We woke up this morning to sunshine and 68 degrees, 10 degrees warmer than of late! The warmth and the sunshine were both very much appreciated! We decided to head to Hearst Castle to see if we could change our reservations to today. KC called to get information on where the visitors center was and how to get there from the anchorage we were in as we had been told that buses ran from the area we were in. Come to find out the reservation center is nowhere near the area and the gal helping KC had never been here so we were on our own. The only pier in the bay is a fishing pier which is about 30' off the water; as none of us were willing to shinny up one of the pilings we elected to go to shore in the surf. We'd heard that it could sometimes be hard to land on shore here due to the surge so we spent a bit of time watching the waves crash on shore planning our line of attack! It worked! KC brought us in like a professional, only one hitch, the motor didn't want to tilt but we still landed with aplomb and stayed dry (many folks on shore watching our attempt).

Our lucky day. Once on shore with the inflatable secured to some drift wood we could see that the road to Hearst Castle was directly across the way. The visitor center was only 1/2 a mile hike up the hill. We were able to change our reservations for the 2 tours we wanted to take and thank goodness they bus everyone from the visitor center to the top of the hill as it was a very windy 5 mile road, all uphill. The place is truly and absolutely awesome. I had no idea any one person could own or have so many works of art and this was only one of Hearst's 30 homes! There were 2 swimming pools, the smaller pool was probably around 7500 square feet; the larger, indoor swimming pool was tiled in 1" squares, not just the bottom, but the sides and all of the walls, floors and ceiling, it was amazing. I can't even begin to explain all of the wood work, some of it original and other parts made by artisans he employed. If you've been there before sorry to bore you, if you haven't ever been there and you get a chance to, it is definitely worth your time.

Okay, so we've seen Hearst Castle, spent the better part of the day there, and we walk back down to the beach to pick up the dinghy and head for "home". The dinghy and our life jackets are still where we left them (at the furthest part of the beach), which is a good sign. As we're walking down the beach we all start watching the waves we are going to have to go out on and surfs up! We put our game plan together as we're watching the 2-3' waves crash on shore. Becca goes in the bow, I'm on the rowing seat and the two guys are going to push us out and then jump in so KC can start the motor when we're deep enough while I keep us into the waves with the oars. Needless to say, the plan went slightly awry! We ended up getting hit by three different curling waves, the last one of which filled the inflatable about 1/3 way full of water. Kris was a great bailer, using a canvas bag! We made it back to the boat really quite easily, all of us still laughing and wet, just another adventure!