San Simeon

We headed south and east to the town of Paso Robles, in the middle of the southern wine country of California. The vinyards line Rt. 101 for miles. Folks must be drinking way too much of that stuff. Mainly places you've never heard of. The RV park here is new and well laid out with adequate space.
We called and got reservations for an initial tour of San Simeon otherwise known as the Hearst Castle. Hearst and the Castle gained a lot notoriaty from Orson Welles' film, Citizen Kane, considered by many the best film ever made. As most films, it deviated from facts, and Hearst tried his hardest to ruin Welles after it's release.
The real Hearst was the son of George Hearst who made a fortune with a silver strike while looking for gold. He became the seventh wealthiest man in the country and bought some huge tracts of real eastate on the Pacific Ocean near the little village of San Simeon. Three or four hundres square miles with about fifty miles of ocean front. Hearst had become a major force in his own right with an empire of newspapers, then a major studio in the movie biz. He ran unsuccessfully for mayor of NYC and for governor of NY. Some people referred to the Spanish American War as "Hearst's War" believing that he had manipulated the situation to lead to America taking over Spanish holdings.
He had always loved the property on the Pacific. After his fathers death in 1919, he wanted to build but his mother was against it and he held off until after she passed away. He started in the 1920's and stopped in 1947 when his health made it necessary to be closer to medical facilities. He considered the project half done when he left, hoping to return and get back to work. He never did. Art work from around the world is everywhere. He had warehouses in NYC,LA and here to house all the stuff he bought in trips to Europe.
The Castle was donated to California by the Hearst Foundation. Because of the size, they give tours by sections. Yesterday, we took the Experience Tour which gave some history and took us through a guest house and the first floor of the castle. Today we will take a tour of the rest of the main house and maybe do one of the grounds. No drinks, no food, no gum no walking off the carpetted walkways, no leaving the group, no touching anything. A bunch of Nazis. But it's really something and it's run very professionally.
Hearst had five children with his wife, but then fell in love with Marion Davies, a movie starlet. His wife opted not to divorce, but instead bought a mansion on Long Island to live in and got herself a Spanish Nobleman to live with. The kids figured that when he died, they'd kick Marion out. But the will, the longest ever filed in California at the time, gave Marion 51% of the goods. She sold her position back to the Hearsts for $1 a year. Go figure.