VENTURA : The Really Hot Controversy: Beach or Park?

Given the unseasonably warm temperatures the last few days, sun worshipers on Saturday faced a difficult dilemma: Head for beach, or to parks throughout the county.

Bonnie and Len Jerep of Ventura decided on their city’s Arroyo Verde Park, saying that the early morning fog deterred them from making a beeline for the water.

Sprawled on beach chairs, the two passed the day reading and being thankful for the welcome sun. “We’ve had enough rain,” said Bonnie Jerep. “I think we’ve had enough for three years now.”

But by midday, the fog along the coast had burned off and temperatures reached the upper 70s, which brought people out to the Ventura Harbor. Families and couples inched forward lazily in paddle boats while others tended to their much bigger boats, or merely lolled about in them.

“We’re really doing absolutely nothing,” said Rich Knittle, who, along with his wife, Tracy, and two sons, had just clambered out of a paddle boat. “Actually, we’re a very boring family.”

Ventura resident Sandy Gordon, however, had big plans. In the company of two cats, Microhead and Boatcat, she spent the day on her friend’s 42-foot yacht.

“Oh, we’re just doing a little project,” she said. “We’re painting gray whales on the dock box,” a lockable container used to store nautical paraphernalia.

Gardening also seemed to be near the top of some people’s agendas. Gary Ayala, who works at the Green Thumb Nursery in Ventura, said business was brisk. “It’s definitely busier than usual,” he said. “Normally, I work in the office.”

But in the next few days the warm temperatures will begin to dip a little, officials for the National Weather Service said Saturday.

“We’re starting to see a little bit of a cooling-off trend,” said Weather Service meteorologist Robert Baruffaldi. An onshore flow starting today will lower temperatures several degrees by Wednesday.

He predicted increasing morning fog along the coast and in the inland areas, with beachfront temperatures in the mid to high 60s and inland temperatures in the upper 70s.

“This is probably our last really warm day before we start to have a cool-down,” Baruffaldi said.

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