quite amazing. I think that means the best time to go bar hopping in Hollywood is just when they are setting up for a big event....and go between 3:00 and 5:00pm.
We originally went up there to go to Frederick's of Hollywood, the lingerie headquarters of L.A. but first got side tracked and ended up drinking at the Pig and Whistle!! Let me just say...if you find yourself in Hollywood, in need of a martini....this is the place to go!
After that, we toured the rest of the Boulevard.... had more drinks at Musso and Frank's and headed home. But....as we were driving home, we realized that the beloved Trader Vics was in our way....so we had to stop! We just had to!! Anyway.....I should probably go to sleep now! Tune in tomorrow for more adventures!! (Wait...as an aside, I just found the official site for Trader Vics)
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