sulis fudin chelsea: Morro Bay and Beyond...

If you're ever in San Luis Obispo I would definitely recommend staying at the Hostel Obispo. They have a free sourdough pancake breakfast every morning and everyone staying/working/hanging out at the hostel is super nice.

So needless to say I left SLO today with a tear in my eye but was looking forward to the trip ahead...

The small fishing town of Morro Bay was my first stop and it proved to be an inspiring one at that!

Here's some photos I took while cruising around town in the rain:

This shot was taken while I was walking along a dock filled with retired fishing boats...

I almost crashed my car when I spotted this shop from the road.

The sign is from an original 1950's Shell Station.

The shop itself is pretty funky. The attendant was a friend of the owner and he told me the founding story:

To sum up, the owner's father was a fisherman and would bring home shells to his kids so his son started selling them to tourists! Thus began the Shell Shop.

OBSESSION: gigantic anchor outside of Shell Shop.

Clearly the beach needed to be highlighted as a main attraction to the town. Picture standing on the rocks overlooking this incredible view with a heavy wind blustering through your coat and tossing your hair around your face...

My next stop after persuading myself to finally leave Morro Bay was Hearst Castle. I knew this would be a destination along the trip so I was pretty excited. Here's a montage of photos from the tour:

This was taken from the observation patio before the bus trip up to the Manson. They had those big yellow telescopes that you have to pay 50 cents to operate so I decided to immortalize the experience with a photo.

THE NEPTUNE POOL. Dear God someday I will swim in that oasis of lavish splendor.

So spectacular...

Besides being a collector of fine art, William Randolf Hearst had an extensive collection of beautiful garments which he generously lent his guests when needed. He provided them with anything from an evening frock to a bathing suit to one of his 200 furs...

What a classy guy.

OBSESSION: Hearst was a ketchup lover and kept his dining room table properly adorned with a BOTTLE of KETCHUP!!!!

As it should be...

I fell in love with this heavenly light fixture in the Castle's theater.

This is the indoor pool. The stairs going into the pool are made of marble and the gold tiles in the floor are actually 14 karat gold covered with glass.

Pretty amazing...