Hmmm…I’m not sure if this will work. DeathLlama and I were definitely thnking about it; in fact, we drove through SLO on our way back from a stay in the Santa Cruz area and made note of “hey, that’s where the Dopers are meeting.” It’s about a 4hr drive for us.
The complication is we’re going to Del Mar the next day–that’s a lot of driving in a 24hr period. Give us some time to figure things out…other than that, consider us a strong “maybe.”
We did the Hearst Castle thing, btw, during one of our stopovers. Very cool. But I can say the tour was longer than 45min; we were told they last 75min, and it actually seemed longer than that. There are 4 different tours, too; there’s just too much to cover to possibility get it to fit in one.
Well, I harassed the other people who were interested again. I suspect i’ll get all no’s (since as of yet that’s all i’ve gotten for those who were on the mailing list).
But, i’ll give them til friday, maybe saturday to respond.
Here’s the schedule for the Coast Starlight. I’ll be on the Friday train, getting on at San Jose. Look for Ray-Ban aviators or a hat, I’ll be attatched to them.
With a heavy heart, I must change my “maybe” to a “no”.
One of my two assistants quit while I was enjoying my day off for the holiday, and I doubt I’d be able to find someone accomplished enough to help and take over for a weekend.
I’m still a pretty strong maybe, and so is virtee. We’re moving back East soon, but probably not till after July 30th. So I’m keeping my eye on this thread. And thinks, if we’re going, I could probably pick you up–SFO isn’t all that far from San Jose. So I’ll keep you all posted!
According to the AAA, you can reserve places on the Hearst Castle Tours by phone and “reservations are recommended.” If a lot of people are going to be interested, or even if only the ones who have mentioned it so far are going to be interested, we should probably call ahead. The tour costs $14 (don’t know if this is still accurate). I seem to be having trouble with the Hearst Castle website.
All right, once again I’ve been failing to visit MPSIMS and have fallen behind on these things, but count me in. I’m coming up from L.A. if anybody needs a ride. I’m interested in the Hearst tour too…has anybody set a time for that yet?
Ok, i’m up for the tour too. If the tour of Hearst Castle happens on saturday, it had better not run into the time for dinner :). So, let’s get a count of interested people for the tour.
Ok, i consulted with Pat. He’s going to call the restaurant tomorrow and make reservations (I HOPE everything works out there). Anyway, we figured we’d reserve for 30 people. This way if we dont get quite that many, they can always take tables away. Rather than not having enough seats for everyone.
Ok, Pat has made the reservation for 5 PM. He also said they want to make sure we are eating dinner and not just ordering appetizers and drinks. So all of you who are coming had BETTER order dinner (it’s the least we can do). Come hungry.
So, this means whenever the hearst castle tour is, we had better be back before 5 pm.
Okay, it looks like I am going to be coming. Anyone have any advice about the best way to get down there? AMTRAK or plane? And which comes closest to SLO? And…if I fly, could someone pick me up somewhere? Also…either one or two of my board friends will be coming too. So I hope you still have room for either 2 or 3 of us.
