My parents visited this past Labor Day weekend for their annual trip to Los Angeles, and we had big plans: a long-awaited trip to Hearst Castle. It’s a place we skipped on our childhood visits to the west coast so my sister and I were especially eager to explore the area.

The 3.5 hour drive to San Simeon offers gorgeous views of the California coastline.

We check in at the Visitor’s Center and watch the recommended 40 minute video Hearst Castle: Building the Dream. It’s less about William Randolph Hearst’s life/career and more about his travels in Europe as a young boy. While visually stunning (and surely expensive to shoot: it was filmed in many European countries), we walk out of the theater not knowing much more about the man behind the castle than we did before. Luckily we are able to tease out more information about the illustrious Hearst over the three available tours.

We climb aboard a bus for the five-mile trip to the Castle itself. The bus ride features narration by Alex Trebek and points out highlights on the way up the hill.

Hearst Castle was designed by architect Julia Morgan, the first licensed female architect in California. While she designed over 700 buildings in her lifetime, the crown jewel of her career is La Cuesta Encantada (The Enchanted Hill), better know as Hearst Castle.

We embark on the Grand Rooms Tour first. You can find all of the Hearst Castle Tours here — they offer a few seasonal ones that sound great. We are bummed to miss the Evening Tour, which is only offered in the spring and fall; people walk around dressed in period costumes as though you’ve gone back in time to one of Mr. Hearst’s famous parties. It would also be fun to experience the holiday decor and festivities at Christmas.

First stop on the tour is the Assembly Room, which is essentially a giant living room:

Next up is the Refectory, which is a fancy word for dining hall. Mr. Hearst required all of his guests to eat here; room service was not an option. Even Winston Churchill’s request for a pot of tea delivered to his cottage was denied.

We move on to the Billiards Room…

And finally visit the Movie Theater, where cinephile William Randolph Hearst (that’s starting to sound too formal… how about Willie?) hosted mandatory screenings every night for his guests.

At this point the tour concludes and we are free to roam the grounds until the property closes for the evening. We take our time checking out Willie’s gardens.

Who are we kidding? All we really want to see is the Neptune Pool!

Conveniently, there are lounge chairs so you can make yourself at home poolside, which is exactly what my sister and I do.

Our parents manage to pull us away from the lounge chairs to continue our walk around the property, although I contend that Hearst Castle is worth the price of admission alone to spend all day relaxing by the pool with a good book.

What a view! Our Willie was a lucky guy to wake up to this panorama every morning.

A family shot:

We finish the day at Hearst Castle’s stunning Roman Pool. What I wouldn’t give for a quick dip in that sapphire water…

Check out this impressive tile work:

The buses run from the Roman Pool back to the Visitor Center. Keep an eye out for zebras (!) on the ride down… Willie used to own a zoo on the property, but after his death it grew too expensive to maintain so the family released some animals into the wild (others were donated to various zoos). So if you spot a black-and-white striped horse galloping in the hills of San Simeon, it might actually be a zebra.

We rest up in nearby Moonstone Beach in preparation for tomorrow’s tours of the Upstairs Suites and Kitchen & Cottages. Stay tuned!