Aylmer Express "MoHo" Extravaganza 2006

Unfortunately the time has come to leave … and I was just getting used to watching race cars on their warm-up laps during breakfast. We enjoyed our track-side location one more morning and then packed up to take a trip down one of the most well known highways in the world, Highway 1 down California’s west coast. I have actually driven the Half Moon Bay to Big Sur part of the road before. That was 18 years ago and it took place during a stopover in San Fran. I visited with my friends Jay and Barb, who had just moved there from Canada, whilst on my way to Australia. They were kind enough to loan me a Toyota Corolla and I took off for the day to check out this famous highway. About all I remember was that there were beautiful views and that the road was along the edge of the hills rising out of the ocean and it was very tight and twisty. Not exactly ideal for navigating with a motor home. We spoke to some fellow MoHo-ers at the campsite who had just made the trip the day before and they described it as challenging but doable. They said that there were a lot of pretty steep hills as well. The most challenging road we have experienced so far was the drive to Ucluelet and Tofino on Vancouver Island. We figured that it could not be worse than that. However, we also remember that our return drive on that road was much easier, which we ascribed to the fact that we did not have the Matrix attached on the back of the MoHo, so we decided to have Chantal follow me separately in the Matrix for this section of the trip. Off we went past Monterey and Carmel into the heart of the central California coast. The views were, as expected, spectacular. Once again we got lucky. You see, there had been quite a bit of fog along the coast for the last two days. It was actually making our visit to the Laguna Seca and Monterey area quite chilly causing the temperatures to hover in the 14C to 19C range (58F to 67F). So we were basically keeping our fingers crossed that we would get a clear day for the one time we would be heading down this road. And we got our wish … Yesssssssssss! Of course, I could not help myself from stopping on a regular basis to photograph the gorgeous coastal views. This certainly expanded our drive times and we found ourselves stopped for lunch before we even got to San Simeon. That happens to be where the Hearst Castle is located. We had been debating whether or not to stop and check this place out and had still not decided yet. We were using walkie talkies to communicate with each other as we drove down the highway in tandem so I was checking with Chantal as to what she wanted to do. She was leaning toward taking the visit however, the boys were not interested and I was in that “I think I have seen too many nice things lately to be able to appreciate it properly” mode. Anyway, as we approached the entrance to the castle grounds we had not come to a definite conclusion on whether or not to enter. So, to be on the safe side, I turned in just in case (I’m really starting to get the hang of these “how to save your marriage” skills, eh?). When I did not hear any complaining via walkie talkie, I knew we were going to visit the castle. We arrived just in time to catch the last tour of the day. The tour starts with a bus ride up the hill to the castle itself. As I sat in the front seat with a clear view of the road all the way up, I was very glad not to have to drive the MoHo up this snake-like road with guardrail-less drop-offs on many of the switchbacks. When we got to the top the view back toward the ocean was amazing. And the castle itself, an extravagant, sprawling, mini-village, really, was most impressive as well. Much of the castle architecture was Mediterranean in style and the entire grounds, both inside and outside the castle, were packed with artwork from around the world. In addition to the statues, paintings and tapestries that adorned virtually every room we visited, the architecture itself was as grandiose as you can imagine. It took 28 years to create this marvel, and you can see why, as you begin to absorb all the details. It is almost overwhelming as you try to notice and appreciate the effort and attention to detail that was lavished upon this castle. Perhaps that is part of the definition of a castle. Who knows? We were also treated to a film which talked a little bit about the history of William Randall Hearst and how he came to build this place. One part of the film that really seemed to hit home with Morgan was the part where they talked about how William, at the age of 10 (same as Morgan right now), went on a round-the-world journey with his mother for 18 months. Morgan felt that he was living a similar life experience and I have a feeling he extrapolated on where he might be when he grows older as he watched how William Hearst ended up a very rich man. The bottom line was that we all ended up enjoying the Hearst Castle tour and were glad that we finally made the decision to check it out.
Now, as you can imagine, my picture-taking stops, combined with our Hearst Castle visit had put us substantially behind schedule. And on top of that, everyone was very hungry. We decided to grab some dinner in San Simeon first and watch the sunset at the same time. As we did that we realized that if we continued, we would be doing so in the dark. Now, not being able to see the scenery would kind of defeat the purpose of driving down Highway 1 so we decided to stay at the State Park which was right there just outside of town. We found our campsite and got settled as darkness fell. We got the kids to bed and then Chantal and I looked out the window to check out the stars. We were at a campground with no electricity, and hence, no lights other than a few distant campfires. I stepped out to see the sky more clearly and suddenly I realized just what we were missing in Redding when we had a full moon. The Milky Way looked like cloud cover stretching from on horizon almost all the way to the other and the sky was carpeted with stars of varying brightnesses. We decided to get the kids out of bed to take a look, which of course they were very happy to do. There were so many stars in the sky that we were unable to successfully locate any satellites floating by, which is one of our favorite pastimes. My brother Eric would have been very jealous. Too bad he was not here to tell us what we were seeing. The best I could manage was the big dipper. I guess the time has come to look into a few more details about the heavens above.

Today's word:

ascribe \uh-SKRYB\, transitive verb:
1. To attribute, as to a source or cause; as, "they ascribed the poor harvest to drought."
2. To attribute, as a quality; to consider or allege to belong; as, "ascribed jealousy to the critics."

# posted by Jeff, Chantal and the kids @ 4:38 AM