Wine, Castles, and Aquariums on the Central California Coast

Warning: this is a behemoth post that I've been working on for days... get comfortable and settle in!

After leaving Santa Barbara last Wednesday morning, we were armed with tips and recommendations for a great tour of Central California. We first headed up the coast to the Santa Ynez Valley, a region with lots of quaint, less touristy vineyards and a cute little downtown midway through. We had winery recommendations from our friends in Santa Barbara, so we stopped at a few with a quick lunch in town.

The scenery in this area is one of our absolute favorites. These pictures really don't do it justice since we were driving and shooting out the window, and I should therefore probably just leave them out altogether, but here's an idea anyway:

 
Beckmen Vineyards
Beckmen was the first recommended stop, and it's tucked away in the hills of grape vines far from the highway. We took a winding, narrow path down to the vineyard and found the tasting room. We split a tasting, bought a bottle of Merlot, and moved on to #2!

The path to the tasting room

Roblar Winery
Roblar wasn't on our list, but it was right next to Beckmen, so we decided to stop there, too. It's a more modern facility that combines a winery with a culinary school. We again split a tasting and left with a bottle of Sauvignon Blanc.

After Roblar, we stopped for lunch in Los Olivos, one of the main communities of the Santa Ynez Valley. We had some delicious sandwiches at Panino and eyed the little mainstreet before heading to our next vineyard.

Rancho Sisquoc
Rancho Sisquoc was another recommended stop and our last in Central California. It is quite a ways from the highway, but the drive down a one-lane dirt road through the farm and vineyard is nice. It's a quaint little tasting room with good wines and a free signature glass with a tasting! We bought a bottle of Pinot Noir and a bottle of Sylvaner, a white unique to their winery.

After the vineyards, we continued north with some quick stops in the towns of San Luis Obispo and Cambria. The drive here is right along the Pacific Ocean, and it's really breathtaking.

We had some great local pizza for dinner in Cambria, bought a bottle opener, and headed to our hotel to try out some of our new California wine. We stayed in San Simeon for the night since our next stop was the Hearst Castle - just five minutes away. First thing Thursday, we headed over for a guided tour.

Hearst Castle
William Randolph Hearst may have been a newspaper mogul, but much of his money (and the land where he built his estate) was inherited from his parents. While he ran many publications in New York, this was his west coast residence where he entertained many prominent guests such as movie stars, politicians, athletes, scientists, and more. His castle includes indoor & outdoor pools, three guest houses in addition to a gigantic main house, and much more. Our tour gave us a good overview of some main parts. Hearst was quite frivolous in some ways, sparing no expense and shipping decorations from all over the world to adorn his mountaintop abode. He brought columns from ancient Rome, statues from Egypt, 15th century French tapestries, gold and silver from all corners of the world, an entire ornate ceiling from France, and more. He used to have a zoo with all kinds of exotic animals, too, but most were given to the local zoos. Still running around? Zebras (yes, ZEBRAS, cows, elk, and deer). Also, we had the most knowledgeable tour guide ever. He was awesome (and he made his way into a few of our pics).

Some pictures from the palace (click to view larger):

If you look closely, you can see the castle at the top center of the mountains.

From Hearst Castle, we had planned to drive up the scenic Highway 1, but it was closed because apparently 40 feet of the road collapsed into the Pacific Ocean near Big Sur in March. We were majorly bummed to miss this gorgeous stretch of the California coast, but there was nothing to do. The highway was closed for 40 miles, so we headed inland instead.

Monterey Bay Aquarium
In the afternoon we got to Monterey, a sardine cannery town now famous for it's incredible aquarium. The aquarium is pricey, but it's well worth it. We saw penguins getting fed, a diver jump into a giant tank with hundreds of fish (including sharks!) for a feeding, sea otters, beautiful and varied jellyfish, seahorses, rays, flamingos, and more. The Monterey Bay Aquarium also has a great exhibit on sustainability and environmentalism. It's worked into the whole building in some ways, but there are great interactive resources for kids and adults to encourage conservation and taking care of Mother Earth.

Here's a sampling of what we saw (again, click to view larger):

 After Monterey Bay, we did a quick drive-through of Carmel before heading north. This is a quaint, tree-lined lively town right on the water. The houses along the water are incredible, and we drove around for about 10 minutes with our mouths gaping open in awe. What views! What architecture! What fortune to be able to afford a place here!

From Carmel, we wrapped up the day's round-about journey to San Francisco...

Up next: you guessed it - San Fran!