• Support
  • Advertise
  • Locations
  • Contact
Wednesday, February 8, 2023
No Result
View All Result
NEWSLETTERS
San Clemente Times
  • Calendar
    • Event Calendar
    • Submit an Event
  • Sections
    • Eye on SC
    • Soapbox
      • Submit a Letter
    • Getting Out
    • SC Living
    • Sports & Outdoors
    • SC Surf
    • Dana Point Times
    • Capistrano Dispatch
  • Digital Edition
  • Best of SC
  • Explore SC
  • Legals & Classifieds
    • Locals Only Business Directory
    • Classifieds
    • Submit a Classified
    • Obituaries
    • Announcements
    • Submit an Announcement
    • Legal & Public Notice Advertising
  • Special Publications
    • Money Matters
    • Best of San Clemente
    • A New You
    • Aging Well – For the Young at Heart
    • Crib to College
    • Festival of Whales Event Program
    • Holiday Happenings & Gift Guide
    • Triton Football Preview
    • Go See Do
    • The Green Issue
  • SC Guide
  • Real Estate
    • South County Real Estate Guide
    • Real Estate – Who’s Who
  • Calendar
    • Event Calendar
    • Submit an Event
  • Sections
    • Eye on SC
    • Soapbox
      • Submit a Letter
    • Getting Out
    • SC Living
    • Sports & Outdoors
    • SC Surf
    • Dana Point Times
    • Capistrano Dispatch
  • Digital Edition
  • Best of SC
  • Explore SC
  • Legals & Classifieds
    • Locals Only Business Directory
    • Classifieds
    • Submit a Classified
    • Obituaries
    • Announcements
    • Submit an Announcement
    • Legal & Public Notice Advertising
  • Special Publications
    • Money Matters
    • Best of San Clemente
    • A New You
    • Aging Well – For the Young at Heart
    • Crib to College
    • Festival of Whales Event Program
    • Holiday Happenings & Gift Guide
    • Triton Football Preview
    • Go See Do
    • The Green Issue
  • SC Guide
  • Real Estate
    • South County Real Estate Guide
    • Real Estate – Who’s Who
No Result
View All Result
San Clemente Times
No Result
View All Result

CoastLines: Where in the World Are We? Let’s Take a Look

Staff by Staff
September 10, 2020 4:05AM
in SC LIVING, SC Living Headlines
CoastLines: Where in the World Are We? Let’s Take a Look

A new day dawns on San Clemente and on California’s West Coast as viewed from the pier. Photo: Fred Swegles

0
SHARES
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
Fred Swegles

By Fred Swegles

Wherever you live, chances are you don’t realize how special your hometown might appear to someone visiting from afar.

I tried to convey that sense in a column last week. I invited readers to walk out onto the platform on the end of the San Clemente Pier, turn around and behold the vast North American continent.

It’s an awesome sight.

See, and you just thought you were gazing at the San Clemente waterfront. There’s actually a much bigger picture, easier to notice if you’re visiting from afar.

Gazing in the opposite direction, from the end railing of our pier, pause to ponder just how vast the Pacific Ocean is.

We view it daily. No big deal. We might glance out at Catalina Island or San Clemente Island, but how far do you suppose that ocean before you reaches beyond the horizon, to the nearest landfall along our latitude, 33.4 North? Maybe Shionomisaki Lighthouse, Japan?

Then what’s past Japan, farther around the globe along our latitude? A web search tells me that Kashmir and Casablanca are about the same latitude as we are. So is the Atlantic beach town of Pawleys Island, South Carolina.

This is Isla Cozumel’s colorful interpretation of an international milepost, in Mexico. Photo: Fred Swegles

OUR PLACE ON EARTH

Wouldn’t it be fun to display a mileage signpost out on the pier, pointing toward places like Sydney, Singapore, the South Pole, Tanzania, London, Moscow or Iceland?

You could list the number of miles out to San Clemente Island, maybe note another San Clemente, maybe the Philippines’, Argentina’s or Chile’s.

An arrow at pier’s end could point to Mainland USA, 1,296 feet away.

I’ve seen international milepost markers at places such as Mexico’s Isla Cozumel, Massachusetts’ Nantucket Island, Mojave Desert’s Barstow, England’s Lowestoft and Florida’s Key West.

Touristy mileposts are fun-looking—or maybe too garish for our pier. There might be a backlash. Or not.

If you dared to erect a funky, colorful one like Cozumel’s, I suppose you could make it less outlandish by hiding it behind the pier restroom. There are wooden planks, outside the railing, where you could perch it.

It wouldn’t be visible from the Pier Bowl, or walking out on the pier. You’d only see it on the return walk, looking left, beyond the railing. My guess is pier walkers would enjoy it, a conversation piece.

Some people would take selfies with it, as I’m sure some do with a playful octopus caricature the PierPride Foundation recently unveiled on the restroom’s wall facing the deck.

Here’s how Tlaxcala, Mexico, shows visitors where they’re standing on Earth. Photo: Fred Swegles

SOME OTHER OPTIONS

If a milepost “tree” strikes you as too gaudy, another option is a discreet wall painting like Nantucket did. The pier restroom’s blank wall that faces out to sea would do nicely.

Lowestoft, said to be England’s most easterly town, has a circular mileage display along its waterfront. You can only see it by looking down. It’s built into the ground.

Lowestoft, England, displays a circle of mileages, set onto the ground. Photo: Fred Swegles

You could do a smaller version on the deck at the end of the pier. Lowestoft’s also notes the direction of sunrise on the summer solstice.

Another option could be to put small, inconspicuous plaques at intervals along the end-of-the-pier platform’s railings, noting distances in various directions, with arrows.

Or maybe do none of the above. I’ve seen this done elsewhere. Maybe it’s not appropriate on our pier, too much tinkering.

I’m just suggesting there’s a sense of place that visitors from afar—and, yes, even we locals—can identify with, walking out onto our pier.

HOW AWESOME IS THIS?

I’ll never forget the southern tip of India, at Kanyakumari, where three bodies of water meet—the Bay of Bengal, the Arabian Sea and the Indian Ocean.

To the locals, no big deal. To me, just standing there was awesome.

Another time, I stood on a cliff at the southern tip of Africa, where the warm waters of the Indian Ocean meet the frigid waters of the Atlantic. Unforgettable.

Same rush as immersing my toes on the sandy, finger-like tip of Cape Cod, Massachusetts.

Locally, some 45 years ago, I got to witness a jaw-dropping moment—school children from the Navajo Nation arriving here, hundreds of miles from the desert, by bus to discover the Pacific Ocean. I got to photograph the reactions—not just that impossibly big body of water, but the delight of hopping over waves gushing onto shore, another new experience.

Nantucket Island, Massachusetts, uses a painted display to give visitors a sense of place. Photo: Fred Swegles

SOUTHERLY WONDERS

Key West, Florida, has a monument proclaiming the southernmost point in the continental United States. It’s a magnet for tourists.

I mentioned Key West ’s distinction in my column last week, but—oops—I forgot to include the word “continental.” A reader kindly pointed out my omission, particularly embarrassing when discussing sense of place.

As the reader noted, Naalehu, on the Big Island of Hawaii, is the southernmost town in the 50 states, and Futiga, American Samoa, is the southernmost town in a U.S. territory.

I visited both the Big Island and American Samoa decades ago but didn’t notice—I didn’t go there seeking such distinctions.

Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam and American Samoa all are places I’ve visited south of Key West that have American ZIP codes.

All could be candidates for a “Where in the World” display along our waterfront. If not on the pier, perhaps elsewhere. Or not at all. Just in the mind.

Fred Swegles is a longtime San Clemente resident with five decades of reporting experience in the city. Fred can be reached at fswegles@picketfencemedia.com.

Share this:

  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)

Related

Tags: CoastLinesFeaturedOrange CountyPacific OceanpierSan ClementeSan Clemente PierTravel
ShareTweetPin
Staff

Staff

Related Posts

Operation T.A.C. Heading to State After Claiming Regional Championship

Operation T.A.C. Heading to State After Claiming Regional Championship

February 8, 2023
CoastLines by Fred Swegles: Say It Ain’t So, Mr. President!

City to Honor Late Fred Swegles with Photo Display in City Hall

February 8, 2023
San Clemente Boys Soccer Starts Fast, Beats San Juan Hills to Keep South Coast League Tight

San Clemente Boys Soccer Earns No. 4 Seed, Four SCHS Teams Slotted in CIF-SS Playoff Brackets

February 6, 2023
Editor’s Pick: 45th Annual San Clemente Ocean Festival

Council to Discuss Photo Display for the Late Fred Swegles

February 6, 2023
Next Post

CIUDAD DE SAN CLEMENTE:AVISO DE NOMINADOS PARA CARGO PÚBLICO

Discussion about this post

No Result
View All Result

SC Times Daily
Get important news and updates delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up here.

Subscriptions
Don’t get the SC Times delivered to your home? Subscribe today.

Advertising
Get new customers and drive traffic to your business. Advertise with us.

Support Local Journalism
For less than the cost of a couple of cups of coffee a month, become an “Insider” member and continue to get “Local News You Can Use” from the only independently owned, dedicated local news organization in South Orange County.

Contribute today.

Picket Fence Media is a proud member of the SoCal Media Network.

  • Archive
  • Contact Us
  • Dana Point Times
  • The Capistrano Dispatch
  • Terms of Use
  • About Us

© 2023 Picket Fence Media

No Result
View All Result
  • Calendar
    • Event Calendar
    • Submit an Event
  • Sections
    • Eye on SC
    • Soapbox
      • Submit a Letter
    • Getting Out
    • SC Living
    • Sports & Outdoors
    • SC Surf
    • Dana Point Times
    • Capistrano Dispatch
  • Digital Edition
  • Best of SC
  • Explore SC
  • Legals & Classifieds
    • Locals Only Business Directory
    • Classifieds
    • Submit a Classified
    • Obituaries
    • Announcements
    • Submit an Announcement
    • Legal & Public Notice Advertising
  • Special Publications
    • Money Matters
    • Best of San Clemente
    • A New You
    • Aging Well – For the Young at Heart
    • Crib to College
    • Festival of Whales Event Program
    • Holiday Happenings & Gift Guide
    • Triton Football Preview
    • Go See Do
    • The Green Issue
  • SC Guide
  • Real Estate
    • South County Real Estate Guide
    • Real Estate – Who’s Who

© 2023 Picket Fence Media