Cause you love those seals!

HEARST CASTLE

What the common folk down below see looking up top on the "enchanted hill"

So a trip to the southern section of Big Sur wouldn't be complete without popping in to see the rich, grandeur of Hearst Castle.  William Hearst waited til both his parents passed, and he gained full control of the property and family moneys to start building this "ranch". It took almost 30 years, underwent many renovations along the way, such as expanding the outdoor swimming pool twice.  There are still a few unfinished parts, but overall, it is nuts.  So much of Europe and past histories are there, along with ornate designs built under a century ago.  Truly a gem, it is worth the stop on any California trip.  If you are in the area, that is.  Not exactly close the main spots in the state, it is often the focal point of trips, as well as the elephant seal sanctuary nearby.  Here are some pictures:

La Casa Grande, his house on the hill.  Spanish church styled bell towers are easy to see from all over

Casa del Sol, known for epic sunsets over the ocean.  Yes, this is one of 3 guest houses

Palms, blue skies, and California's largest private home

Busty!

The infamous Neptunes Pool, twice enlarged and now under a new renovation

One of the wildmen guarding the front door to La Casa Grande

Average dining room in California

Private theater that seats 50.  Watched some home videos with Charlie Chaplin and other famous people from the 1930s

Sekhment, an ancient Egyptian god with the head of a lioness and bust of a woman.  Oldest art on the premises

Hola!

The indoor swimming pool, underneath the tennis courts.  He designed it so you dive into the night sky, and then come up into the beach, a reverse of sorts

More Big Sur pictures

Hola amigo!

Along the southern end of Big Sur is the Piedras Blancas Elephant Seal Rookery, where you are literally just 20 feet away from the seals.  They're a stinky, noisy bunch who spend most of their time soaking up sun, playing in the water and wrestling with each other (mostly the males).  The beach was packed with them, some lying around right on top of each other, and others scrapping on the beach.  Watching their bodies jiggle with their blubber dancing was quite entertaining as was the show the males put on when they wrestle/fight with each other, chest bumping and growling.  Even the youngsters got into it.  Quite the show!

Can't beat the sun setting into the Pacific Ocean

View from where I parked the car for the night

Redwoods make it through fires and keep going up!

Morning sun coming up along Highway 1

Rugged Point art

Piedras Blancas Elephant Seal Rookery

Elephant Seals doing what they do best

Baby elephant seals in the water

Big Sur is just as amazing as ever

A couple days off of work means a road trip.  This time, I headed back south to Big Sur, one of my favorite places in the world.  Such an epic stretch of wild, rugged coastline, full of booming waves, towering redwoods and some idyllic hikes.

Compared to when I was last down in the summer, there was very little traffic.  Meaning, smooth sailing and more time to just explore without the hassle of people everywhere.  One of the best parts of Big Sur is being away from everything, with no cell towers, telephone poles or anything within sight at most times.  Just you, and mother nature.

It was time for some hiking, some exploring, some road tripping and some good times.  Here are a few pictures from the last two days.  More to come soon.

Where Big Sur River meets the Pacific, along with my rented Toyota Prius

Morning coffee at the iconic Nepenthe Restaurant.  Well worth the price for that view

View from the drive south

A bench on the property of the local hermitage

Picture perfect

Sand Dollar Beach

Seascapes by Justus

Bit o rock out in the water

Halloween 2015

Imagine Rocky Balboa mixed with a unicorn.  That's what I was for Halloween this year.  Quite the fun time downtown, where everyone from the whole region comes to Santa Cruz.  From the early afternoon on, the street is closed off for people parading around, having fun and the little ones getting candy from the businesses.  The evening is still just as busy and a bit rowdier, but nonetheless, quite fun.  Here's a few snaps from the night:

Obama and the secret service!

Zombies awaking, look out!

And above is a video of the zombies arising to Thriller, by Michael Jackson

Another reason to love Shaquille O'Neal

Summertime fun

The days are flying by and although it still feels like summer in Santa Cruz, it is already mid September, the best time of year.  It was just my birthday and the weather has been amazing, with the summer traffic and visitors gone from the coast, it has become a locals town.  Small town beach vibe, with no traffic and lot of good vibes.  I thought I'd put up a few photos from the summer, out and about having fun in California.  Been a great one and it has no end of stopping.

Eric and Mary visit from Portland and we hit up the Boardwalk

Hiking in Big Sur with my housemate Cara

Hanging with good friends during my visit to Portland, here at the waterfront Beer Festival

Outside the community market where I work and get things smooth

Meeting Charlie Brown, the legend!

Driving through Sonoma County wine tasting with two Australian mates

Beer tasting up at Lagunitas Brewery

Keep squeezing that juice!

Round two working on the Zinfandel grapes entailed draining all the liquid out of the vat to be stored into 12 wine barrels.  It was quite the magenta bright purple color, not the average wine color.  Give it time, some oak barrel action and it might just get there.  Of course, in the tasting room they are still serving 2011 and 2012 varieties, so this won't be on the shelves any time soon.  But when it is, drink up a glass of Justus-made Zin!

Just liquid this time through

 After we got the liquid out, it was time to get the grapes out for pressing.  Not the easiest task, and definitely not automated.  Pretty much there were several hundred pounds still in there that had to come out and after using a rake and shovel to get over half out, it was time to go inside.  Shelly drew the short straw and climbed inside the vat, to move the grapes towards the opening where I could get them out.  She emerged later on, a wee bit pinker and smelling of that strong carbon dioxide that the grapes give off when fermenting.  Quite powerful to go with a slight warmth that emits from the grapes.

Time to get those grapes out!

After the manual labor to get the grapes out, it was on to the expensive grape presser from Europe that efficiently squeezes all the juice possible out of the grapes.  Efficient, but lengthy in time (1.5 hours), the machine filled up an extra 4 barrels of wine.  And what was left was just the grape skins, seeds and some stems.  Looked an awful lot like raisins, except not as sweet or juicy.

Presser in action

Wine anyone?

So when a friend asks if I'm free to help crush some grapes at a local winery, I hop on my bike and head over.  Just going with the flow, with images of stomping on grapes in the sun, wine squirting everywhere for a few hours.  Turns out, we'd be working in a huge warehouse full of wine vats, very industrial and the grapes I would be working with would be the infamous red, zinfandel.

Oh, and the amount of grapes we would be working with was over 7 tons.  That's over 14,000 pounds.  Not just a few hours work.  14 crates packed to the brim with zinfandel grapes, each weighing around 1,000 pounds. 

I would be working on the destemmer, taking stems, leaves and twigs out after the grapes had been run through a grinder and mixer, to separate the grapes from the vine and stems mechanically.  The grapes were dumped up top:

Then after working their way through, they would move via vibrations towards me, to use the human element to get what the machine couldn't.  The hours passed and it turned into an all day project, grapes being sorted, squished, destemmed and finally being dumped into a vat:

All in all, we yielded about 9,500 pounds of zinfandel to be turned into the first wine of the season.  Not all the rest was lost, as the juice that came off the processor will be turned into a rosé blend that will contain the juice of 3 grape varieties and be on the lighter, sweeter side.  Two 60 gallon barrels were filled up with the rosé grapes from today.

So that is what my day off turned out to be.  How was yours?

Zinny zin zin!

7 tons of zinfandel grapes ready to go