Winter 1997 Issue

One of the things we find fascinating about the picture on the cover is that if cameras existed a 150 years ago the picture wouldn't be any different from what we now see. It is almost a literal trip back in time.

Cliff Wassmann took that trip back in time as he writes in the article One Week Before The Mast. Now, it wasn't really like the old days since there were no floggings and he wasn't holding on to an ice covered yardarm in a gale knowing that one mistake was death. But the trip was interesting and there was danger enough entering the port of Los Angeles in a heavy fog since the Pilgrim doesn't have radar and a slight error by any of the huge ships suddenly emerging from the fog could have sunk them.

Of course, a lot of you already know about the Sherman Library and Gardens; it has over 3000 friends. But we've seen this block on Coast Highway in Corona del Mar for years and never found time to go and explore. Suspecting there were many others like us, we figured an article on the Sherman was both a good public service and an excuse to do something we've always wanted to do.

Another thing we like to do is articles on art any time we can find an excuse. The excuse this time was we wanted to catch a living legend while he was still active. At age 93 you'd suspect George Gibson would be long retired and that we would be doing a retrospective. Wrong. He is quite active, his paintings are as good as ever and nothing featured in this article was painted before 1980.

Feature articles

• One Week Before the Mast
  When Dana Point photographer Cliff Wassmann got a chance to sail on the tall ship Pilgrim for a week, he jumped at the chance. Here are his story and his photographs.
  
• Sherman Library and Gardens
  If you are not one of their 3000 friends, you've probably been a little curious about this block of adobe buildings and flowers on Coast Highway in the middle of Corona Del Mar.
  
• The Cottages of Laguna Beach
  Some day our gold coast will be all mansions and condos. A look back at the kinds of buildings they built 75 years ago is a nice whiff of nostalgia
  
• Living Legend
  At 93, George Gibson's life and art have spanned the century. Enjoy some of the water colors this living legend is still producing.