Dining at Pebble Beach Golf Club by Ruth Paget

 Dining at Pebble Beach (California) Golf Club by Ruth Paget Dining at Pebble Beach (Monterey County – California) Golf Club with Juilliard Graduate Florence Paget by Ruth Paget

 When I first moved to the Monterey Peninsula more than twenty years ago, my mother’s cousin David Sawle from San Francisco emailed me and wanted to visit the area along with his sister from St. Helena outside Napa. 

 My mother told me that he had made a film and drove a Jaguar. So, stage mother Ruth Paget wrote back and said to meet me in the Embassy Suites parking lot in Monterey. I would find his car and take everyone including little Florence out to Pebble Beach. 

My boss at work checked to make sure I could go to the golf club. We arranged for a lot of catering there, and I was going during the week. Catering gave the go-ahead, especially as I described David as my mom’s rich cousin who published a weekly newspaper in San Francisco. 

On the appointed day, I picked up David and his sister with Florence in tow. We drove out to Pebble Beach. I had valet parking take care of the car. Inside the club the host led us to a table with a floor-to-ceiling window on the eighteenth hole of the golf course. 

I gave David the best seat for viewing players finishing up play. Tiger Woods says he does not like playing the Pebble Beach Pro-Am, because of all the wind from the ocean. Everyone here just wants him to be a celebrity. The kids love him and love shouting, “Tiger!” whenever they see him on the course. Golf is as avidly watched as football in Monterey County California. 

While we were deciding on our dishes to order, I pointed out the flag in the eighteenth hole to Florence. “If you can get a golf ball in that hole with the lowest number of hits, you can win a million dollars at the Pebble Beach Pro-Am Tournament,” I told Florence. 

Florence slid off her chair and looked outside. “You can buy a lot of lollipops with a million dollars,” I said to her. “You can make a million dollars with a film, too,” Florence remarked.

My mom’s cousin laughed and told Florence, “I produced and directed a film. I am getting distribution, so I can make a million dollars without golfing.” 

 “What’s your film about?” I asked in a room full of people who finance Clint Eastwood films. 

The logline for the rich cousin’s film follows: It’s a film about parking rage in San Francisco. People around us, who were pretending not to eavesdrop, started giggling. 

 Being a true stage mom, I asked, “Do you have any parts for a young and talented actress like Florence?” 

“Just let kiddo be a kid before applying to Juilliard,” he said. 

 Note: The parking rage in San Francisco film played at the Sundance Film Festival and David Sawle has produced and directed a second film. Check him out on IMDB – Internet Movie Data Base. 

Florence now goes with her friends to attend the Pebble Beach Pro-Am Golf Tournament and dine at the Bench and Roy’s deck. 

By Ruth Paget, author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Teen in China

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Visiting the Coast Gallery and Cafe with Juilliard Graduate Florence Paget in Big Sur, California with Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

Visiting the Coast Gallery and Café with Juilliard Graduate Florence Paget in Big Sur, California with Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

I first learned about the Coast Gallery and Café in Big Sur, California when I met Gary Woeppel, who was donating Marc Chagall and Henry Miller prints for a fundraiser at Congregation Beth Israel in Carmel, California.

Woeppel was the exclusive dealer for Chagall prints that documented his Jewish heritage in Russia and Paris, France.  He had prints of Chagall’s shtetl childhood in Russia as a Hasidic Jew as well as many bouquets for his wife Bella, wedding scenes, and a Moses-lying-down-the-law print that hangs in the Knesset in Jerusalem in Israel.

I had been asked to write a review of the Chagall exhibit fundraiser for the Monterey Country Weekly (Circulation: 200,000 now).  Woeppel was the former owner of the Monterey Country Weekly and a graduate of the University of Iowa writer’s program.  (I think he holds a PhD from the University of Iowa as does Pulitzer prize-winning author Jane Smiley, who is another PhD from the University of Iowa and a reclusive Monterey Country resident.)

Yes, I did ply Woeppel for some writing tips.  I also know my art history background was checked out with the University of Chicago by Woeppel before I could do a review of the fundraiser.  The Synagogue asked me to also do a presentation on the prints in addition to the review.

Gentiles from Detroit do know that being asked to speak at the Synagogue on art history is an honor.  I went through tons of art books at the Carmel Library in pre-Internet days to pull identification information on the prints.  I wrote a presentation and rehearsed it and agreed to an impromptu question-and-answer session after my presentation.

My presentation was geared to certain prints displayed in the exhibit. 

On the night of the presentation, I asked the Rabbi and Woeppel, “Where’s that print of the wedding scene?  I need it for my presentation,” I said.

“We sold all of them,” the Rabbi said. 

(“Time to regroup fast!!”)

“Well, I’ll look around and fill in with something else,” I said.  They had a print of Henry Miller with Anaïs Nin that I used to talk about love instead.

I did a very good presentation and liked being introduced as an “expert in iconography.”

During the question-and-answer session, someone asked, “Why did Chagall portray some of his sons as donkeys?”

“Chagall had a low opinion of several of his sons,” I answered to mirthful laughter.

I smiled and passed up fudge at the reception, because I knew I was Second City material!!

(There is a second Coast Gallery at the Lodge at Spanish Bay in Pebble Beach, California)

By Ruth Paget - Author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

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Going on an Astronomy Field Trip to Pebble Beach (CA) with Juilliard Graduate Florence Paget and Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

Going on an Astronomy Field Trip to Pebble Beach (CA) with Juilliard Graduate Florence Paget and Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

Note: The American Astronomical Society has many activities for K-12 students listed on its website - K-12 Activities from American Astronomical Society


I was beginning to eagerly await the parent packets that my daughter Florence’s Waldorf School sent home.  I read that my daughter’s class was going on a star gazing field trip to support work in the classroom on the topic and thought that sounded interesting. 

I volunteered to drive a carful of kids of from Seaside to Pebble Beach for the stargazing outing.  We arrived early to drive around and play on the rocks.  We finally drove to the appointed parking lot for our beach meeting point.  A blazing bonfire was burning on the beach.  The Pebble Beach golf links were behind the car.

The kids scampered down to the fire and got vegetarian marshmallows to roast.  The class mom handed me vegetarian graham crackers and chocolate bars to make ‘smores with roasted marshmallows.  They tasted great.

Florence’s teacher led the skygazing discussion.  He had a masters degree in education from Stanford and stayed with the class throughout their education according to the Waldorf model.

We began by locating Polaris, the North Star.  Florence’s teacher said the school was northeast from where we were.  He asked us to point to where the school was using Polaris.  Everyone wandered around until we reached a consensus on direction.  Teamwork begins early.

Next the teacher talked about the moon getting bigger (waxing) and getting smaller (waning).  He showed us the Milky Way Galaxy and fielded questions about UFOs and aliens.  He played shaman as well and pointed out the zodiac signs and told their stories.

Everyone was getting red cheeked and cold at this point.  We sat around the fire again and sang songs as we ate ‘smores.

I was actually getting eager to leave and helped put out the bonfire.  I was nervous the Pebble Beach CEO Clint Eastwood might show up at any time and shout, “Put the that bonfire out now, you ragamuffins.”

I got my car loaded up with kids and marshmallows for the trek home.  I noticed my gas tank was empty.  I could not find my way to an exit.  There are no streetlights in Pebble Beach and few signs to indicate exits.

The junior astronomers all told me, “Find Polaris, Ruth, to get to Country Club Gate.”  That gate was by their school and gas stations.

“Ask someone,” one of the kids remarked.

“Where?” I said as we drove through forest.

“There’s lions, tigers, and bears out there,” another kid remarked.

“Actually, they have mountain lions in Pebble Beach,” I said.  “Nobody is getting out of the car.  They have skunks here, too,” I said.

“Ew!” the kids said in unison.

My engine warning signal started beeping just as we found an exit – not the one I wanted, but I wanted out.  The road led through the forest to the freeway.  If I ran out of gas and blocked traffic, I knew the police would come.

We had mountain lion sightings on the way home.

“Did you see those orange eyes?!  Speed up, Ruth!” was a typical comment.

When we approached Seaside, the kids were wondering if lions came out during the Pro-Am golf tournament.

“They hide during the day,” I said.

“Pebble Beach is dangerous.  I’m glad we don’t have mountain lions in Seaside,” one of my little guests commented.

“We have coyotes where we live,” Florence remarked.

We dropped kids off at their homes.  I took Florence’s sleepover friends home and gave them some real food – delivery pizza.

Florence’s school focused on naked eye stargazing.  I wanted to do more than that at home.  One of my husband’s degrees is in physics and we wanted to amplify stargazing work.  We bought an equatorial mount telescope, and my husband showed Florence how to use it.

The sky by the coast is incredibly clear.  We used the sky maps in Rick Shaffer’s Your Guide to the Sky to identify constellations by season.

I had read E.C. Krupp’s books and found his book Skywatchers, Shamans, & Kings: Astronomy and the Archaeology of Power to be very useful in discussing astronomy in other cultures.

I showed Florence our globe and the area under the equator.  “The area under this line is called the Southern Hemisphere.  The people here see different stars and constellations, so they have different names for what they see and different stories,” I said.

We looked at images of observatory towers at in Macchu Pichu (Incan Civilization) and designs of astronomical symbols from the Mayan and Aztec Empires.

“People in power have always had control over who knows about the skies,” I said to Florence.

“For example, in China the emperor’s astronomers told him about the changes in seasons.  In spring, he would plant the first seeds to show that he was in charge of the country’s being fed.  Kings who knew astronomy like in Babylonia were called priest-kings,” I told her.

We went through more of Skywatchers, Shamans, & Kings and looked at Native American astronomical sites in California, Stonehenge in England, and Carnac in France.

“We also have to watch the sky to see if meteors are going to hit us,” I said.  “One of the theories about how the moon formed is that a meteor hit the earth and created the Pacific Ocean while the moon was put into orbit,” I told her.

“That’s scary,” Florence said.

“Not if you prepare for it,” I remarked.  “Studying science and math, which is the language of science, is very important for knowing how to deal with the skies.”

By Ruth Paget, Author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

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