Princeton by the Sea

Story by John Vonderlin

Email John (benloudman@sbcglobal.net)

Hi June,

You probably have heard of “The Daisy,” the sailboat that sank off the Golden Gate?

One of the bodies washed up at Fitzgerald Reserve, and we’ve been nervous that the other body would turn up during one of our travels. Well, on Thursday we visited Invisible Beach ,and I found a broken, fancy teak door that hadn’t been in the water long.

(We also saw a sick Harbor Seal that we almost stepped on without disturbing it. It was breathing, but was unresponsive. Meg went back this morning to check on it– Marine Mammal Center usually isn’t interested unless they are wounded– and it was gone.

However, there were several more large pieces of a boat deck and cabin. There was also a Coast Guard Data Logger, (looks like a four foot long orange rocket) She dropped it off at the Pescadero Fire Station.

I just looked up an article on “The Daisy.” Sadly, it would seem the remnants are from it.

For Sfgate.com’s story on the tragedy of “The Daisy,” please click here

Where the Sand North of Half Moon Bay Goes

Story & Photos by John Vonderlin

email John (benloudman@sbcglobal.net)

Hi June,

At one point in an email you wondered where the sand from beaches in your area had gone. Here’s a few pictures of Secret Beach that offers part of the answer. It has some of the widest and most generously gifted-with-sand stretches I know of on our coast. I sure hope this resource can be opened up to the the public who don’t own kayaks. Enjoy. John

By June Morrall

The crowds were thick and upbeat in the lobby of the new Oceano Hotel & Spa at Princeton-by-the-Sea. On a drizzly Coastside evening, they were there to witness the long-awaited ribbon cutting ceremony, performed by jovial county Supervisor Rich Gordon.

The lobby was so busy that I couldn’t get a hard count on how many folks had come to celebrate with the Coastside’s Keet Nerhan, the man associated with the nearly completed project.

And in the middle of the festive mood, the loud conversations and t live music, I watched Keet Nerhan confidently walk through the jammed room, constantly stopped by well-wishers wanting to shake his hand and offer well deserved congratulations.

Remember that the Oceano Hotel & Spa is opening in the early stages of what appears to be a serious economic recession.

For Nerhan, reaching tonight’s ribbon cutting ceremony has been a long, hard journey (and I’m sure there’s a book in it), a project that has been in the works for decades (and one that famous developer Henry Doelger considered in the 1950s).

The Oceano Hotel &Spa is surely the most complex project Keet Nerhan has worked on in his entire career—and one has only to look at the attention to detail to appreciate the work..

The Oceano Hotel & Spa has impressive conference facilities that feature fine views of the harbor and Pillar Point. There’s a nautical theme throughout; for example, a model yacht placed above the fireplace and a variety of seashells used creatively. This motif is carried throughout the hotel

It’s not just a hotel, though; you must look up when you’re walking through the indoor shopping mall with its extraordinarily beautiful glass “roof.� No shops were open and I have no idea how many have been rented.

The restaurant-in-the-round, or so it looked to me, is an eye-catcher and I’m certain there are beautiful harbor views.

For little, Princeton-by-the-Sea, a harbor-fishing village with some 450 permanent residents, the Oceano Hotel & Spa is an amazing project bigger than anything else nearby. It will definitely become a venue for people and families hungry for something fun to do—close to home, easy on the gas tank–and that is why I feel it will be a success.

As for me, I hope that good take-out restaurants move in. As a superb blueprint, I’m thinking of the Ferry Building in San Francisco—where everything is fresh and comes from local farms and flower growers. We have that talent right here on the Caostside.

And I have never encountered a grumpy salesperson or moody waiter at the Ferry Building—They must give a congeniality test to all potential employees; everyone is so cheerful and loves what they are doing. I hope that’s what we get at the Oceano Hoel & Spa.

But the Oceano Hotel & Spa will have its supporters and its detractors, and the argument over what is appropriate for the Coastside will continue to be a bitter source of controversy

Cheers!

Where do you think “Biggies” was?

Some people wonder why I folded Miramar Beach into my “Princeton-by-the-Sea� book, published by Arcadia in December 2007.

The same critics complain that they feel Miramar was kind of stuck into a book about Princeton. They don’t see what the two places have in common.

In my mind, the two places are uniquely compatible. Picture this: with El Granada as a kind of watchdog, Miramar and Princeton look at each other, with an expanse of moody Pacific Ocean between them.

They are linked by historical events: the first primitive landing place for small steamers was located at Princeton; there men waded into the cool water to load and unload produce; the second arrangement was a much larger, more professional pier operation at Miramar.

Miramar and Princeton are linked by the search for an outlet, by the dreams of the Ocean Shore Railroad, the entertainment provided by the isolated roadhouses and the behind-the-scenes of prohibition.

In modern times, these two unique places, beach oriented, and protected for so long by lack of roads, is going through a change in life as suburbia catches up with both.

For me, it was important to link Miramar with Princeton-by-the-Sea because I had unearthed the lost story of the beatniks, who had lived in the Abalone Factory–and, at least on one occasion which happened to be a very hot day– “made the sceneâ€? at Pete Douglas’ Bach Dancing & Dynamite Society in Miramar.

The new material broadened the scope of the book allowing me to describe the arrival of Pete Douglas in Miramar, and the establishment of the jazz house called “the Bach,� coinciding with the North Beach beatniks leaving San Francisco to pursue their (non-mainstream) lifestyle at Princeton-by-the-Sea—which then was home to fishermen, auto mechanics and restaurant owners, folks who worked for themselves and determined their schedules.

Once I included the history of “the Bach� in the Princeton book, I felt free to include other artists who lived in Miramar.

Much has happened in tiny Princeton, which had a population of 300 in the 1930s–(a recent census estimates 450.) The layers of history include a Cannery Row, the seafood restaurants, the rumrunning, the military presence, the surfing, the drag racing, the beatniks and so on.  Similarly, Miramar Beach,  had a small population–and the two seaside towns still look at each other across the bay.