Not long ago, on an absolutely warm and beautiful day, my wife, Joanne, and I journeyed to San Juan Bautista to visit La Casa Rosa. We have loved this restaurant for, at least, 20 years. They serve only three entrees: Old California, New California, or Chicken. (I am not going to explain. You have to find out.)
We came to celebrate our birthdays, mine one day before hers, and our favorite “La Casa Rosa” celebrated with us. And, as we mentioned that it was our birthdays, the owner celebrated with cake all around to those lunching.
This, La Casa Rosa, in San Juan Baptista, is a paradise point.
Another is some 50 or 60 miles south of Morgan Hill down Highway 101 and over Highway 152 or 156 to Highway 1, then to Monterey.
Just a block from the world renowned Monterey Bay Aquarium, we came to lunch at the First Awakenings restaurant, featuring only breakfast and lunch. Seating some 60 patrons at perhaps 15 tables outside on the patio, this particular ambiance has attracted us for years.
On this particular day, the weather enhanced the setting – warm and cloudless. The beach was but a block away.
We ordered our regular.
With complete contentment, we were served and received our lunch.
I ate in silence and awe. For me, could life not be more perfect? Here we sat in beautiful, warm surroundings, eating our most favorite lunch. Obviously, this was another paradise point in my life. Well, that is what I call them – paradise points.
Thus, in my 76th year, lovingly eating my favorite lunch in this beautiful setting, I concentrated on this moment of absolute bliss. This became a heavenly experience and I addressed previous points of grandeur. I reminisced …
An Alaskan cruise comes to mind – the sunny, warm boat decks to view the Inside Passage, the glaciers of Glacier Bay, the spouting whales, Juneau, Skagway, Sitka, the continuous wonderful food, the camaraderie of our dining mates – all, such pleasures.
My mind meanders to a more exotic experience driving from Vancouver, British Columbia to Hope. Then, my spirit rushes up the Coquihalla Highway from Hope to Kamloops and from there through Revelstoke and Golden to Lake Louise.
And, Lake Louise is splendor. The hotel is white Chateau architecture. One looks across the lake to an ice field sliding down the mountain. My personal epiphany one particular day was to observe a beam of light penetrating the fog and shining down on the ice field across the lake. This was an ultimate epiphany, a moment of sudden intuitive understanding, a flash of insight. This was a spiritual experience. An experience I will always remember.
Spiraling out of this epiphany, my mental scenario continues north toward Jasper and another manifestation which floats up the canyon next to the Maligne Mountains from Lake Louise to Jasper. For 47 miles, my essence sees only the ramparts and battlements of giants as I observe the Canadian Rockies in amazement. What glory!
No matter, my absolute pleasure is to sit on my Morgan Hill patio in a soft bar stool by my beige bar under a beige patio umbrella and contemplate life. Visualize a balmy warm afternoon and a clear martini (shaken as James Bond demands) or a yellow chardonnay before you. Can life be any better?
Indeed, am I any different than anyone who contemplates their past and their mortality during their later years? No, I think not. Everyone experiences those fleeting moments of grandeur and hope.
But, today in Morgan Hill, in my 76th year, I can only enjoy another of God’s paradise points.
Burton Anderson, a U.S. Marine veteran of the Korean War, has lived in California for about 50 years. He has a background in aerospace industry. He can be reached at
ba****@ao*.com
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