Hearst Castle

We had a tough, 5-hour drive from San Francisco to Hearst Castle. Bryn spit up as soon as we stopped for lunch, and then, upon reaching Hearst Castle, the poor thing threw up all of her lunch. Bryn had gotten carsick once before on the way to Aunt Jeannie's', but we've done many other long trips without her getting car sick. Sigh.
As it turns out, Hearst Castle, on the National Register of Historic Places, wasn't a place to take the kids. We didn't do the indoor tour because you're not allowed to touch anything -- an impossible instruction for a three-year-old. We did walk around the grounds, which included lots of fruit trees and gigantic hydrangea blossoms, and Ken was most impressed by the 5-mile-long driveway. The Castle is set among Hearst's 250,000 acres, and we saw zebras roaming freely that had been part of Hearst's private zoo.
That night we stayed at a charming inn in Morro Bay; we could have spent a full day in the small town if we had had more time. We saw some sea lions from a distant, and the innkeeper said the bay is full of sea otters, too, although we didn't see any. Morro Rock

The next morning we continued our drive to San Diego. Luckily, we were able to find Dramamine for Bryn, and she didn't experience any additional car sickness. The highlight of the drive was playing the license plate game in which the kids put star stickers on a map of the U.S. whenever we spotted a car from a different state. By the trip's end, we had spotted cars from a whopping 38 states! Another popular past time, aside from Scooby Doo, was "This or That." Which do you prefer? Ice cream or cupcakes? The zoo or the aquarium? We ran into horrible, bumper-to-bumper traffic around Los Angeles at 1:00 in the afternoon, and more as we approached San Diego. Next time we are flying.