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With a blazing fire, welcoming armchairs and carafes of complimentary wine, the library of the Burton Inn felt so cozily Victorian that I expected one of the other late afternoon tipplers to turn out to be a candlestick-toting Miss Scarlet.
Heading upstairs, however, I discovered that except for the avocado Age of Aquarius bathroom, my room was bright and spacious. The furniture was antique, but the walls looked like they'd been painted yesterday. Rate and Review: My partner, Pipi, and I had been this way once several years before, when we had taken a train from Oakland down the coast and visited Hearst Castle.
But that time, we'd used a hotel in San Luis Obispo as our base. On this return trip to the castle, we were looking for something a little cozier--and a little closer. A glance at the map told us the dot called Cambria might just fit the bill, and as we drifted off to sleep, lulled by wine and strains of live Tex-Mex music emanating from a Main Street bar, we knew we'd guessed right.
The next morning was Sunday, and although I'd worried about a bunch crunch at Main Street restaurants, this was the off-season and there was no wait at Linn's Main Bin. I sampled polenta pancakes, and although I am normally a maple-syrup snob, travel is about broadening horizons, and so I elected to have them served with olallieberry syrup. In so doing, I turned myself on to one of the town's prouder exports. Olallieberries taste like a cross between a tart red raspberry and a blackberry--which they essentially are--and were named by their inventors after a Native American name for blackberry.
Today the fruit is a signature of its adopted hometown like many Cambria residents, olallieberries aren't native, having been born and bred in Oregon. A glance at the gift shop adjacent to the eating area at Linn's reveals that the versatile berry can be made into all manner of edible souvenirs: But berries would have to wait. We had an appointment for a tour at Hearst Castle, 10 minutes up Highway 1. Some things have changed at the castle from its pre-WWII heyday--for one thing, the property belongs to the state now, and no one lives there.
But much is just as the family left it in the s, including the decor and the fact that you just don't drop in.
Even during the slower winter season, buses leave the visitor center at prompt minute intervals, whisking visitors up the narrow private access road to the castle. Although newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst never referred to the Julia-Morgan designed dwelling as a castle to him it was la cuesta encantada, or "the enchanted hill" , it's easy to see why the state of California has surrendered to the temptation. The cluster of buildings, including the main house and three guesthouses, has a commanding perch on a cliff top 1, feet above sea level.
It's flanked by an enormous swimming pool that it doesn't take too much imagination to see as a moat, and it's guarded or at least observed by wild animals, including free-ranging zebra and Indian deer descended from Hearst's own private zoo stock. The castle is also stuffed with treasures that attract hordes numbering in the hundreds of thousands every year.
Of course, after storming the gate these invaders pad through in small, orderly groups, and leave clutching nothing more than souvenir photos. Five different tours are offered though not all are year-round ranging from a general sweep through the most jaw-dropping architectural features like the gold-leafed 1, square-foot indoor pool , to more targeted treks through guest wings and outbuildings.
Each tour takes about an hour and a half, moving at a slow trudge, and can involve climbing as much as stairs. On our tours impossibly erudite guides treated us to what I only later realized was a minute art history lecture, explaining the history and significance of a mind-boggling array of paintings, sculptures and architectural oddities.
Hearst apparently never met a medieval church he didn't like, and made a hobby of recreating if not purchasing outright whole interiors he fancied. Tours are scheduled from about 8: But that would be exhausting, which is why I was glad we'd allowed two days to see the castle--and even gladder that we'd elected to stay in nearby Cambria. Spreading our two tours over two mornings allowed us to appreciate and absorb each one much better than one marathon day would have, and it also meant we had energy to spare the second day for one other Cambria side trip.
At least, it's as much of a secret as a colony of noisy, smelly animals the size of Volkswagens can be: Exactly 4.
There is no admission charge, and you can get close to the seals, observing them from bluffs 30 feet or less above the beach. At the time of our late February visit, we were able to observe dozens of seals. Young pups nursed. Protective mothers squawked at each other noisily, noses almost touching like ballplayers jawing at an umpire. And big-nosed, gelatinous males lolled in the sun like the missing link between housecats and sea cucumbers, with occasional fights breaking out between upstarts jockeying to be next year's alpha male. All this would have been amazing enough--especially considering the price--but the day we visited elephant seals were only part of the story.
Hawks and turkey vultures circled overhead, rabbits and squirrels scampered around the dunes, and a glance with binoculars confirmed what I'd hardly dared believe: The quick puffs of spray I kept spying beyond the breakers weren't overactive whitecaps, but whale spouts. Apparently even leviathans find the Central Coast irresistible at this time of year.
That night we dined at the Sow's Ear Cafe.
By this, our last night in town, we were used to the eclectic nature of Cambria, and so it didn't occur to us until later that we had no right to expect an epicurean experience in an establishment whose half-timbered walls and snapping hearth brought to mind a sturdy English tavern, and whose decor was just two or three pig tchochkes short of twee. But that's exactly what we got at the Sow's Ear, which specializes in well-crafted American country cooking. I had chicken and dumplings, advertised as "just like grandma made, but better" a challenge I have no desire to mediate , and Pipi had honey-pecan crusted catfish.
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