Was the old woman of the estate up there watching us on the glassy morning water?

Whether she understood or not the widow at Cotton’s Estate had been her own relic.

COTTON’S POINT BY PAUL DRESMAN 34THPARALLEL MAGAZINE ISSUE 29

At the end of Orange county and the beginning of San Diego county on the southern California coast, the seaside bluff that rises out the Trestles area extends north in a series of small hills through the city of San Clemente. The bluff marks the northern boundary of the twenty-some mile-long Marine Corps base to the south: Camp Pendleton. The site of Cotton’s Estate, on this bluff, commands a vista far beyond its own boundaries behind white-washed walls topped by red tiles. The stately Spanish revival home itself is partly obscured by a eucalyptus grove. Monterey cypress as well as palms also grow there. Indeed, the avenue that runs past the main gate of Cotton’s Estate, near Interstate 5, is called Avenida de las Palmas. Such imported trees grew easily on the southern California coast that had originally been barren beyond the grasses and scru…