Castle on the Hill | Hearst Castle, San Simeon

I’ve always wanted to live in a castle, just ask my parents. Growing up, we’d often drive past a stone house with a turret, and I’d point excitedly at the home and tell my family matter-of-factly that this would be my house someday.

At twenty-one with no idea what I want to do with my life, my childhood dream to live in a house with a turret and a rose garden fit with hedge arches is still a distant dream, a “maybe someday.” And though it’s become more important to me to become the type of princess who can save herself than the type of princess who lives in a castle (if I were to be a princess at all), you’re never too old to play make believe.

So make believe is exactly what I did.

Hearst Castle

Surrounded by the world’s art, marble statues, gaudy interior decor, and the breathtaking architectural design of Julia Morgan (the first woman to hold and architect’s license in the state of California, UC Berkeley alumna, and absolute legend), it’s hard not to feel regal at Hearst Castle. I imagined myself sleeping in tapestry draped bedrooms, watching early films in the velvet-clad movie theater, and enjoying a meal in the medieval inspired dining room.

If media mogul William Randolph Hearst could live this way, then maybe my media studies degree would actually help me land my childhood dream…

San Simeon

However, we all know this princess does things a little differently, and the highlight of the trip wasn’t the castle at all; it was San Simeon Creek Campground. After making my dinner over the open flame of the campfire, I followed a short trail and found myself on a breathtaking beach, unspoiled by human development and scattered with drift wood. I stood there for a while, marveling the vastness of the ocean and the gorgeous sunset that played out in front of me before walking the short four minutes back to my tent to roast marshmallows and turn in for the night.