Cooling Off on the Coast-

Within a few hours, you can be at the ocean

An art instructor assists student artists in painting the Pacific coastline at Pacifica south of San Francisco. Photo: Steve Newvine

It’s been a selling point for the Central Valley for years: live here and you’re only a couple of hours from the ocean.

There’s more than eight-hundred miles of Pacific Ocean coastline in California. I’m been fortunate to have spent time at five locations along this span.

My first view of the Pacific was from a car crossing the Golden Gate Bridge into San Francisco. I had only been in the state a few weeks when a friend decided to take me on a poor man’s tour of the state.

That day included lunch at a Sausalito restaurant, a drive to a residential neighborhood where we thought exteriors from the Robin Williams movie Mrs. Doubtfire were filmed, and a drive-by past the Transamerica building.

All of it was exciting, although too brief to appreciate the beauty of the ocean and the thrilling prospects of the city by the Bay. In subsequent visits for work and pleasure, I had the opportunity to visit Alcatraz, see Major League Baseball games for both the Giants and the A’s, go on a scavenger hunt at the Oakland Zoo, and stay at the Fairmount Hotel where Tony Bennett first sang his signature song I Left My Heart in San Francisco.

The Bay Area of California opened up so many opportunities for me in the thirteen years I worked for a company whose home base was in San Francisco. For most of that period of time, work required me to travel there at least once a month.

A daughter lived in the Bay Area throughout those years, and she still does.

What I enjoyed most about those trips to San Francisco were the occasional lunches she and I would have in a little pocket park just off Market Street. Both of us were on tight schedules, so the time was precious and we made the most of it.

The Pacific Ocean is part of the view from one of the holes at Pacific Grove Golf Course. Photo: Steve Newvine

About an hour south of San Francisco, the Monterey area brings back a lot of fond memories on a number of levels.

The public beaches speak for themselves with the din of ocean waves washing up on shore.

There is something ephemeral about the nightly sunsets as I take in the limited time I have before the sun disappears from view.

Nearby in the pier region of Monterey, Cannery Row captures some of the imagery from John Steinbeck’s novels. I lost myself for what must have been the better part of an afternoon browsing in an antique store in Cannery Row. Surely other visitors to this or other stores in that neighborhood have done the same.

The Monterey Peninsula may be best-known for the Seventeen Mile Drive, the roadway that circles this patch of California.

Pebble Beach tops the list of world-renown courses on the Peninsula. While I have been on the grounds of Pebble Beach, I haven’t had the pleasure of playing a round on this iconic course. However, I have played the one course many of the locals play.

Pacific Grove Municipal Golf Links is unique for a number of reasons. The front nine holes are in a residential section of the City of Pacific Grove.

The back nine holes are along the coastline of the ocean. The front nine plays very much like a public course with the added benefit of deer near many of the greens.

You’ll see deer on the back nine as well, but the ocean view is the attraction here.

Throughout the back nine, here are areas of plant life that are marked with signs asking that golfers not tread into the vegetation due to the protective status.

A lost golf ball in these areas remains lost. The price is also a distinction. Green fees at Pebble Beach top over six-hundred dollars before cart and caddie fees. Green fees at Pacific Grove run in the fifty-dollar range with some breaks for twilight and junior players.

Pacific Grove is the poor man’s Pebble Beach. While not speaking for all golfers, my view of golf courses centers on how I feel about being on the landscape.

The views are important, but the people I meet, their stories from their experiences, the unique weather features such as ocean breezes or even an unexpected rain shower, are among the characteristics of a California coast golf outing.

That’s me taking a run on the Pismo shoreline years before I became serious about running. Photo: Newvine Personal Collection

About an hour north of Los Angeles, Pismo Beach is churning out California Dreamin’ memories.

The beach town holds a distinction of being the second venue where I experienced the Pacific Ocean. My wife and I were in the area returning from a trip to Solvang in the Santa Ynez Valley.

We got off the highway 101 freeway and made our way to highway 1, better known as the Pacific Coast Highway.

As you probably know, the Pacific Coast Highway runs north and south along most of the California coastline. It shares the name with portions of other highways and is known as State Route One.

The logo for the tourism agency for Pismo Beach. Image from ExperiencePismoBeach.com

We were not sure where the beach entrance was, but we saw a cluster of cars at a public park.

We decided to park there, ask around, and see what would happen. We found ourselves in The Pismo Beach Monarch Butterfly Grove. Thousands of Monarch Butterflies flock to Pismo State Beach as it is considered a place that’s essential to successful migration.

From late October to February, the butterflies cluster to the Eucalyptus trees throughout the Grove.

We were overwhelmed by the hundreds upon hundreds of Monarchs that seemed to cover every inch of the Eucalyptus trees.

According to the ExperiencePismoBeach.com website, there were an estimated twenty-two thousand Monarchs in the Grove during the Spring 2022 count.

Yes, they actually do something that looks like a count of the number of butterflies.

Tracking the numbers can provide information on how the species is doing from year to year. Grade school students from several districts made their way to the Grove to take in this true marvel of nature. We just happened to stumble onto it.

Thank goodness for serendipity.

We eventually found the beach and enjoyed a great day in the southern California sun. I have been fortunate to have returned to Pismo Beach several times in the nearly two decades I have lived in California.

As breathtaking as the beach view of the ocean can be, the experience of watching hundreds of butterflies flutter among the trees in the Pismo Beach Monarch Butterfly Grove is something that I will never forget.

Steve Newvine lives in Merced.

He thanks the members of the Merced Senior Club for supporting him as he competed in the Outrun the Sun 5 K to raise money for Planada flood relief.

Participants were told that over eight-thousand dollars was raised as a result of that event.

He’s working on a new book that will be a sequel to California Back Roads. His California books are available at the Merced Courthouse Museum gift shop and at Lulu.com

You Can Find it at Parker’s-

Hardware store closing after six decades in downtown Merced

Parker’s Hardware on 18th Street in Merced. Photo: Steve Newvine

The announcement was plain and simple.

A recent social media post read that after sixty-three years, Parker’s Hardware on 18th Street in Merced was closing. Sixty-three years is a great run for any business.

For a small hardware store in this age of big box home improvement centers, six decades is nothing less than phenomenal.

One customer wrote on Facebook, “I remember going there as a little girl with my dad. He always said if you can't find it anywhere else you can find it at Parkers.”

Another person, not on social media, lamented, “You go to those big stores and you’ll spend way too much time finding what you’re looking for. It can be very frustrating.”

Inside Harry’s Hardware from the TV comedy Home Improvement. Photo: ABC

The small hardware store has been part of Americana for over two centuries. Back in the 1990s, the television comedy Home Improvement added a hardware store to the mix of humorous locations where the characters of Tim and Al could be funny.

While the show played it for laughs, Harry’s was a place where folks could gather, buy all kinds of home supplies, and get some “how-to” advice.

The local hardware store in my hometown was an associate store for the Western Auto chain.

Growing up in upstate New York, I always felt the local hardware store seemed to have it all.

The Western Auto in my hometown had bolts, nails, tools and everything in between. I got my first fishing pole, model car kits, and even home versions of TV game shows from that store.

It was the same place my dad would buy paint and window caulking for the house, or where my mom would get light bulbs and floor wax.

All of it came from the locally owned hardware store in my hometown. As a young father, I took my daughters to a locally owned hardware store. I was interested in the tools. My girls were interested in the penny gumball machine near the front of the store.

Merced Mayor Matt Serratto sees a local retailer with such longevity as Parker’s as a treasure for downtown. “Locally owned businesses are the backbone of a community,” he said.

This big sign inside Parker’s Hardware notes the business has served Merced customers for sixty-three years. Photo: Steve Newvine

Two years ago, the Mayor, County Supervisor, and State Assemblyman, drew attention to family-owned retailers by staging a raffle and hot dog roast at the store. The event was also put on to welcome back to Merced Derek Parker, whose family used to own the business.

At the time, Derek moved back to Merced from Sacramento to accept the post as the City’s Fire Chief.

At that time, the Mayor said of Parker’s, “Few things in this world are cooler than an old-fashioned hometown hardware store.”

Efforts are underway now to find the next retailer who might occupy the space where Parker’s Hardware stayed in business in downtown Merced. Photo: Steve Newvine

After the store closes at the end of June, the focus will be on finding a new retailer to take over the space.

That will be a challenge as more retailers locate away from the downtown core.

But regardless of what becomes of soon-to-be former Parker’s Hardware, local customers can take some satisfaction in being part of the incredible six-decade run of this family owned business.

Local retailing has seen a lot of change in sixty-three years. To stay in that game for all those years speaks to the successful mix of giving customers what they need and keeping them coming back time after time.

To paraphrase the woman who remembers accompanying her dad to the store as a little girl, “you could find it at Parker’s.”

Steve Newvine lives in Merced.

His books Can Do Californians and California Back Roads are available for purchase at the Merced County Courthouse Museum gift shop. His new book, Rocket Reporter, is available at Lulu.com