Workout for Leisure Spots

From Laguna Beach to Newport Beach to Yorba Linda, thousands in Orange County spent their Labor Day holiday enjoying the day off, soaking up some sun and celebrating the unofficial end of summer.

“Now we start that climb to the end of the year,” said Norlen Ewell, 31, of Huntington Beach, leaning on his bicycle near the Newport Pier. “There’s really this long period that we go without a holiday, and we work all summer, and it is good to take a day to relax before it’s time to buckle down again.”

Beach parking lots were jammed. Highways were busy. In neighborhoods, folks drank lemonade, washed their cars, sat and let time pass.

Many saw it as the last hurrah for leisure, symbolic because “all our life it’s that time when school starts again,” said Gretchen Muro, 31, of Huntington Beach.

“You feel like the fun is over,” she said before she sped off on a beach bike to relish the last few hours of sunshine.

Some got an early start on their fall cleaning.

“It’s Labor Day, and the least I could do is do some labor and bring some things to the Goodwill,” said a 40-something man at the Costa Mesa Goodwill who didn’t want his name used because, he said, he was supposed to be working in his law office. “I’m cheating a little today and I’m going to enjoy it.”

In Yorba Linda, hundreds visited the Labor Day Family Funfest at the Richard Nixon Library & Birthplace. There was free apple pie, square-dancing, a petting zoo and Frisbee-catching dogs.

And perhaps most compelling, the last day of a unusual exhibit: “Barbie as First Lady: Gowns and Patriotic Costumes of America’s Legendary Leading Lady.” Barbie dolls in miniature replicas of the first ladies’ inaugural gowns.

“That’s what my wife really wanted to see,” said Bob Niccum, 53, of Buena Park, who works as a property buyer for a school district. “We did that, but then I just think the day turned into a nice way to . . . top off the summer.”

For Sandi Jones, 41, resting from an afternoon of square-dancing in the library lobby, it was her final day for her white shoes.

“I’m done with summer, and I really appreciate this day because for a lot of working people there’s no summer. They just work,” said Jones, of Long Beach, who works in a warehouse.

“I just love square-dancing,” she said, and got up, in her white shoes, for one last dance.