“Buswoman’s Holiday”
By Jean Hastings Ardell
Enjoying the view of the sugar pines and live oaks I see a bobcat lope by. My perspective is the sitting room of the Sierra Sky Lodge, in the old gold mining and logging town of Oakhurst off Highway 41. In beginning this week’s column here, I’m following the recently established tradition of fellow columnists Michael Ray and David Weinstein to write about our summer vacations.
Late in July my husband and I set off on a driving trip up Highways 101 and 1 along the Central California coast and into the Sierra Nevada Mountains, a familiar and dearly loved itinerary. The vacation was an anniversary getaway – celebratory proof that a Republican and a Democrat can co-exist harmoniously for unto 40 years now. But it also turned out to be a busman’s holiday, a term that traces to 1893, in which you discover you’re doing much the same as you do back home in your work. This became evident when we paused at Gaviota State Beach, just before Highway 101 turns inland from the Pacific. Perched on the pier was a multitude of California brown pelicans, and I suddenly flashed back to 1970, when the birds had declined in number so severe they were placed on the Endangered Species List. Thanks, environmentalists, who fought and won the battle to outlaw the DDT that had threatened the birds’ existence.
We’d spent the night in Santa Barbara, where we dined in the hills overlooking this town of about 88,000 at El Encanto, testimony that upscale can still be low-key old California rather than glitzy. Despite real estate prices that rival Laguna’s, Santa Barbara has kept much of its character, the old bungalows down the hill testament that people cared enough back in the 1970s to protect the town’s ambiance. (Developers, please take note.)
We stopped in Cambria, a town of just over 6,000 residents that has also kept its charm. Reading the local “The Estero Beach News” revealed concerns common to Laguna—support for entrepreneurs in the time of COVID-19, for example. Notable in this paper was the creative reporting in the Police Blotter: “Brazen, and yet industrious, slimeball thieves stole catalytic converters off five cars….” while a two-car collision proved “the Roundabout – look left, turn right – proves too tough to navigate once again.” And on page 10, I appreciated the column “Good Dogma,” with its cool premise of covering all things canine—though this post noted that “the humans must be trained first.” So true.
North of Cambria, we joined the crowd of gawkers at Moonstone Beach, where the well-named lions of the sea joust among the rocks and lounge on the sand. Thank you, Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary, which runs from San Francisco to Cambria, and promotes environmental protection, stewardship, and ocean research. The increase of eel grass to Monterey Bay, and along with it the return of the fish that shelter in it, being a recent victory
The Carmel Pine Cone reported on the City Council’s decision to remove downtown’s parklets by Sept. 12, which brought protests from restaurateurs and their patrons. An ad hoc outdoor dining committee was formed, and its public survey reported that 59% of the respondents support leaving the parklets in place. How democratic. Like Laguna, Carmel suffers from the increase of second and third homes—such is the demand by affluent Texans to visit here that there are now daily flights out of Dallas to the nearby airport. The problem is the Texans don’t visit all that often, leaving numerous streets with perennially unoccupied houses. Sounds familiar. And if you think it’s perilous navigating Laguna’s streets during summer, step carefully in Carmel: The Pine Cone reported that one woman was struck by her car after failing to put it in park before exiting; while a pedestrian in a crosswalk was run over by the driver of a dump truck. Both survived.
We turned east toward Oakhurst, in the foothills of the Sierras, where The Mariposa Gazette ran this epigraph: “The mountains are calling and I must go.” – John Muir. His love for the Sierra Nevada and his advocacy for the preservation of Yosemite reminds us of the difference that one person can make. Maybe the Indy could adopt an epigraph?
Driving through Yosemite was a sober reminder of the wildfires plaguing California. Along the way we saw one burnt out hillside after another. At the crest of Tioga Pass, the current fire report noted that Yosemite had experienced 22 fires started by lightning.
Heading south on Highway 395 toward home I balanced the concern that California remains under siege by fire, drought, and rising tides with the thought that it’s the people and local newspapers in towns like Cambria, Carmel, Oakhurst, and Laguna whose passion and commitment sustains our sense of community. Let’s keep it up.
Jean is a Laguna Beach resident and member of the Third Street Writers.
