Friends | La Cuesta Encantada | Sonoma County Photographer

If you know me, you know I love being a mom. You know I basically revolve my entire life (or lack there of) around my kids. Well, not in the distant past, I finally was able to go exploring on my own. With a girlfriend in tow, well rather my chauffer, we headed down to the Central California Coast for a little R&R. We joked around as this is the vacation you always need after a vacation – the vacations she keeps taking (super jealous in a good way) and I don’t. My husband’s aunt lives in a quaint little beach town, Cayucos, Ca, that we frequent as much as we can, so I thought it would be the perfect little place to kick my feet up and dust the mom off of my shoulders for a few days. Waking up with zero plans, waiting until ten or eleven o’clock in the morning to do any kind of deciding, really, just going with the flow is just what the doctor ordered! We ate (a lot), we shopped, we laughed, we shared stories, we hiked, we played tourist, and we ate some more – no joke! On our last full day, we ventured up north a few minutes from where were staying to “La Cuesta Encantada” or The Enchanted Hill, otherwise known as Hearst Castle in San Simeon, Ca. What a glorious place! I remember very little about this place from when I last visited as a young child, but I do remember the pool! The views are breathtaking and the details are magnificent, you will even see zebras! Learning about William Randolph Hearst, a newspaper publisher, was quite a gentleman and actually advocated for women’s rights, even hiring many female reporters! His architect was the first certified female architect, Julia Morgan. Did you know she even designed the Greek Theatre at UC Berkeley and rebuilt the Fairmont Hotel after the 1906 earthquake? Needless to say, if you are ever on the Central Coast, take a tour, it supports our state parks. A bus ride up the hill and a few hours of your time will surely create some magic within. You will even see Hearst’s love for animals through the remains of polar bear cages and scattered wooden dwellings up and down the hill.

*Side note, that is my friend Jordan in the pictures - She’s so beautiful inside & out!