Where we live now, since we moved down here to our new home some 7 months ago, is a peculiar spot at the deep southern end of south Orange County. As we motor down from our hill side home and get on the I-5 freeway, going north by two exits, we reach downtown San Juan Capistrano; going south by one exit, we enter the city of San Clemente; and if instead of ramping onto the freeway, we zip through the freeway underpass, we are right at the heart of the beach and harbor district of the city of Dana Point.
Starting with the official new hometown of mine, the city of San Juan Capistrano, a somewhat wordy name that came from an even wordier one, "Mission San Juan Capistrano," the settlement set up by the Spanish priests back in 1776, the same year the United States declared its independence on the east coast. The name literally means "Saint John of Capistrano," in honor of a "warrior saint" born in a little central Italian town called Capestrano (which is now a sister city of San Juan Capistrano) who led Christian soldiers to fight off Muslim Turks in medieval Europe.
San Juan Capistrano is on record the oldest community of Orange County, and true to that title it has quite a few historic landmarks in town, such as the vintage railway station that Amtrak and Metrolink still make daily stops at, some over 200-year-old adobe houses that are the oldest continuously living residences in the state of California, and of course that world famous tourist attracting old Mission compound (which, unsurprisingly, contains a chapel that is the oldest continuous functioning of its kind in California), as well as a neat and robust old town district where you can stroll antique and artifact shops and enjoy great Italian, Mexican, or American food in one of a dozen cozy restaurants, cafes, or tea houses along the unpretentious city blocks and well-preserved old-time neighborhood alleys, all within minutes' reach.
If you are like me, you probably heard of the city of San Clemente long before you even set foot on the United States. It is the city where former President Richard Nixon kept an ocean side mansion that was nicknamed "Western White House" where he took break from Washington and entertained international dignitaries and heads of states such as Soviet Premier Brezhnev during the Cold War era. Indeed San Clemente is yet another "ancient" city of Orange County that holds the title of the first planned community in the state of California, way earlier than Irvine, Mission Viejo or the like. It was all based on the vision of one man, Ole Hanson, who was a retired mayor of Seattle who drove by the sea side of present day San Clemente in the 1920's and decided to create a "Spanish village by the sea". All street names are in Spanish, and all houses must have red tile roof and white exterior walls, according the original city ordinance.
I used to drive past the city on the freeway and see it as just that last city of Orange County before I hit the San Onofre nuclear power plant and the San Diego County line. But once I took time to ride its local streets, visit its downtown, and even go to its little Episcopal church for weekly meditations, I begin to sense its small town charm and why people here want to keep things the way it is (no toll road extension wanted here).
Stop by their downtown one late Sunday morning, park your car, browse through some shops or farmer's market stands or art festival booths that they occasionally host, then walk a few blocks down the beach to have a sea side brunch, (or turn the other side to tour the old mansion of Ole Hanson's and learn some city history), watch people surf and angle fish at the pier, then if you feel like it, walk down a beach-side trail a couple miles all the way to the San Onofre State park... You get a pretty good picture of what the city is all about.
Dana Point is yet another quiet little town along the Pacific coast, where local ranchers used to trade cow hides for merchandise brought in from the east coast by the sail ships, one of them carrying a young Harvard law student named Richard Henry Dana—from whom the city got its namesake, who wrote in his journal that the ocean bay he saw here was "the only romantic spot" along the whole North American west coast he had traveled through during the 1830's.
I've been to Dana Point harbor a few times before I moved down here, going deep sea fishing or roaming along its marina, like many people do. But since we moved down here, I found out it actually has a couple of nice trails along its headlands, as well as a few nice little parks with great scenic views that the occasional visitors won't know about. As a result, my very indoorsy, city-girl wife are now happily joining me for walks along these beautiful routes once every other weekend, sacrificing and separating herself from her beloved soap operas on TV and Internet. That's a miracle!
On that I end my tale of three cities.
