Asilomar

My wife and I were burned out of a planned vacation in the hills above San Diego, so, as consolation, we rented a room for a couple of nights at Asilomar.

The Asilomar Conference Center is perched on the dunes at the end of the Monterey Peninsula. It is a beautiful and peaceful place. They will rent rooms non-conference visitors (they call us leisure guests) when space is available.



The grounds and several of the main buildings were designed by Julia Morgan early in the last century as a YWCA camp. Many of her buildings survive. Our room was in one of these. We have come to prefer these "historic" Arts and Craft-style buildings. The rooms are simple and spare often with board-and-batten paneling. The have been kept decorated compatibly with the Arts and Crafts architecture. They have no phones nor internet. Each of the buildings has a common room with a fireplace and comfortable chairs for reading. They are a perfect place to slow down. Unaccountably, the historic rooms are cheaper than "modern"ones.


We used to go to Asilomar once or twice a year but it has been seven years since we last visited. I can report that the grace of the architecture and the beauty of the coast are undiminished. There are many deer, probably more than is healthy. They have become quite tame. The fungus that was killing many of the Monterey Pines seven years ago has apparently been contained. There were many woodpeckers with their brilliant red caps.


Breakfasts are in the great hall at big round tables for ten. Conference guests are seated with their fellow conferees and leisure guests are seated with leisure guests. I happened to mention that we would bring the kids often when they were young. Another guest responded, "but what would they do?" I was a bit taken aback by the question, although looking around at a dining room full of serious adults I understood its origin. I answered, indicating the beach, the rocks, the tide pools, the rolling landscape, the ping pong and pool tables in the main building, and the proximity to the Monterey Aquarium. There is a small secluded, intermittently heated pool in one corner of the grounds that my daughter loved. I mean to verify this with my kids, but I like to think that my kids remember the place fondly.


- J