Day 8: Pasadena - San Simion

Well we finally bid Pasadena goodbye today, and began our American road trip.
We started out towards the coast and then took the main highway north. Our drive was primarily on a freeway, but the view outside was actually rather interesting, at times going beside rugged valleys (further inland).
Our drive (including lunch) took about 4 hours but we finally arrived in San Simion, and our motel: Sands by the Sea. We were a bit wary of this name, thinking surely this would not in fact be directly on the beach, but happily it was.
However, the beach as we discovered soon was very cold, winds blowing straight off the Pacific Ocean (if we looked in the right direction the nearest land was New Zealand). However the wildlife made up for the bone chilling wind, with small black birds we could not identify, and large amounts of brilliant Hawks, hunting through the sands. A walk further down the beach revealed also a tree full of crows and spectacular views.
Soon after this we set off towards our main attraction for the day: Hurst Castle.
This castle, located 3 miles up the road from our hotel, lies at the top of a large hill, was created by Randolf William Hurst in the 1920s - 40s was based on the castles of Europe he had witnessed at the age of ten. In its own time it was the home of both Hurst, sometimes his wife, various famous guests and Hurst personal Zoo (which included Zebras, Polar Bears, Lions, Leopards and many more intriguing animals). The house/castle itself had two swimming pools (the inside one paved partially in gold), and over a hundred rooms, as well as many old statues (the earliest from 3000 years ago) and artworks, some specially made for the house.
It was a truly amazing structure made by a rather odd man (the latter was tried to smooth over in a movie afterwards).
By the end of our tour and the movie on the huge screen it was close to dinner, so we picked up a rather lacking microwaveable dinner from the dairy and took this back to the motel.
After this we had a further work on the beach (seeing flying a group of Pelicans, a first for myself), and then had a swim in the indoor pool.
Tomorrow we look forward to getting to San Francisco, as we continue up the coast of California.