Raft

Last Sunday it stopped raining for the afternoon, and Booker and I went downtown for a walk. We’d been unable to play outside for a few days because it was too wet. We’d been pouting over it; we get pouty when it rains. Walking with a Welsh springer spaniel is like walking with a movie star. Women see him and go gaga. It’s mostly his hair; it’s curly/wavy and stands up on top of his head. It looks too good to be true, so they think it’s been teased — when they’re told it’s naturally like that, they swoon.

Environmental issues dominated the City Council agenda Tuesday. The council discussed banning smoking in city parks and Styrofoam anywhere in town, dimming night lights — and tabled a proposal to accept a grant from Keep America Beautiful to buy more trash cans for downtown Laguna. A draft ordinance banning food-service businesses from serving folks on non-recyclable plastic of single-use, expanded polystyrene was approved for distribution to the city’s Environmental Committee, the Laguna Beach Chamber of Commerce, the Visitors Bureau and the California Restaurant Assn.

Less than two months ago, I stood at the edge of a bluff overlooking the aquamarine pools of Havasu Falls, and watched in amazement as a stream of white water rushed over the burnt sienna rocks, crashing into the pools 100 feet below. I stand in this exact spot once again, only this time through the lens of Greg MacGillivray’s video camera. The surroundings feel completely real in this IMAX, three-dimensional film documentary. So real, I can almost feel the heavy, cool mist that permeates from the falls, and the warmth of the rock beneath my feet.

CATHARINE COOPER "Back paddle," screams Julie, our guide, as the current carries our rubber raft directly toward the grizzly bear, feasting on dead moose in the middle of the river. We flail at the water, digging the paddle tips into the shallows, kicking up rocks and gravel in a furious haste to change the course of our float. The bear stands up as he hears our frenzy. He's smallish, maybe two years old, which means he likely weighs only 600 pounds.

A group of Laguna Beach High School students have mastered a whole raft of skills and technology to construct and equip their entry in the 2013 Solar Cup. Members of the high school Solar Club have spent school days and weekends since November building a boat from scratch and devising a solar power system to propel their entry to victory in the Solar Cup, a three-day regatta for solar-powered boats built by Southern California students. "It's pretty interesting and rewarding," said club President Brock Csira, who will skipper the single-seat boat in the races.

Glori Fickling Perched high above the sprawling sands with a magnificent vista of the blue Pacific, The Beach House is one of those wondrous dining establishments that provides more than a seaside setting. Beyond warm hospitality and the celestial view, there is a comfortably attractive ambience and delicious dining for brunch as well as dinner offered daily. Launched in 1968 the vintage property was the one-time vacation home of late actor/commedian Slim Summerville.

Laguna Beach High School’s Park Avenue Players are following up last year’s remarkable dramatic season by going back to the beginnings of modern theater with William Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.” The classic romantic comedy about misdirected love runs for two long weekends, including Sunday matinees, and features a cast of 40. Directed by Mark Dressler and Amanda Hastings, the show continues a tradition of presenting professional-quality theater at the high school.

SHERWOOD KIRALY On Sunday night, Patti Jo and I went down to Main Beach to watch the fireworks. I'm an old hand at fireworks -- an old, severely burned hand. As a tyke in Missouri, I lit my first Fourth of July firecracker and held it in front of me until it went off. You may have seen Sylvester the Cat do this; I did it about the same as he does. A few years later, I spent a Missouri Fourth with a lit punk stick jammed in my teeth, aping Robert Culp's "I Spy" opening, lighting fuses and tossing firecrackers outward so they went off in mid-air.

Laguna residents are being asked again and again to give money to worthy causes. The Senior Center project was at the top of the receiving list, and the Laguna Relief and Resource Center was chiming in with its own needs, when the Bluebird Canyon landslide on June 1 pulled the rug out from under many fundraising efforts. Now the Woman's Club is raising its hand in a quest to wring a few dollars from a community that seems all but tapped out. The landslide fundraising surely tops all in volume and in creativity.

WEATHER TIDBITS When we got together last week, I said something about hurricane season coming up real soon, but forgot to name a date. The eastern Pacific season officially begins on June 1. The Atlantic season starts two weeks after that. Funny thing is, theirs started in April this time around and that's never happened, at least since those kind of records were kept. In the Atlantic, a Category 1 hurricane kicked off the season about 250 miles east southeast off North Carolina's outer banks.

Last Sunday it stopped raining for the afternoon, and Booker and I went downtown for a walk. We’d been unable to play outside for a few days because it was too wet. We’d been pouting over it; we get pouty when it rains. Walking with a Welsh springer spaniel is like walking with a movie star. Women see him and go gaga. It’s mostly his hair; it’s curly/wavy and stands up on top of his head. It looks too good to be true, so they think it’s been teased — when they’re told it’s naturally like that, they swoon.

Environmental issues dominated the City Council agenda Tuesday. The council discussed banning smoking in city parks and Styrofoam anywhere in town, dimming night lights — and tabled a proposal to accept a grant from Keep America Beautiful to buy more trash cans for downtown Laguna. A draft ordinance banning food-service businesses from serving folks on non-recyclable plastic of single-use, expanded polystyrene was approved for distribution to the city’s Environmental Committee, the Laguna Beach Chamber of Commerce, the Visitors Bureau and the California Restaurant Assn.