I have lived in Monterey County California for more than twenty years with a hiatus in Stuttgart, Germany for several years.
During this time, my family has kept a Christmas tradition of driving to Big Sur over the Christmas holiday to enjoy the scenery and support the local economy.
Our first stop is the gas station in Marina followed by Starbucks for hot chocolate, ice coffee with white moka, and warm, buttery croissants.
We listen to Christmas carols on the radio and complain about Carmel car congestion like everyone else. The radio begins to die out in the Carmel Highlands where the Santa Lucia Mountains creep in and you start to drive on a cliff, which drops down to the ocean.
When the radio dies out, we pull out a Mozart CD for our ride down the coast.
We have on of two destinations in mind depending on our finances: Nepenthe or Fernwood. Nepenthe is a little more expensive, because I always want to go to the gift shop and buy environmentalism books, Jack Kerouac or John Steinbeck books, French vanilla perfume, artisanal soap made from goat milk, and Putumayo folk song CDs for the ride home. Sometimes I even buy notecards with paintings done by owner Erin Gafill.
Fernwood, our other family outing choice, has a small motel behind it and a large bar in front of it. The bar is a locals spot with a large screen TV tuned to golf tournaments current and past. The wood paneling inside is redwood; Julia Pfeiffer State Park with its redwoods is close by.
Even the chargers for meals are redwood. Their best meal is the BBQ platter with chicken, ribs, beans, and coleslaw with sultana raisins. We have watched several hole-in-one shots while eating there as boisterous patrons yell, “Yeah. Yeah. Good shot!” and applaud.
Fernwood does not have a gift shop. It has a grocery store. As a child, Florence preferred Nepenthe for goodies. We had food at home.
I like Nepenthe’s food offerings. On a recent visit, you could still order a good meal using take-out and terrace seating during Covid-19 measures.
My husband Laurent and Florence ate steak and fries, and I ate a shrimp BLT (Bacon Lettuce Tomato) sandwich with pinto and garbanzo beans on the side along with coleslaw. We shared a cheese platter for dessert.
In the gift shop, I bought the book Waste and Want: A Social History of Trash by Susan Strasser, because Strasser wrote that almost everything was used in the 19th century that was produced; trash is a modern invention.
I noted that the ride to Big Sur was much smoother and wondered if recycled plastic bottles were being mixed in with the tar to lower the cost of paving there.
On the way home, we listened to more Mozart and watched hawks swoop down the cliffs to glistening slate water.
I finally feel after twenty plus years in Monterey County California that sunshine and warmth are normal for Christmas weather after growing up in freezing, cold Detroit, Michigan. Both communities, though, do share a common love for creating and promoting contemporary music often composed and rehearsed during the winter months.
By Ruth Paget, author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Europe’s Lessons: How and Why Europe is Beautiful
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| Ruth Paget Photo |
