O Christmas Tree

Welcome to my "tour of home" post from Greta's blog. :-) I just uploaded a couple of pics I took the other night and thought I'd join in on the Holiday fun since it doesn't really feel like Christmas to me. Maybe this will help! The tree is really the only thing in my house that even remotely looks like Christmas, well, besides the poinsettia.

I like the idea of starting an ornament collection, so this will be our first. I got it at disneyland with the 40% off pass when I went a couple weeks back. I love it!

And here's the noble beauty..noble fir, that is, before being ornament-ated.

and a little tree art.

Have a Merry Christmas y'all! Let us all remember what this day is really about..the birth of our Lord and Savior.
Thanks for stoppin' by.

The Hearst Castle

In my previous post, I alluded to a full post on Hearst Castle and the surrounding areas, so here it is. I had been wanting to visit Hearst Castle for quite some time, and this weekend presented the perfect opportunity. It was my birthday, so I got to make the itinerary. Not a lot of persuasion had to take place though, because my sweetie was all for it. I must say this place is quite impressive, but the Pools, oh the pools. All I kept hearing about in the week leading up to our trip was how great the pools are, blah blah blah. I actually felt that I might even be disappointed because everyone was talking them up so much. But alas, I was completely in awe, just like everyone had prepared me...
Can we say, picturesque?

That was the front of the main house and here is one of the bell towers showing off some of its architectural elements.

The outside pool is truly amazing. Something out of the Roman Empire. In fact, the Roman ruins were the inspiration for this beauty..

My sweetie taking in the view.

Don't you just want to jump in? No?

How bout now?

That's one of the guesthouses in the corner there..oh, and the view to the side of the main house.

Then it was on to the inside of the main house..no flash photography allowed (I hate flash anyway)..or tripods, so I had to settle for handheld while recording a correct exposure. Oh and it was great, because they had already started decorating for Christmas.

The main dining area..fit for a King.

I just Love this Poinsetta tree.

Next Stop: The Home Theater..it was amazing! They played some old film which showed us some of the animals that he had living at his personal zoo!

Theater detail..

Our last stop on the tour was the famous INDOOR POOL and let me tell you it did not disappoint! These pics don't do it justice, b/c it was just unlike anything you have seen and to think it was built over 100 years ago. Amazing!

This is actually the diving platform.

Hearst is definitely a place I would recommend seeing if you are in the area. It is truly unique and beautiful!

On the way out the next morning, we were advised to go check out the elephant seals just a couple miles up the PCH. I found out what an animal lover my husband is on this little detour. Remember the zoo I mentioned that Hearst had when he lived there? Well there are still remnants (animals) left grazing around on the land--and one of those animals happens to be the zebra!

Who needs an African Safari when you've got perfectly normal zebra in your backyard?

We also stopped and bonded with these cuties along the way.

Finally we made it to the elephant seals after getting distracted along the way. I wouldn't say it was too impressive, but it's always interesting to see a bunch of blubber sunbathing on a nice fall afternoon.

Since we couldn't get close enough to take pictures of these cute creatures, a pic of a pic will have to suffice. Aren't they cute though?

Guess I got kinda close to this guy. He was bathing all by himself on the other side of the beach.

That about wraps us up..I'll leave you with a shot of the scenery in the area surrounding the seals.

Paso Robles Winetasting

Last weekend, Shant and I took a weekend trip up the Coast to visit Hearst Castle and do a little winetasting in Paso Robles. I just love going up there this time of year, when the fall colors are in full force, the grapes have mostly been harvested, and the colors just pop all around you. It has been a tradition for me, my sis and my cousin Angie to make a weekend trip up there for my birthday each year, but since they couldn't come this year, my sweet husband took me instead. My sis and cousin are so much fun so I missed them a lot, but I know we'll do it again with them sometime soon. It was Shant's first time winetasting, and he liked it as well. Probably not as much as I do, but as long as he likes it enough to come with me now and then, I'm cool with that too!
Enjoy the pics, the colors are very true to form...I don't photoshop anything, yet. I just Praise God for his creation; his beautiful artwork that surrounds us everywhere. For example, we were just driving down the wine trail and drove past this. I had to stop and take pics, because it was just so pretty with those yellow trees! Yellow is my favorite color!

We got a late start, so we hit the wine trail around 2 pm. That's very late for the wineries because most of them close around 5. We still managed to get to 4 of them by the time they closed. I did some research to find out which ones I wanted to go to, so this was the first that peaked my interest. The description for it read "think Edward Scissorhands meets the Mad Hatter at Moulin Rouge." How could you not want to visit a place with a description like that! Especially when it comes to wineries which are usually very classic and simple in decor. Anyway, here is the outside of the winery. This one tree was full of mosaic balls, and I just thought it was so pretty!

Inside the winery, they had all of these hats and wigs for you to try on (I know my friend Carla would love this!), so we were forced to try a few on while sampling wine.

Snapped this one on the way out, as the sun was beginning its descent.

Outside the winery, they had this little house of mirrors that distorted you. I set up the camera for Shant to take a couple of me, but he refused to be my subject. I had to post this because it was too funny not to share!

The next winery on the agenda was Cass. I think what drew me to this one was the description of how beautiful the actual vineyards were. They were right. It was amazing.

Driving through the vineyard.

I think this shot is so cool.

And these just make me so very happy.

Next on the list was Bianchi. This was such a classic, beautiful, yet contemporary winery, and we had a great time being the last tasters in there just enjoying the slow life and easy conversation with the workers.

Shant taking in the breathtaking scenery. Why can't it be this peaceful EVERYWHERE?

Shot from inside the winery..so crisp!

Love the colors as the sun set.

And now on to my faves of the day! As the sun was finished setting, I realized what an amazing backdrop it was creating for me to shoot..Oh, I was in awe of this place! I couldn't pic a favorite, so here are a couple! Notice the star in this one.

I was so excited about the scenery and my husband was so excited about the coy fish swimming around in the pond, so he fed them while i took like 50 shots of this place. We were two content hearts.

Night shot of Bianchi Winery.

The last shot I'm going to show you is of the last winery we went to..it wasn't that great, but then again, we got there right before closing time, so the girl was trying to rush us through. I didn't get any pics of the indoors, but here is a shot of the outside.

What a great day it was! Full post on Hearst Castle and surrounding areas coming soon!