Saturday, July 5 we took Apollo to a dog sitter in Cambria since we couldn’t leave him in the hotel while we went to Hearst Castle in San Simeon, CA. He actually had a great play day, but I was a little sad to have to leave him.

Just 5 miles north of where we were staying is the famous home built over 28 years by William Randolph Hearst that’s known as Hearst Castle. This was the main reason for the trip, and we did two different tours of the Castle.

The front door to the castle, which he called “The Enchanted Hill.”

Hearst Castle towers, inspired by Spanish/Moroccan architecture.

Everything we saw was amazing, including the Neptune pool inspired by Roman architecture (top picture). On the way home we stopped at a vista point overlooking San Simeon beach to take some pictures.

Very pretty, but windy!

The ground squirrels were everywhere, and not afraid at all! Click on the picture for a better look.

That night in Cambria we thought it would be nice to watch the sunset and drink some wine on the beach.

No, we don’t condone giving alcohol to animals.

It was too cold for Apollo (I know, it’s a recurring theme) – but you should have seen the looks people gave us as we walked back with Apollo sticking his head out of Steven’s jacket. I think they were just relieved to discover it wasn’t a horribly hairy child…